The Canucks battled back from a 4-1 late-first-period deficit to tie the game 5-5 with less than 4 minutes left in the game, but a back-breaking goal by Jesper Bratt with 34 seconds left in the third ended a potential feel good story and left them with a deflated minimal moral victory. If you’re like me and live abroad, here are your highlights:
The game started with a lot of Hughes-centric attention: it was the first game for all three Hughes brothers to be competing on a singular NHL ice surface. Their parents must be really proud, as they’re all killing it this year respective to where they are in their careers. At the end of the night though, the New Jersey Hugheses got the better of the singular Vancouver Hughes both in the game and on the stat sheet, with Jack putting up 1 goal/2 assists and Luke putting up 1 goal, compared to Quinn’s 2 assists.
The Canucks were undone in the game by their powerplay and their defense. One of those things a bit foreign, one of them a bit too familiar. For some reason the PP is just not clicking well at the moment: 3 for 23 in their last 8 games. Tocchet tried switching some personnel around, but finishing 1 for 4 with 8 shots was a factor in the game. The Canucks are sitting at 27.5% through the season (4th overall), but with how much firepower they have up front, and how chaotic their backend can be, they’ll need that to be more clinical to finish games down the stretch. Miller lamented that fact:
“The power play is not where it needs to be right now. We’re not sharp. We had a couple of breakdown looks with scrambles. But when we were going good, we’re not back to that right now. That was a game where the power play could have saved our ass a bit. It’s just disappointing and I’m a part of that. I wish I could have been better.”
And after their searing start to the season, the team is hitting a bit of a rough patch, especially on defense. Some would say this has been expected, some would say otherwise. With Hughes saying after the game it was “sloppy” from them, Tocchet was a bit more direct:
“The first period, obviously we give them four goals that shouldn't go,” he said. “There's system plays that I'm a little disappointed in guys. You're supposed to be in spots they weren't in, and now you're chasing the game. And then we make a great effort and then the last goal. . . maybe you could blame all five guys on the ice. I still don't understand where guys were going on that play. That's details. Details and details — that's why we keep hammering to these guys.
“I'm not taking away they got the four goals, but we gave them four goals. You can’t have three guys in the corner on the first goal and leave the front of the net (open). That's not our system. And we've been slacking a little bit on that. And it's on us (coaches), it's on my ass. I've got to get these guys to do it more often.”
After Vantel broke the news of Tocchet’s change-of-scenery comment on Kuzy, he followed that up with a little more prodding of the maligned Russian:
“I’m tired of answering questions about him. Kuzy has to forecheck, let’s start with that.”
Ouch.
On the plus side, your league-wide goal scoring leader is Brock freakin’ Boeser with 18 goals in 26 games. If any of you put money on that, you’re gonna hit pay day. But you didn’t, because I know you all, and read all the naysaying. But even if he doesn’t keep this pace up all year, it’s great for him to rebound after a couple really tough seasons: his benchmark of 30 goals is definitely attainable.
The Canucks are back in action against the Wild on Thursday night, so hopefully they can start to right the ship then. Until then, debate amongst yourselves.
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