After three weeks of trading off wins and losses, the Vancouver Canucks finally won two games in a row for the first time since November 15.
After that win, the Canucks lost two straight games, which is exactly the sort of nonsense up with which veteran Ian Cole would not put.
"Good teams don't go on losing skids, right?” said Cole at the time. “Good teams don't lose two games in a row and we did that. We need to make sure that we stop this right away. We can't let this turn into three, four, five losses."
They didn’t. The best thing you could say about the Canucks as they started to struggle over the past month is that they kept plugging away and picking up wins, one at a time. Heading into Saturday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Canucks had won five of their last ten games and lost five — perfectly balanced.
It wasn’t a great month but it’s worlds better than some of the lousy months they’ve had in recent seasons where they might’ve strung together four or five losses in a row. As Cole said, good teams don’t do that. And the Canucks, so it seems, are a good team.
Going on a losing skid is what good teams don’t do. And it’s not enough to avoid what good teams don’t do — not to sound like, “Don’t do what Donny Don’t does” — but the Canucks need to start stringing together some more winning streaks like they did early in the season.
The Hurricanes weren’t going to make that easy. They were a popular pick to win the Stanley Cup this season and have played a lot better than their record would indicate, with a smothering puck possession game that leads to a lot of scoring chances for themselves and very few for their opponents.
Only, they can’t seem to score on all of those chances and their goaltenders can’t seem to stop their opponents’ chances.
In other words, they’ve been the polar opposite of the Canucks, whose relatively mediocre puck possession game has been bolstered by the league’s highest shooting percentage at 5-on-5 and incredible goaltending. The two teams have represented the two sides of the PDO coin this season.
That’s why the most impressive part of the Canucks’ win over the Hurricanes is that they didn’t depend on the percentages: they flat-out out-played the Hurricanes.
The Canucks controlled play at 5-on-5 for the vast majority of the game. The Hurricanes lead the NHL with an average of 34.2 shots on goal per game — the Canucks held them to just 24 shots. That included just one shot on goal at 5-on-5 in the entirety of the first period.
“I think we executed mostly well tonight,” said Pettersson, who led the way for the Canucks with a three-point night. “It was a very grindy game but I’m happy with our team performance…Every game is different. Today was a very tough game, almost like a playoff game.”
If not for a lack of discipline that got them into some penalty trouble, the Canucks might have been able to cruise to an easier win. Instead, it was a tight game — almost like a playoff game, in the words of Pettersson and Francesco Aquilini — and required the Canucks to hold on in the third period against the Hurricanes’ gale force winds. The Canucks were able to batten down the hatches and hold on for the one-goal victory.
“They had a full-court press on us and we held serve,” said Tocchet, semi-smoothly mixing his basketball and tennis metaphors because both involve courts, I guess.
So, what was the difference that got the Canucks out of their Groundhog Day-like loop of one win and one loss?
“I just think our last two games, we’re playing faster. We’re not massaging the puck, the D are getting it up quick, the forwards are coming back quicker,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “That’s the utopia that I’m looking for.”
Funny, the utopia I’m looking for has a lot more equality and flying cars, as well as more massages rather than fewer, albeit for me and not the puck. From an imperfect world, I watched this game.
- The snake-bitten Andrei Kuzmenko got another couple of fangs in him five minutes into the first period. Playing on the fourth line with Nils Åman and Phil Di Giuseppe, Kuzmenko still had a golden opportunity to jam in a rebound off a Quinn Hughes point shot. The gaping net seemed to mock him as Brady Skjei completely tied up his stick, only able to feebly nudge the puck towards the net, where it was stopped by a lunging Antti Raanta.
- I had to laugh at John Shorthouse’s play-by-play of Kuzmenko’s chance, which is captured in the highlight video above. As Hughes’ shot was stopped, Shorty lost sight of the puck and could only blurt out, “Where’s puck?!” before Kuzmenko got to it. Pretty sure that’s the same thing Oberon says in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
- Kuzmenko’s replacement on Elias Pettersson’s line, Sam Lafferty, instead opened the scoring. Pettersson cut diagonally as he gained the offensive zone, allowing Lafferty’s drive to the net to pull back the Hurricanes defence and open up a ton of space for a shot. Pettersson’s wristshot deflected off Jaccob Slavin’s stick and the rebound kicked out to Lafferty, who had been left all alone by the Hurricanes and he made them pay for their inattention.
- “It doesn’t get faster than that,” joked Pettersson about playing with the fleet-footed Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev. “I think the way we’re being predictable, we were good around the walls, chipping pucks, and chipping to speed. We’ve been close with that in previous games but I think today, it really clicked for us.”
- The Canucks’ power play created some great chances in this game but what stood out the most were two instances where they absolutely should have shot the puck and instead made an extra pass, squandering an opportunity. The first was Ilya Mikheyev sending a backdoor pass to no one, then Kuzmenko’s lack of confidence jumped out on a chance from the bumper that he passed away to Brock Boeser.
- It relates to a criticism Tocchet had of Kuzmenko on the power play last week. “Kuzy has got to start shooting the puck when he’s open over there. That’s the next level for him,” said Tocchet. “He has to participate with a shot, or make a play to the low guy, which he’s usually good at, I don’t want him to defer back to Huggy. We’re beating pressure, but he’s catching it and going back to Huggy when he should go downhill when he meets pressure.”
- On the other side of special teams, I found this play by Teddy Blueger on the penalty kill interesting. Playing the top of the diamond, Blueger didn’t stay up high but instead aggressively came all the way across to the far boards with Sebastian Aho, preventing an easy outlet to the point, then chased Jack Drury across the top of the zone to knock the puck off his stick. That’s far more aggressive than you typically see from a traditional diamond penalty kill formation.
- I’ve been critical of Noah Juulsen’s play in this column and I likely will continue to be justifiably critical — there was one outlet pass he made to Nils Höglander that legitimately made me angry it was so bad — but I cannot deny that he has been very good on the penalty kill for the Canucks. It plays to all of his strengths — willingness to block shots, rigid adherence to the system, size in puck battles — and none of his weaknesses, like defending the rush or passing.
- The Canucks’ best penalty killer on the night, however, was Thatcher Demko, who came up with some huge saves when a J.T. Miller slash gave the Hurricanes a 5-on-3. Like an obnoxious organist, Demko pulled out all the stops.
- I’ve quite liked what Nikita Zadorov has brought to the Canucks since they acquired him. I didn’t so much like his attempted DDT on Michael Bunting, however. That had the potential to cause an injury and it was surprising to see the referees let it go without a penalty. It was less surprising to see them let Bunting’s retaliatory slash go, as they were likely just relieved that he wasn’t unconscious.
- Ilya Mikheyev made it 2-0 on a transition chance sprung by a strong play by Lafferty to beat the pinching Dmitry Orlov. It was nearly a 2-on-1 chance, but Mikheyev’s pass to Pettersson was just out of reach like Bob Belcher’s straws. By the time Pettersson got the puck under control, Mikheyev had gone to the net where he knocked Martin Necas’s stick aside to bang in Pettersson’s backdoor feed.
- The Hurricanes responded 30 seconds later when Quinn Hughes took the puck deep down the right side but no forward covered for him at the point. When his centring pass was picked off, the Hurricanes’ burst the other way for an odd-man rush. Filip Hronek couldn’t take away the passing option from Jesper "Furious And" Fast and he set up Jordan Martinook to beat a sliding Demko.
- A smart play by Pettersson helped restore the two-goal lead. He made a great read to pick up a puck along the boards and threw it down low for Höglander before bolting to the bench. Höglander fought off Brent Burns to win the puck, cycled it to Boeser, who held off Jaccob Slavin, then set up J.T. Miller, who had just come off the bench for Pettersson. Miller made like Thor flying back to Asgard and hammered it home.
- Pettersson had a three-point night but that play was his secret fourth point. No one would have blamed him if he had stayed on the ice with the puck in the offensive zone and looked for one more scoring chance before going off on a line change. Instead, he unselfishly got off the ice for the fresh legs — and booming shot — of Miller.
- “You had a lot of assists on that play,” said Tocchet. “Actually, when we scored, everybody was cheering and high-fiving, and I went up to Petey and said, ‘You should get an assist on that play.’ That’s the unselfishness. He stays on, who knows? But he comes off, Millsy comes on full bore — he came down the pipe like nobody coulda stopped him. And obviously, it was a hell of a play by Höggy and Boes, but those are the staples we’re looking for.”
- “I got the puck and I saw Höglander was in, so pretty much his line was in,” said Pettersson. “Also, I don’t know how long I was in — 30-40 seconds — so, I just tried to get it deep and it worked out great for him to skate in, get it on his stick, and it was 3-1 for us.”
- That was a nice little detail but some of the other details of the Canucks’ game got a little fuzzy, such as the two too many men penalties they took, which was two too many. Both involved Quinn Hughes coming on the ice for Ian Cole. On the first, Hughes was to blame for coming on way too early; on the second, it was Cole’s fault for staying on the ice after waving for Hughes to change.
- “That’s three now in two games. We’ve gotta shore up on it,” said Tocchet of the bench minors. “We had full control of the game and then you give them two or three power plays in a row and that took a little bit of steam off us…That can’t happen and all of us have to take responsibility, even the coaches.”
- The second too many men penalty proved costly. Late in the power play, two Hurricanes defencemen who were only on the ice because the penalty was almost over, Dmitry Orlov and Brady Skjei, jumped up in the play, with Orlov sending a backdoor pass through the legs of Hughes to Skjei for the finish.
- The Hurricanes tied the game early in the third period on a bit of a broken play. Juulsen couldn’t get out to Drury to tie up his stick and prevent him from tipping a Brent Burns point shot and the puck fluttered off the crossbar only to fall behind Demko in the crease, where an unboxed-out Stefan Noesen popped it back in like a hernia.
- The Canucks didn’t panic at the lost lead. Instead, Pettersson stepped up like an elite player is supposed to. Just over a minute after the tying goal, Pettersson’s line controlled play in the offensive zone and he took a pass from Mikheyev behind the net, overpowered Aho, and tucked the puck under Raanta on the wraparound.
- “I think it’s just for me to get more shots off or being more — I don’t know if ‘dangerous’ is the right word but just creating more chances,” said Pettersson about scoring on a couple of wraparounds recently. “Now, I’ve scored two [wraparounds], so I’ll likely keep going to the net.”
- In the excitement, Lafferty lept into Pettersson’s arms like Rachel McAdams embracing Ryan Gosling. It was delightful.
- The Hurricanes had some shots after Pettersson gave the Canucks the lead but they never seemed overly threatening, as the Canucks kept pushing the puck into the offensive zone, pressured in the neutral zone, and locked things down in the defensive zone with largely mistake-free hockey and some key shot blocks.
- “I thought that third period — I went to three lines, obviously, and the guys were taking 29-30 second shifts,” said Tocchet. “I thought that was the key. That was unselfish of the team to do that. We very rarely had anybody on the ice that was tired, which was nice.”
- Nils Höglander continued to play his regular shift with Miller and Boeser as the Canucks defended the one-goal lead, which speaks to the growing trust Tocchet has in the winger. He made a particularly strong play on the boards with two minutes left. He won a race to the puck but recognized he didn’t have a play to clear the zone and instead ate the puck along the boards, then out-battled Martinook to get control and flip the puck down the ice to avoid an icing.
- Speaking of eating a puck along the boards, shout out to Dakota Joshua for this battle along the boards (with assistance from Tyler Myers and J.T. Miller) that ate up a good 20 seconds of 6-on-5 hockey in the final minute. That’s the kind of play that sharpens Tocchet’s cheekbones.
- “I don’t know if I want to talk about it, I don’t want to jinx it,” quipped Pettersson about holding leads this season. “Jokes aside, I think it’s about us being comfortable being in leads and continue playing and not, how do you say, sit back and let them run over us. I think that’s a strength for us this year. Obviously, I think there’s things we can still be better at but overall, I’m pretty happy.”
