The Stanchies: Ice times becoming a talking point after Canucks’ 5-1 loss to Penguins
If you’re one of those people who like to look at themselves in the mirror while they cry, then boy, do I have the article for you.
Now, they had every reason to lose this game; They’re in the midst of a long road trip. They are dealing with a variety of injury issues. And rumour has it that Dan Murphy didn’t wear the right socks this morning, setting the tone for the instability and breakdowns we saw in the second period.
Still, you’d be excused if you had hoped the Canucks would find another miracle in their back pocket for Tuesday night’s game. Vancouver has already managed to escape with a victory a few times this year on nights they probably didn’t deserve it, which tends to lead to you muttering “they’ve got this!” with the confidence normally reserved for drunkenly assessing if you can ride a shopping cart down a giant hill.
In the end, though, the Canucks got the snot kicked out of them. Let’s be real. We can be honest with each other, right? We’re all friends here, and if I can’t tell you the Canucks played like absolute garbage, then who will?
Which leaves us on the fact that the Canucks played very poorly but also had several valid reasons as to why they played so badly. Which doesn’t really lend itself to a game you want to dissect that deeply. Can’t really yell or get up in arms over this result, all you can really do is move on and see what happens next.
The short version? The Penguins murdered the Canucks off of the rush.
The long version? The Penguins murdered the Canucks off of the rush, but I have gifs of it.
Let’s do this.
Best Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight car
Old friend of the show Joe LaBate dressed for the Canucks tonight, which is either a heart-warming tale of dedication to one’s craft, or a giant spotlight on the team’s depth heading into this game.
The last time Joe played in Vancouver was all the way back in 2016, back when Harambe was all the rage and people were scouring the streets in giant groups to try and capture Pokémon on their phones.
That was also the same year LaBate played with Alex Burrows, the last time a number 14 was worn by a Vancouver Canuck until Tuesday night, when Joe wore it. And you know what, I am not ready for that number to be back in circulation yet. I think tonight’s results speak for themselves, as the Hockey Gods weren’t pleased either.
I know Burrows’s number isn’t retired and he’s just in the Ring of Honour, but I just feel like he needs to sign off on who uses it next. Maybe have a ceremony where he knights a guy with a hockey stick before breaking the stick over his knee and then playfully bites the other guy’s finger.
What I’m saying is this game was Joe Labate’s fault. Someone had to be brave enough to say it.
Best enjoy this moment while it lasts
GARLAND!! less than 2mins in. 1-0 Nucks! #Canucks
Corolla Garland got the Canucks off to a quick start when he unleashed a slapshot off the rush just minutes into the game:
Now, Conor Garland, someone who is used to working from the right wing, is not known for having a blistering slapshot. Nor does he have much of a wrist shot. Which makes it extra funny that he got Stuart Skinner to bite on a fake shot back in the 2024 playoffs.
The cynical amongst you might be going “Wyatt, did you just mention his lack of shooting power just so you could show a clip of the game one winner against the Oilers?” and you know what, good call. You nailed it. It’s exactly why I did that. I have to be honest, the highlights for the Canucks fall off of an absolute cliff after this, so trust me when I say you should watch that old clip and savour it.
But for a brief moment, with the Canucks having only one real solid offensive line on the night, it felt like they might be able to pull it off. Maybe Elias Pettersson gets another goal. Maybe Jake DeBrusk utilizes his bowling ball technique and rams a goal in on a breakaway. Maybe Tyler Myers goes end to end bar down and then moonwalks to centre to celebrate. Crazier things have happened.
We know this didn’t happen, but using our imaginations is what allows us to disassociate from traumatic events.
Best be careful what you wish for
It’s so refreshing to see rush chances against the other team again #Canucks
It’s true, the Canucks did get some solid rush attempts off during the first period. In fact, they outshot the Penguins eleven to six in the opening frame, and they did it by pressuring the Penguins and counter attacking them with rush attempts.
Evander Kane, who I believe gains 10mph to his stride if he’s chasing down a puck for an offensive chance, does a good job harassing Caleb Jones into flubbing a pass into a turnover, and keeps skating hard so Garland can feed him the puck for the breakaway:
Once again, the Canucks utilized pressure in the defensive zone to create offence, as here Elias Pettersson deflects a pass in his own zone and turns it around into a counter rush that ends with Marcus Pettersson getting a good look at former friend Artūrs Šilovs:
It felt like the Canucks did more with less, just in terms of generating chances off of counter attacks in the first period, whereas the Penguins had a lot of offensive zone time where the Canucks just kept them to the outside with nothing to show for it.
Evander Kane penalty? I need to hide my disbelief #canucks
Evander Kane drawing or taking a penalty is something I assume will happen in every single game until the end of time, so it was not surprising when Kane took the first penalty of the game in the middle of the first period.
It was here that Pittsburgh tried the “what if Malkin BECAME ONE WITH Kevin Lankinen” which I assume was inspired by the movie Together:
Despite Malkin buying a plot of land in the blue paint, Kevin Lankinen made the save to keep the game tied.
Later on in the power play, Rickard Rakell is denied after getting a shot off of a Malkin rebound, as Tyler Myers and Kevin Lankinen fuse their bodies together to make the save:
Live by the fusion, die by the fusion.
Best excited use of caps lock
Connor Dewar did indeed light the lamp, and also forced me to play the “Does this dude capitalize a second letter in his last name anywhere?” game. Sadly he is not named DeWar, which feels more intimidating, but what are you gonna do:
Pittsburgh works the puck around the boards and finds the point shot which is tipped in beautifully by the Penguins forward. I also assume Pittsburgh was like “man, that took a lot of effort having to grind it out like that, why don’t we just score off of the rush next period?” because oh boy, I sure hope you like scoring chances off of the rush, because I have SO MANY OF THEM FOR YOU.
Not my Latvian king in the opposing team attire 😔 #canucks
Please take note of this scoring chance from Linus Karlsson late in the first period, where he drives the puck on net:
These were the good times you always reminisce about after the fact. This was the best time from this game. Right here.
I am also mostly doing this so we can applaud the Castle Fun Park Line, who were the most efficient line for Vancouver in terms of Corsi on the night.
Best legend of The Calendar Man
And on this day, Drew O’Connor’s new Stanchies nickname was born: Everyone welcome Calendar
From Botch calling Boeser “The Flow” to the Chaos Giraffe being born in the Stanchies, nicknames are often like adopting a cat: you don’t pick them, they choose you.
And while DOC is a fine nickname, it doesn’t have enough panache for me. “Calendar” though? I can get behind that.
Now, as Tomlinson mentions on the broadcast, Jock Callander was a former Penguin, but “Calendar” is more fun because we can do jokes about days of the month and such. Also it’s just really weird that someone’s nickname is Calendar, which makes it perfect for us.
this pens canucks game is looking very mid vs mid rn like why does everyone just look so… bad
The second period, aka the downfall of the empire, had an awful lot of “1 v one 1 me on Rust, bro” energy to it, which I think naturally caused confusion with Bryan Rust, which gave us a bit of a weird middle frame.
It was also one of those moments where you do end up doing a “1 v 1” in Rust only to find out that, yup, you’re terrible at this game and they are much much better than you.
Like I said earlier, the Canucks generated chances off of the rush in the first period, and then Penguins seemed more content to set up shop and cycle the puck.
Somewhere during intermission, though, things changed. I assumed Sidney Crosby stood up and gave a rousing speech of “hey let’s try and score off of the rush, buds” and the Penguins came out united with that goal in mind.
So instead of it just being the Canucks as the aggressor, it was the Penguins also stepping up and applying pressure to Vancouver into making mistakes and turnovers.
Here we have Tommy Novak casually tossing Max Sasson aside like that coupon Sports Chek always tries to hand off to you with your receipt, and then skates right around P.O Joseph in what can only be described as a picture perfect homage to Luca Sbisa:
Vancouver responded when Calendar attempted to go end to end early on in the period, but couldn’t quite get the finish:
Drew continues to be one of those players who is big, but doesn’t use his size, and is fast, but doesn’t have the hands to match. He also doesn’t really use his linemates all that well. You see him with his head down a lot of the time, and he will miss an open man, or take too long to make a play and you really have to wonder if his price point of 2.5 million might be a bit much. You can see the tools he has, and you see that 16 goal season from back in 2023, so you can see the vision in an ideal world.
It just feels like the idea of Calendar is more enticing than the results we’ve seen so far.
It’s like that slice of pumpkin pie at one in the morning. I see what you’re going for, but I think you might end up having some regrets.
Which brings us back to the Penguins, and here we have Ben Kinden reading a play, as is his nature, picking off a pass attempt from Tyler Myers, forcing the Canucks defenceman to enter CG57 mode by racing back to block the ensuing shot:
And even the normal defensive stalwarts on the Canucks were losing the edge on the rush game, as he Conor Garland cannot contain Bryan Rust, who ends up walking in all alone on Kevin:
The Canucks were trying to keep up with the counter attack at this point, as here Quinn Hughes takes his turn intercepting a pass in the neutral zone and tries rushing it back for a goal:
And Evander Kane almost had a breakaway off of a counter attack off of a faceoff deep in his defensive zone, before having the puck hit off his stick:
But despite the kind of back and forth nature of the first half of the second period, it was the Penguins getting shots off, and not Vancouver. It was Lankinen having to make saves, and not Silovs.
#Canucks have 2 shots this period. One from Jake DeBrusk and one from Joe LaBate
So with Calendar in the box for an offensive zone trip, aka every coaches favorite type of penalty, it wasn’t too shocking to see the game start to slip away after the Penguins made it 2-1 on the powerplay:
For reasons I’m still not sure of, Defensive enthusiast Elias Pettersson backs off of Novak as if inviting him to 1 v1 his goalie on Rust, and let me tell you, Novak won that duel.
And I mean, a lot of NHL players will kill you when you give them that much time and space. EP25 literally skates away from Novak and just sort of puts his stick out as a token gesture of friendship. I know he’s trying to take away the passing lane at first, but at some point you need to slide over and take away the shooting lane.
The end result? The Canucks were down a goal.
Best showing signs of fatigue
I knew the boys would be tired and it’s showing. They also have a back to back home game this weekend.
Ugh. Go #Canucks Go
It was at this point it felt like things fell apart for the Canucks. Now instead of trading rushes with the Penguins, Pittsburgh was just auto-generating chances whenever they liked.
Moments after the goal you had Myers misplay a puck twice on the same play, resulting in Novak getting a semi-breakaway:
Then off of a draw you had Bryan Rust dangling around Quinn Hughes of all people:
Make no mistake about it, this was a team effort of getting dog walked by the Canucks.
And on the ensuing faceoff after that Rust attempt, Sidney Crosby put the Penguins up two goals, after he got tossed from the circle and seemingly said “Sounds good to me!” and waltzed in an sniped home a goal:
Evander Kane takes himself out of the play right away, as if to let you know defence isn’t his bag. Like, don’t get him wrong, defence is cool, he has no problem with defence, it just isn’t for him. He just sort of glides into the NetherRealm at one point after the puck is dropped.
This, combined with Sherwood flailing at the puck and missing it, led to Crosby basically walking in and getting all the time in the world to place his shot. And I haven’t done the research yet, but I think Crosby is good at hockey? It feels like he’s dangerous with the puck?
Best stop, stop, they’re already dead
Anthony Mantha was the next man up to score a goal off of the rush! This time it was after the Canucks were pushing hard to generate offence, which makes sense, but the puck ended up being shoved down their throats, which also makes sense:
Defensive Petey kicked the puck back towards the Penguins zone, but Malkin is like “you wanna play football with me??” and snags it. Justin Brazeau then sets the perfect “whoops, I was just skating and happened to run into you, silly me, tee hee!” interference on DP25, which effectively cuts off his ability to catch up and help Marcus Pettersson defend the Malkin Rush. Malkin is of course Malkin, so he basically barges around MP3 no problem, getting a shot off that Lankinen fights off only to see Mantha out-muscle Sasson to the net to tap in the rebound.
This is the point in an online world where you politely rage quit and throw your PS5 down the stairs.
But in the real world, you have to play out ANOTHER PERIOD OF THIS.
And the Penguins, they didn’t relent this period, as Malkin almost got another goal before the horn sounded:
Again, another scoring chance generated off of the rush for the Penguins.
If you’re asking “Wyatt, where are the Canucks scoring chances?”, I think we both know the answer to that.
Not a ton of good for the #Canucks so far tonight but the Abby line’s stock keeps rising.
📈📈📈
Everyone knows you’re gonna have a decent time at Castle Fun Park.
Not the best night of the year. Probably not even the best night of the month.
But best night of the week? Now we’re talking.
Through two periods, Elias Pettersson is 8th among #Canucks forwards in 5v5 ice time at 7:39.
Yes, he’s also played 2:28 on the PK and 1:22 on the PP, but even with all of that included, he’s still had less ice time than Evander Kane.
We are still waiting our Dan Russell 20 games before we make grand sweeping statements on the state of the team.
But Adam Foote’s ice time deployment continues to gain momentum as a giant talking point. Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk finished last place in 5 on 5 ice time on the night, which feels odd. Joe Labate beating your top scorers out for even strength ice time just feels weird, you know? Even crazier? Aatu Raty leading all forwards at even strength with 15 minutes of ice time.
And look, I don’t really count much of what happened in the third period as anything worth while, as both sides were purely in “let’s just go home and sleep this one off” mode at that point, so that will skew your numbers somewhat. And I am positive there will be an argument to be made that Foote is doing some load management, especially in a game that got away from him like that.
But there has to be a world in which you lean heavily on your top guys to win you games and don’t just rotate through your lineup. Especially early on in this one.
Heck, even when they started the third period down 4-1, Evander Kane’s line was out there to start instead of EP40.
It’s sure looking like a talking point that will still be around by game 20 at this rate.
I’m just gonna call this a scheduled loss for the Canucks. 3-1 on road trip with 1 remaining is a success. #canucks
We won’t bother showing anything from the third period, as it was mostly Pittsburgh sitting back and being polite hosts by letting Vancouver run around in their offensive zone for a while, but Justin Brazeau? That guy isn’t a good host. He wanted one more goal, which he scored on brilliant pass from Kris Letang
The Canucks are dead inside at this point, as you can tell by their penalty killing structure on this play, so there’s not a ton to break down here aside from saying “yup, they got their asses handed to them.”
The Arty Party put the final exclamation mark on this game after making a save and then turning around and tossing the puck behind him with just the right amount of disdain to a team that didn’t want to keep you and/or didn’t have a dedicated practice facility:
There is always going to be a debate over contracts in a salary cap world, and Lankinen vs Silovs won’t go away anytime soon. Clearly it’s too soon to tell, but there is definitely a war brewing behind the scenes about whether the right choice was made by Vancouver this off-season.
I wish I had a fancy outro to this article, but yeah. Tired, beleaguered team dealing with injuries got whooped. That’s it. That’s the story.
Next game? Thursday in Nashville.
See you there.
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