The up-and-down Vancouver Canucks have once again fallen back to earth after a brief high.
Perhaps they looked at Salt Lake City’s mountain range and felt like they were still at home, where they’ve typically struggled this season, or maybe they were feeling a touch of altitude sickness. Whatever the reason, these Canucks remain inconsistent and downright puzzling, with Wednesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Utah Hockey Club serving as a classic example.
Coming off what was arguably their most complete effort of the season, which led to a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Arena on Monday, the Canucks came out flat in the first period against Utah HC.
Their first-ever trip to Salt Lake City for their maiden matchup with Utah opened with the Canucks struggling with shot creation, an issue that has plagued the team on many occasions this season. With just four shots from Vancouver over the first 20 minutes, and two of them coming in the final minute, Utah was clearly the more aggressive team to start the contest, controlling much of the play and twice forcing goaltender Thatcher Demko to stop breakaway opportunities.
The Canucks also iced the puck five times in the opening period on Wednesday, something head coach Rick Tocchet couldn’t have been happy seeing after sharing his frustration about multiple first-period icings in their lacklustre showing against the Boston Bruins on Saturday. “The icing is inexcusable for all of us… that to me just gives the team a lot of juice,” said Tocchet at the time.
Speaking to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy during the first intermission on Wednesday, defenceman Noah Juulsen agreed that the Canucks merely “survived” the period. “Right now we’re not winning our battles. They took it to us there, so we’ve got to adjust here and respond.”
Asked what the team needed to do for the remainder of the game in order to get back some of the rhythm they’ve had on the road this season, Juulsen offered, “We’ve got to win our battles and start communicating out there. Right now, we’re quiet, and it’s just not helping us at all.”
For the most part, the first half of the second period appeared to be trending in the same direction as the previous 20 minutes. That was until the Canucks gave up a three-on-one shorthanded attempt on their first power play of the game, where Demko was once again forced to bail out his teammates. While that could have been a tipping point in Utah’s favour, it actually appeared to inject some life into Vancouver’s game.
With mere seconds remaining on that same power play, a Quinn Hughes point shot caromed off the Delta Center’s lively end boards, a feature of the rink mentioned by a couple Canucks following morning skate. The puck was impressively corralled and one-timed by Danton Heinen, opening the scoring and adding his name to the history books as the first-ever Canuck to score against the Utah Hockey Club.
Early in the third, the Canucks doubled their lead when Dakota Joshua buried an in-tight deke after taking a lead pass from Teddy Blueger to beat Utah’s Karel Vejmelka. The goal marked just his second of the season after the forward was forced to miss the first month of play while recovering from testicular cancer. On the goal, Quinn Hughes recorded his second assist of the game, marking his ninth multi-assist game of the season and 73rd of his career.
Much like Monday’s game against Colorado, Demko appeared to be heading towards a shutout until halfway through the third when Utah captain Clayton Keller finally broke the netminder, beating Demko to a loose puck after he’d made the initial save on a shot by Nick Schmaltz.
Utah tied the game with just over four minutes remaining in the third when Dylan Guenther’s shot went past Demko after it bounced off of Teddy Blueger and got by Demko. It was scored on the power play with Tyler Myers in the box for a debatable cross-checking call.
With their lead now erased, the Canucks had several chances in the game’s final minutes, their best coming from Conor Garland with a minute-and-a-half left in regulation. However, still tied 2-2 by the end of the third, the teams headed to overtime.
Vancouver and Utah swapped scoring opportunities in the extra frame until Mikhail Sergachev notched his second overtime-winning goal of the season to beat a Canucks team that let a 2-0 third-period road lead escape from their grasp.
So, a game that started rather quietly ended with a bang for the home team, leaving the Canucks frustrated with the outcome for the sixth time this season.
“We had a 2-0 lead, and you’ve got to lock it down,” said head coach Rick Tocchet after the game. “Every game is a learning lesson.”
Demko, still freshly back with the Canucks after an eight-month absence due to a serious knee injury, made his fourth straight start on Wednesday. While the Canucks had initially planned on easing the goaltender back into play, that plan was thwarted due to Lankinen’s bout with the flu over the last week.
His solid effort against Utah was highlighted by the aforementioned three-on-one save while Vancouver was on the power play and a lunging game-saving stop on Michael Carcone with just 30 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game into overtime.
Utah entered the game having scored four or more goals in five straight games, a streak Demko was able to put an end to.
Despite the loss, Demko was easily Vancouver’s best player on the ice and appears to be gaining more confidence with each appearance.
MILLER AND PETTERSSON BROKEN UP
The Canucks coaching staff may have unwillingly added fuel to the fire that is the rumoured rift between their two best offensive stars, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson.
Social media was abuzz once again on Wednesday night when head coach Rick Tocchet chose to split the two players between their first and second power-play units.
“We’re just trying different things right now,” said Tocchet, unwilling to divulge any real details behind the decision.
A far too frequent post-game comment from the team’s head coach this season was once again repeated on Wednesday. “They were ready to play, and we weren’t,” said Tocchet post-game.
Added Joshua, “We’ve got to be ready to go tomorrow. We can’t come out with the same start we did tonight.”
With first-period efforts such as these, one is routinely left to wonder what could’ve been had the Canucks come ready to play out the gate and not had to rely on their goaltender to keep them in it.
• Utah, which relocated from Arizona and acquired the players, staff and draft picks of the Coyotes, marks the 21st new expansion franchise the Canucks have faced since entering the NHL in 1970-71. With Wednesday’s overtime loss, Vancouver dropped its record to 11-8-1-1 in the first games against those combined franchises.
• Following Wednesday’s result, the Canucks are currently three points ahead of Utah for one of the two Western Conference wild-card spots.
• Utah has earned points in six straight games and won five of its last six, while Vancouver has earned points in four of its last five.
• The Delta Center crowd featured a number of fans attending for free on Wednesday after owner Ryan Smith gifted out around 2,000 tickets via social media in an effort to continue promoting hockey in the league’s newest market.
The Canucks are right back at it on Thursday night, facing the Golden Knights in Vegas. They will then return home for two games — against the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks — ahead of the NHL’s Christmas break.
Come the new year, the Canucks will have two more opportunities this season to redeem themselves against Utah — on Feb. 28 back in Salt Lake City and March 16 in Vancouver.
