On Thursday night in Edmonton, the Vancouver Canucks suffered their fourth loss in six games in the preseason. And it doesn’t matter in the slightest.
What matters is that Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson were back on the ice for the Canucks and looking like they’re ready to make their new contracts look like absolute bargains. The two stars may have missed training camp but, like the kids on the street, they didn’t miss a beat.
Hughes racked up over 25 minutes in ice time to lead the Canucks. It wasn’t just power play time either, though there were a lot of power plays for both teams; Hughes led the Canucks in even-strength ice time as well by a wide margin. That’s not a slow ramp-up for Hughes considering the limited practice time.
“I want to play, I’m a competitive guy,” said Hughes. “Whenever coach tells me to go, I’m going to be excited to go.”
Hughes and his defence partner Tucker Poolman were mostly matched up against Connor McDavid at even-strength, so they were far from easy minutes. By the end of the night, Hughes had a goal, an assist, and four shots on goal — a busy night.
It was similar for Pettersson, who led the Canucks with six shots on goal and had one assist. Most intriguingly, he was above 50% on faceoffs, an area of his game where he needed to improve.
Pettersson controlled puck possession all night, including a couple of lengthy stays in the offensive zone with his linemates Conor Garland and Alex Chiasson.
“He's super talented. He's really calm out there and an easy guy to play with,” said Chiasson of his first game with Pettersson. “He reminds me a little bit of Leon [Draisaitl]. He's a guy that likes to have the puck, he doesn't need anyone close to him. He'll find the plays when they're there.”
Whatever the result of the game, the play of Pettersson and Hughes was the most important takeaway. At least, that’s what I took away when I watched this game.
- The big issue with this game is the Canucks took too many penalties. You can’t give McDavid and Co six power plays and hope to win, especially not two 5-on-3s. Sure enough, 8 seconds into a first period 5-on-3, McDavid went cross-seam to Draisaitl for a one-timer to open the scoring.
- The one positive of all the penalties is the Canucks got plenty of time to evaluate penalty killers. Jack Rathbone got an opportunity on the kill and did an admirable job, though he was on the ice for the 2-0 goal. That was mostly McDavid being McDavid: he took a pass from Draisaitl after a quick up from Mike Smith took advantage of a Canucks line change, then cut to the net, and flicked the puck short side just as Jaroslav Halak started to push off his post.
- “Our back end tonight, we had some guys that probably don't usually kill,” said Green on Rathbone’s first real test on an NHL penalty kill. “We'll have to go back and watch the tape to see exactly how he was but he's a competitor and I thought he was okay.”
- Vasily Podkolzin seems to be getting more and more confident as the preseason progresses. Against the Oilers, he showed the playmaking side of his game, setting up some fantastic chances. Podkolzin’s pretty pass to Petan nearly paid off but Petan shot the puck back into Smith’s arm and the puck deflected just wide of the post.
- Later in the third period, Podkolzin sent another superb back door pass to J.T. Miller, but Derek Ryan just got his stick on it to take away a great scoring chance.
- Of course, coming close to putting up points and not quite actually putting up points is something Podkolzin was known for as a prospect. Hopefully, these are positive signs of production to come and he’s not the Almost Pizza of prospects — “He looks like a blue-chip prospect!” “That was their intention.”
- Will Lockwood was moved from the main group at practice, which isn’t a good sign, but he got another chance to prove himself against the Oilers and made a strong case by getting under the skin of the NHL’s best player. He threw a big hit on Draisaitl that had McDavid steaming mad, so a moment later the Oilers’ captain horse-collared Lockwood, spun him to the ice, and aggressively spooned him.
- That power play led to the first Canucks goal. It was a classic setup: Miller drew in a penalty killer then sent a behind-the-back pass to Hughes for a massive one-timer that went post-and-in.
- “[My shot] is definitely heavier,” said Hughes. “I changed my curve and flex. I definitely wasn’t satisfied with last year, so I was really hungry going into the year and I worked on a bunch of different things — my shot was a big one.”
- Hughes made sure to note Alex Chiasson’s screen on his goal, as Smith never saw the shot coming. “I think he could be incredibly valuable,” said Hughes of Chiasson. “He just does all the right things out there — he's smart, he's pretty skilled too, and he fit in well with Petey there, making some plays.”
- Chiasson legitimately helped Pettersson’s line, with some particularly strong work down low along the boards. Pettersson, of course, was the straw that stirs the drink — which I guess makes Chiasson the ice cubes? To avoid further butchering the metaphor, please enjoy Pettersson making the Oilers penalty kill look extremely silly while setting up a Petan chance.
- Petan actually finished one Pettersson’s setups on the power play as well. Petan was essentially filling in for Bo Horvat on the power play, while Chiasson was in Brock Boeser’s spot, and Petan did a decent Horvat impression, tipping in a perfectly-placed pass by Pettersson. He sent the puck into the top right corner, where web developers avoid putting important information.
- “[Petan] has done some good things, he’s given himself a good chance,” said Green. “The good thing about Nic is he’s learned a lot over the years. He’s not a young player anymore — I think there’s something to be said, especially for smaller guys, to learn how to survive and play in the league. He’s one of those tough choices that we’re gonna have to make.”
- What stood out about Hughes’s game to me is how comfortable he looked defensively. At one point in the second period, he had McDavid bearing down on him at full speed but Hughes kept his feet moving, got his stick in to disrupt McDavid’s stickhandling, then calmly kicked the puck to the sideboards before clearing it out of the zone.
- “I think he's unbelievable and you've got to be really aware when he's on the ice,” said Hughes. “He can make a play at any point so, for me, I'm just trying to put myself in the best position and have good speed to match him and, you know, wherever the chips fall.”
- Hughes played solid defensively, but it was Pettersson that saved a goal — literally. With the net empty for the extra attacker, Pettersson stepped in front to block a shot by Zach Hyman by dropping into a passable butterfly. It was a kick save and a beauty, as Marv Albert would say.
- Finally, we have to address the ugliest moment of the game. At one point, Zack MacEwen made some contact with Smith. He got a penalty for it but that evidently wasn’t enough, so Zack Kassian challenged him to a fight off a faceoff. Kassian’s helmet came off in the scuffle and the two got tangled up, sending Kassian face-first into the ice, where he lay motionless for a long time until eventually leaving under his own power.
- It was an ugly sight, made so much worse because of how unnecessary it all was. Fighting is pointless at the best of times — in a meaningless preseason game as comeuppance for what was accidental contact with Smith, it was outright stupid.
- “It's scary, it's terrible, it's not cool,” said Hughes. “It's not what you want to see in a preseason game, for sure. Probably didn't need to happen.”
- “That’s tough to see,” said Chiasson, who was clearly deeply affected and had to pause multiple times to stay composed. “You play there for thee years, you make a lot of friendships. He was one of my good buddies there. I just hope he’s alright.”
