“We've got a big game against Washington,” said Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet after losing to the Edmonton Oilers. “That's a must-win type of game. You've always got to have in your mind that you are going to bring a must-win attitude.”
Game 48 of the regular season isn’t typically a must-win game but this Canucks season has been pretty atypical. The Canucks have been on a downwards spiral for nearly two months and if they don’t arrest their descent soon, they’re going to crash.
Tocchet didn’t pick the easiest target for his “must-win” comment, as the Washington Capitals are first in the NHL right now, with the potent combination of the third-best offence by goals-per-game and the best defence by goals-against-per-game.
It feels significant, then, that the Canucks took on the best team in the NHL in a must-win game and mustered up the win.
Sure, it took a few fortunate bounces, some heroics from their captain Quinn Hughes, and a stellar goaltending performance by Kevin Lankinen but a win is a win. The Canucks can’t afford to be too choosey about how they get wins these days.
“I thought, especially in the second period, we really took it to them,” said Hughes. “We played with a lot of pace, we stuck to our staples. At times, we were simple when we needed to be and we grinded out a win against a really good team.”
But the Canucks have done this before in their downward spiral, briefly swooping up with a big win before spiralling even harder in the aftermath. Since the Canucks last won two games in a row, they’ve managed wins against tough teams like the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Edmonton Oilers, seemingly making a statement in the process, then followed up by crumpling that statement into a ball and throwing it in the trash.
So, if it felt like the praise for the Canucks effort was tentative on Saturday night, it’s for good reason. Yes, they beat the best team in the league; now what?
Pulling out the occasional big win won’t get the Canucks to the playoffs. Building some sustained success and stringing wins together will.
“It's coaches, it's players, continually preaching the good things but also knowing that we can't let our foot off the gas,” said Tocchet. “It's something that we've talked about all year. It's a confidence thing, I guess, but it's also responsibility from everybody to be be ready and want that puck or want to be in those situations and not shy away for it. The St. Louis game, it’s a big game for us.
“You know, it's a nice win. But then practice tomorrow, like, get back at it. That's the only way you can do it. Just don't get too high or too low.”
I kept myself from getting too high or too low by adjusting my chair in the press box to a medium height while I watched this game.
- The Canucks were very fortunate to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, as they got some fortunate bounces – or the Capitals got some unlucky bounces. Lars Eller had an open net on a 3-on-2 and tipped the puck off the post, then sent the rebound squiggling wide. Should’ve known someone with the name “Eller” would take the Ell.
- Later in the period, a puck bounced off the boards and went back through Lankinen’s legs, somehow avoiding banking in off his legs. He then flopped to the ice in desperation and got his toe on Tom Wilson’s shot while half inside of his own net. He looked a little like Raygun at the Olympics and that’s not a technique they teach you in goaltending school.
- “I think that's the fun part of being goalie sometimes,” said Lankinen. “Just do whatever it takes to stop the puck – a whatever-it-takes mentality. We practice the techniques and the habits so much but, at the end of the day, it's just all a matter of keeping the puck out of our net. I love that part of goaltending.”
- Elias Pettersson (Est. 2004) made his NHL debut and, in limited minutes, largely held his own. He played just 10:37 – more than the 9:46 Elias Pettersson (Est. 1998) played in his debut – but managed two hits, a blocked shot, and a plus-one rating, thanks to coming onto the ice on a line change just before the opening goal. It was mostly a quiet night, but he did have one dash up the ice where he got to show off his skating and puckhandling, which is more than most Canucks defencemen have shown this season.
- “I'm a really big fan of the kid,” said Tocchet. “How many games he plays, I don't know at this point, but I think he's just going to get better. He's got that swagger. He goes into piles and blows people up, like, he's not scared to do that. And he can stop cycles. That's what you need. He's that young defenceman that he could really build off.”
- The elder Pettersson didn’t get credited with an assist on the opening goal but it was his forecheck that freed up the puck for Nils Höglander, who held off Trevor van Riemsdyk until he could send a pass to Quinn Hughes. The captain took over, cutting diagonally through the slot and hoisting a backhand that, like a Keto diet, went against the grain. It was a sublime goal.
- “When he gets it, he attacks the inside,” said Tocchet. “You can call him small or whatever, but he's not scared to go to the interior. That's how you score goals.”
- “Probably, they were expecting me to try to push it to the outside on my forehand and I’ve just got to take the ice that they give me,” said Hughes. “I mean, you saw a couple other times where I had to spin back because they're just kind of taking the outside away but I'm fine with that. And I've worked on my backhand and coming across the top a lot over the last couple years.”
- Höglander was coming off a healthy scratch, so having a strong game was important to demonstrate to Tocchet that the message Höglanded with the winger. He not only had the assist but also drew a penalty and had a team-high four hits.
- “He came into my office today, we talked again,” said Tocchet of Höglander. “It’s identity, build off your identity. Going into St Louis, we’ve got to see it again. I told him, you’ve got to be sustainable. In his own end, he's actually getting a little bit better, but the forecheck is something we desperately need off him. We're looking for forecheckers; he's got to be that guy for us.”
- J.T. Miller came agonizingly close to extending the Canucks’ lead just seconds into the second period off a set play. The Canucks started the period on the power play and made like they were going for a typical drop-pass zone entry, only for Boeser to launch a bank pass off the end boards to Miller, who was all alone on Charlie Lindgren and had the goaltender at his mercy with a nice deke before putting the puck off the post.
- The Canucks got the 2-0 goal shortly after the power play. Boeser had a chance to drive the net but instead cut behind the net and sent a pass to Hughes at the point. Hughes cut across the top of the zone and wristed a shot through traffic, looking for a tip, only for the puck to whiz past everyone into the top corner for another gorgeous goal.
- “I'm just trying to get it through the first layer,” said Hughes. “I can see that Petey was popping out high, so I knew that he had a chance to get a tip on it or screen the goalie. Really, you’ve got to give yourself a chance. There's so much traffic in front, if I get it past that first guy, those wristers, usually it's hard for the goalie to see that shot.”
- It was a dominant, Hart-caliber performance from Quinn Hughes. He was everywhere and did everything for the Canucks, scoring the only two goals the team would need to win the game. Most impressively, he’s doing it with essentially just one hand, as his left hand is still bandaged and braced.
- “I'm just extremely impressed,” said Lankinen. “Obviously, playing against him in the last few years, but now seeing him on a daily basis, just how he drags guys along and takes over games is remarkable. I'm just really, really happy to be witnessing that and being on the same side of that show.”
- Boeser deferring to Hughes and having it work out kind of undercut one of Tocchet’s messages after the game. When asked if the team was deferring and passing it to the defence at the point too much in the offensive one, Tocchet immediately said, “A million per cent.” Maybe the problem is that they’re so used to the right play being to pass it to Hughes that they forget every other defenceman in the entire NHL – but particularly the defencemen on the Canucks – is not Quinn Hughes.
- Pius Suter was really not happy with the linesman on one faceoff five minutes into the second period. Fans and players alike generally just want the linesman to drop the puck already, but Suter didn’t even have his stick down yet. He had a long conversation with linesman Bevan Mills after Alex Ovechkin got a clean shot off the draw that forced Lankinen to make a sharp stop.
- I don’t know what J.T. Miller was thinking when he stepped into Nic Dowd behind the play midway through the second period but it was an exceptionally stupid penalty to take at any time, let alone when you have a two-goal lead against the best team in the NHL with a top-10 power play that features the greatest goalscorer in NHL history in a must-win game when your team has repeatedly given up multi-goal leads all season. *deep breath* Just saying.
- Thankfully, the Canucks’ penalty kill was on top of its game, allowing just two shots on goal on the Capitals’ two power plays while tallying two shorthanded shots of their own. Pius Suter led the Canucks in shorthanded ice time, while Teddy Blueger had both shorthanded shots, so shout out to them.
- The Capitals got one back 12:31 into the third period, causing consternation among Canucks fans, as it gave them a certain “here we go again” feeling. Lankinen made a save on a shot from Connor McMichael and thought he had the puck covered but Aliaksei Protas poked it free for Pierre-Luc Dubois to jam in.
- “Dylan [Crawford, Canucks video coach], who’s excellent, he didn’t think that he had full possession,” said Tocchet about deciding not to challenge the goal. “It’s a tough call. I always defer to him.”
- Just as the Capitals were pulling Lindgren for the extra attacker, Carson Soucy won the puck off Ovechkin and fed the puck ahead to Phil Di Giuseppe in the neutral zone. Di Giuseppe fired for the empty net but Lindgren scrambled back and made like Ozzie Smith, diving out to snag the puck to rob Di Giuseppe of the goal in spectacular fashion.
- “I thought he was out of the net. I thought there was too many men when he jumped on there,” said Tocchet, tongue in cheek. “I thought they had seven guys, but that was hell of a save by him.”
- Miller may have had a dumb penalty but he did come up with a clutch shot block in the final minute of the game to secure the win, taking a Jakob Chychrun shot off the ankle with 20 seconds left. You love to see it. Well, not specifically the “off the ankle” part because that can cause serious injuries, but everything else about it was very lovable.
- There was a lot to like about the Canucks’ performance in this one. Sure, it wasn’t great that they only got six shots on goal in the second half of the game and that just one bad bounce could have sent the game to overtime, where the Canucks have had putrid luck this season. But, other than that, the Canucks broke the puck up cleanly, attacked in transition, and just generally looked a lot faster than in previous games.
- Except for Linus Karlsson. I’m sorry, but he is just too slow for the NHL and was a step or several behind the play all game. I understand why they keep calling him up – he has 12 goals in 17 games in the AHL this season! – but Karlsson is just not an NHL player and saddling Pettersson and Höglander with him in this game constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
- This game ended with a big scruma after the final horn, with Tom Wilson throwing a heavy gloved punch at Derek Forbort, who was being held by John Carlson. It was a bush league move made worse when Wilson dropped the gloves to try to fight Forbort. To quote Ferris Bueller, “You’re still here? It’s over. Go home.”
- Shout out to frenemy of the blog, Wyatt Arndt, who provided GIFs/Videos for this article when my MacBook crashed and I could not make them myself. You're a mensch, Wyatt.
