I Watched This Preseason Game: Canucks fall flat versus the Flames

On Friday, the Vancouver Canucks finally re-signed their two best players, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. They also demonstrated just how badly they need them.

Okay, that’s not quite fair. First of all, the Canucks have not officially announced the re-signing of Pettersson and Hughes, even though the cap hits and term have gotten out to the media via the usual NHL insiders. Both players are evidently flying into Vancouver tomorrow and the Canucks could be waiting until they’re in town to make it official.

Secondly, the Canucks weren’t just missing Pettersson and Hughes as they faced the Calgary Flames Friday night. While their lineup had some decent veteran representation, they didn’t have Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser, Tanner Pearson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Tucker Poolman, not to mention Travis Hamonic, who remains AWOL.

Unsurprisingly, a stronger Flames squad soundly outplayed the Canucks. Shots were 33-to-21 for the Flames and shot attempts were even more tilted towards the Flames at 57-to-38, aided by six power plays to the Canucks’ four.

“I don’t think we played very well tonight,” said head coach Travis Green, bluntly. “I just didn't think we had a very good game, we didn't have a lot of good hockey players. We deserved to lose tonight.”

Expanding on those thoughts, Green added, “Our passing and receiving really wasn't very sharp at all. I don't think we got places quick enough to support the puck or win enough puck battles and I thought our D had a tough night a little bit tonight too.”

That covers about every aspect of the game, though he had some praise for the penalty kill,  calling them “solid.” Despite six power play opportunities for the Flames, the penalty kill only gave up one goal and it was an empty netter in the final minute.

That’s good news because many of the players who were in the lineup are going to have to kill penalties, as opposed to most of the players who were out of the lineup, who lean more towards the power play. When Pettersson and Hughes return and get into the lineup with the likes of Horvat and Boeser, that will sort out a lot of issues, but it won’t change the penalty kill.

There was some bad news, however. Green reported that Boeser will actually be out for “at least a week,” though he gave no indication of what injury is keeping him sidelined. Hopefully, he won’t miss much more than a week — the regular season starts on October 13.

But that’s good news again! Because it’s not yet October 13, which means the result did not matter when I watched this game.

• Green didn’t mince words postgame. “We’re...watching individual play and how guys perform under the pressure — how far up they can play if they're on the team, and whether or not they can play in the league at all.” It seems like a couple players answered that last question tonight.
   
• This was a confusing game because the Flames had a Petterssen in the lineup. Worse, he was an E. Petterssen — Emilio, to be precise. Not only is that name suspiciously close to that of Elias Pettersson’s brother, Emil, but it’s also not even his actual first name. His full name is Mathias Emilio Pettersen. Very suspicious, Flames. Very suspicious. You already have a team full of former Canucks and now you’re cloning current Canucks? This means war.
   
• Tyler Myers was arguably the Canucks’ best player in this game, eating up 27:44 in ice time — including a full seven minutes on the penalty kill — and firing five shots on goal. It was nice to see from the lanky blueliner, as he played a solid, reliable defensive game when many of his teammates didn’t.
   
• The significantly shorter Brad Hunt also had a solid game. He’s been getting attention not for making flashy plays this preseason, but for making the simple, effective play. He added a little flash to his game on Friday, however, with some nifty stickhandling in the offensive zone. You don’t want too much flash from a defenceman — this isn’t the internet in the early 2000’s.  
   
• The Flames opened the scoring on a bad defensive play by Luke Schenn and Vasily Podkolzin. Johnny Gaudreau flew past Schenn on the rush, but his shot missed the net. Podkolzin, backchecking, locked eyes on the puck and failed to pick up Elias Lindholm. When Matthew Tkachuk found Lindholm, Schenn’s eyes were likewise glued to the puck and he left Gaudreau wide open at the backdoor for the goal. Guys, it’s just a plain, black puck — it doesn’t even have any apps on it. Stop staring at it.
   
• The defensive gaffe is a little more forgivable for Podkolzin — he’s still adjusting to the Canucks’ systems and he clearly needs some extra coaching on the defensive responsibility of the first forward back. Schenn, however, is a veteran defenceman and should know better than to leave a guy like Gaudreau wide open.
   
• Schenn was once again at fault on the Flames’ second goal. Nikita Zadorov ran over Jason Dickinson with a clean, open-ice hit in the offensive zone and Schenn, along with Zack MacEwen, challenged the big defenceman. Meanwhile, the play continued and Mikael Backlund fired a shot that ramped up MacEwen’s stick as he tried to recover. Personally, I’m tired of players going after someone for a clean hit and Zadorov’s could not have been any cleaner. Is hitting allowed or not? Don’t stop playing just because one of your teammates got knocked down.
   
• Olli Juolevi had two big, noticeably good plays in this game. The first came on the Canucks’ lone goal. Matthew Highmore won a faceoff back to Juolevi and he smartly jumped straight down the boards, then fired the puck towards both Jonah Gadjovich and the net. Gadjovich neatly tipped the puck in using the shaft (you’re damn right) of his stick. 
   
• Juolevi also made a great defensive play on a 2-on-1, perfectly timing his slide to the ice to completely take away the pass to nullify a great scoring chance. The trouble is, other than those two plays, Juolevi struggled. He was a step slow to every puck battle and it led to some long shifts in the defensive zone, including one that ended with Conor Garland painfully blocking a shot with his right foot. Juolevi better hope Garland’s okay — he stayed in the game despite crawling to the bench — because he’s the one who fanned on a clearing attempt along the boards before that shot block.
   
• Of course, the most noticeable issue for Juolevi has been his mobility, specifically his pivots from skating forwards to backwards and vice versa. That was once again an issue in this game, particularly on one play in the first period when Walker Duehr blew past him at the Flames’ blue line. Juolevi’s wide, slow pivot was painful to watch — I was worried he’d get stuck halfway through his turn like the Ever Given.  

• It’s frustrating because there’s clearly the mind of an NHL defenceman in Juolevi. He makes a lot of smart plays. But his mobility might be too much of an issue to overcome.
   
• As Green said, the penalty kill was a bright spot. Juolevi had some decent shifts shorthanded, at least, where his mobility was less of an issue. More intriguing is the pairing of Jason Dickinson and Phil Di Giuseppe, who have been matched together since the beginning of training camp. With Dickinson likely to lead Canucks’ forwards in penalty killing minutes, it appears the coaching staff is setting up Di Giuseppe to be his primary partner.
   
• Jonah Gadjovich got the goal and played a solid puck possession game but played under ten minutes partly because the Canucks were on the penalty kill so much. That’s one of the issues for Gadjovich — he doesn’t play on the penalty kill and that’s something the Canucks need from the fourth line. That’s why, even though he’s had a good training camp and preseason, he’ll likely be in Abbotsford to start the season.
   
• “In Owen Sound, I penalty killed, but I haven’t done that in the American League yet, in pro hockey,” said Gadjovich. “If I get the opportunity to do that, that’s something that I’m going to try to work into my game.”
   
• The funniest moment of the game came in the second period when J.T. Miller caught a puck in his glove and made like he was Terri with an empty can and yeeted it right out of the defensive zone. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to do that in hockey and he got a penalty. 

• One player I was hoping to see more from in this game was Nils Höglander. He had spurts of solid play but the consistency wasn’t quite there. Of course, it didn’t help that his linemates were Nic Petan — who had his worst game of the preseason — and the invisible Justin Dowling. Perhaps no one will benefit more from Pettersson returning than Höglander, as it looks like he might have first crack at playing on his line with Boeser, judging from how he lined up through training camp.  
   
• Thatcher Demko, despite three goals against, had a pretty faultless game. He had no chance on the first goal, his defenceman gave up playing to get in a staring contest on the second goal, and the third goal was tipped in by his own player, Petan. He was locked in otherwise, making some stunning saves, such as this robbery on Johnny Gaudreau after Sheldon Dries gave the puck away.

• Another player that needs to step up his game is Vasily Podkolzin. Right now, he just seems to lack confidence, both in himself and in the Canucks’ systems. Too often, he seems unsure of where he needs to be on the ice and when that’s the case, it’s hard to be confident in other parts of your game. Hopefully, as the preseason progresses, the systems work will become second nature.