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I Watched This Game: Canucks trounced by energetic Isles

Canucks 2, Islanders 5
Will Graham
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Scoring forward Nikolay Goldobin didn’t make the roster in Brooklyn, despite being called up by the Canucks and practicing extensively. Management felt that icing a defence-first lineup was necessary against a hot, high-scoring New York Islanders team. That ended up being a prescient call, because both squads ditched structure for odd-man rushes and shorthanded chances. This worked out for the Islanders, but for Vancouver? Not so much.

Sure, Vancouver may not have great defensive depth at the best of times, and sure, their scoring isn’t able to hang with the high-flying Isles, but—I forget where I was going with this.

Tuesday was also the first faceoff between Brock Boeser and Mathew Barzal, who are both in contention for the Calder trophy as rookie MVP. Sadly for the Canucks, if this battle were a rap battle, Barzal was the illest while Boeser was, to his detriment, the chillest.

After a shaky set of starts for Jacob Markstrom, Anders Nilsson got the nod for the Canucks. With a stellar save percentage and almost as many wins in half the games, fans and pundits have been clamouring for a start for the big Swede. I heard that clamouring die down in real time while I watched this game.

  • Bo Horvat drew a quick elbowing penalty off Scott Mayfield. Nothing brings me more joy than an early power play. Sadly, like comparison, Andrew Ladd is the thief of joy. After a pass back, Alex Edler bobbled the puck at the blueline and Ladd pounced for a wide-open breakaway goal. As starts go, it was uglier than the sightlines at Barclays Center.
  • Vancouver managed to tie things up on that same power play. After receiving a slick pass across the crease from Loui Eriksson, Vanek fired home a wide open goal from the right side of the net. Unlike the poor fans at Barclays Center, Tomas Vanek had nothing blocking his view. (OK, the sightlines at Barclays Center really bug me.)

    It was a nice play by Sam Gagner to gain the zone with a chip-in, and a positively gorgeous feed from Eriksson. Moments later, Eriksson fed Bo Horvat for a beautiful shorthanded scoring chance. With seven points in six games, most of them played with Vanek, it turns out that the best way to solve a 33-year-old’s scoring slump is to team him up with another skilled 33-year-old buddy making a third of the salary.
  • After a tee-up from Josh Ho-Sang, Calvin deHaan slapped a shot on Anders Nilsson. The Vancouver goalie had squared up, but at the last second the puck nicked the stick of a defending Brock Boeser and it fluttered over Nilsson’s pad and into the net. Brock had a lousy night, culminating with this poorly-timed clip:
  • Jordan Eberle scored moments after deHaan, a perfectly placed shot from the slot as Vancouver’s defence parted like Moses parts his hair. It was a tic-tac-toe play that’d be hard for any goaltender to stop without proper defensive coverage. On the bench, a sassy, vindicated Jacob Markstrom just nodded and said “MMHMM!”

    Mathew Barzal got the primary assist on the goal, and with it he snagged the rookie scoring lead away from Brock Boeser. Boeser, for his part, was also directly responsible for at least one goal, it just happened to be for the other team. He looked worn out, which isn’t terribly surprising near the end of a long road trip during his rookie campaign.
  • Then the wheels came off. As Vancouver scrambled in front of their net, Anders Lee opportunistically nabbed a loose puck that ricocheted off Sven Baertschi’s skate. Lee slammed it past Nilsson for his 13th goal of the season. It was a weird, broken play, but it happened right in front of the crease, and most of the Canucks had started breaking out before the puck was retrieved. Clearly no one on this team is suited to be an ER doctor, because Vancouver couldn’t clear to save their lives.
  • Bo knows comebacks. After Brendan Gaunce took an unfortunate tripping penalty, Bo Horvat blasted past Islanders captain John Tavares, broke wide into the Islanders’ zone, and blasted a wrister past Jaroslav Halak for a revitalizing shorthanded goal. It was too beautiful not to share.
  • In the third period, Christopher “terrifying to imagine the team without him” Tanev showed off his outstanding positioning when he sprawled to block a sure goal after a two-on-one from Barzal and Ladd. A good thing too, can you imagine if they scored another one? It would’ve taken Vancouver from clinging to life to complete zombification...
  • Whoops, turns out Derrick Pouliot loves The Walking Dead. Late in the third Pouliot noticed that this game was a wart contest and decided to showboat. Anders Lee overpowered the defender to claim the puck behind the net, then flipped it back to John Tavares lurking by the crease. Tavares deked and calmly lifted the puck over Nilsson. I've liked what I've seen of Pouliot so far, but this wasn't his best work and it was the final nail in Vancouver's zombie brain.
  • In his post-game comments, captain Henrik Sedin blamed the loss on bad changes and transitions, which certainly contributed, but the real trouble stemmed from allowing easy access between the dots and in front of the crease. On most of the Islanders goals, the Canucks simply didn't make it hard enough to gain that ice. Here's a heatmap courtesy of Natural Stat Trick; the big red blob is where the Isles had no business being.

    heatmap islanders v canucks
  • To add to their woes the Canucks seemingly had their wires crossed all night. Whether it was an inadvertent Boeser tip, or Jake Virtanen and Derrick Pouliot getting tangled inside the blueline on a promising looking rush, the whole team lacked flow, even the Flow. Two exceptions were Loui Eriksson and Bo Horvat. The latter was particularly impressive, skating hard all night and notching a world-class goal. For the sake of having a restful night’s sleep, I suggest you just focus on that goal.