The Stanchies: Canucks waste vintage Pettersson performance in 4-3 loss to Canadiens
It was all going so well. And then a Vancouver Canucks game broke out.
Vancouver’s 4-3 loss on home(?) ice to the Montreal Canadiens was far from the Canucks’ worst game of the season. They actually played some of their best hockey of the year in the first half of the game, fending off the highest scoring team in the NHL with aggressive forechecking, smart defence and some timely goaltending.
Heck, this game was even great in some ways. Elias Pettersson, snake bitten all season, turned in a classic three-point performance, carrying the Canucks on his shoulders just like the good old days! But when a few of his teammates made key mistakes and the wheels started coming off in the third, the momentum bus happened to be driving right towards Le Grand Canyon. And off they went.
After the road trip the Canucks had, this game can very well be looked at as a net positive from the scoring perspective. But any time you allow four unanswered goals and blow a 2-0 lead, someone’s gonna take part of the blame.
The Canadiens didn’t bring their A-game, but they made their opportunities count, especially on the power play. Kevin Lankinen allowed a subpar goal or two, D-Petey and P-O Joseph were drowning trying to keep up with the speedy Habs, and Evander Kane continued to be Evander Kane. It was death by a thousand paper cuts, and no amount of star player bandages could cover them all.
Lot of Hab jerseys in the stands tonight gross #Canucks
The annual Habs Nation road trip to Vancouver is a key part of the annual Canucks experience, albeit far less annoying than the Toronto Maple Leafs version. But this game had a new twist; specifically, what happens when a lot of Canucks fans don’t even want to attend.
The cheapest seat in the building until puck drop was over $100 on the resale market. Even with time running out, the price the Canucks set for student rush tickets was still $79. Not exactly Cup Noodles and Kraft Dinner prices.
These Canadiens fans were ready from the jump and made their presence known all game.
Best ‘Game Loading…’
The Habs fans might’ve been ready for puck drop, but their team wasn’t prepared for Elias Pettersson.
EP40 was on it from shift one, first battling with old foe Mike Matheson near the net front and making Jakub Dobes’ life difficult by putting the puck between his legs off a carom near the side of the net.
Then, he and the Canucks showed what they can do when they get a real rush chance, and that’s so god damned MAGIC.
First, Conor Garland draws Oliver Kapanen away from the middle to the boards, and takes a hit to make the pass to EP40. Petey enters the zone, and knowing he has Filip Hronek trailing feeds him a back pass. Hronek pulls four Canadiens to his side of the ice, long enough for Petey to park him in the open ice and wait for a perfect pass.
Dobes is so caught off guard by how open Petey is, he throws his stick live a javelin like his save selection chip short circuited. “AH, PLAYER ALERT! INITIATE SELF DESTRUCT!”
1-0 for the good guys, and the Petey naysayers are quieted for another day.
You’re so right shorty waking up to croissants is exactly like waking up in paradise
John Shorthouse is the Martha Stewart of NHL commentary. No, I don’t mean he’s committed insider trading, I mean his advice will make your house into a home!
I’d hear what he has to say about throw pillows and cooking a four-course meal any day of the week.
I get that Interference is a penalty but I think the word would be a better place if we stopped saying a player was “interfered with”
Kiefer Sherwood’s energy knows no bounds, and he draws penalties like few others can. If the Canadiens were upset about the calls against them in the Edmonton Oilers matchup on Thursday, it hadn’t subsided by this game.
The Canucks’ first power play didn’t amount to anything, but the penalty set the table for the night.
tiny Conor Garland absolutely bodying people will always be hilarious to me
I don’t think Conor Garland got the memo that Wyatt had tonight off, because he turned in another fantastic night that I now have to do justice.
Is Alex Carrier the biggest guy on the ice? Definitely not. But it’s still a phenomenal experience watching a 5-foot-10 Corolla sit him right down near the boards.
It’s such a smooth hit too. It happens so quickly that I wouldn’t be surprised if Carrier just saw a flash of black, yellow and red before he knew he was landing on his derriere.
I’m going to keep asking this question until he gives me an answer #Canucks
WHAT DOES EVANDER KANE DO???????????????????????????????????????? #Canucks
I’ve covered three games so far this season. In each one of them there has been a ‘Biggest Disaster’, and it’s been the same guy every time.
Who was Evander Kane passing to? The world may never know, but some friendly advice from your neighbourhood goaltender. If you EVER make a cross-ice pass under pressure in your own zone and it gets picked off, be prepared for your netminder to absolutely throw hands at you during the intermission. Don’t test us.
Lukas Reichel, welcome to Vancouver!
Your mission, if you choose to accept it: immediately jump into a top-six role as a centre, a position the Chicago Blackhawks rarely put you in, and tread above water against a Canadiens team that’s been firing on all cylinders. Simple enough, right?
Reichel’s first game as a Canucks was definitely subpar (no points and on the ice for two goals against), but that’s to be expected for a player who hasn’t had the benefit of a single practice to adjust to a new team and situation. If there’s ever a time for a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, it’s here.
But Reichel did expose a part of Jakub Dobes’ play that a different team might’ve jumped on more efficiently. And that was Dobes’ rebound control.
The 24 year-old from Ostrava, Czechia was one of the best goalie stories of last year, and with five wins so far this year, he’s picked up right where he left off in 2024-25. But if the Canucks had paid a little more attention to the front of the net, they would’ve noticed that he was giving out a lot of juicy rebounds in this game.
Reichel inadvertently figured this out, after Brock Boeser picked off a Habs clearing attempt and fed him the puck. Reichel’s shot under pressure hit Dobes squarely in the left pad and dribbled right into the highest danger zone for a rebound. Sadly, no one was there to tap it in.
Dobes’ struggles to corral the puck or kick it out with authority was a theme today, and presented the Canucks with more opportunities than they realized they had. It just didn’t amount to much.
Now Ivan Demidov trips a linesman while entering the offensive zone.
Habs punishing the officials tonight 😅
The current biggest battle in the sporting world isn’t between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s between the Canadiens and NHL’s referees.
Look how Brandon Schrader makes an extra effort to skate right in Ivan Demidov’s blind spot as he spins around near the boards, taking the ref’s legs out from underneath him and forcing a turnover. “You DARE complain about our calls, peasant? Feel the wrath of me being right in your way!”
Referees: For legal purposes, this is a joke. Please don’t take this as an excuse to give the Canucks more PKs, there’s only so many goals I can clip a night.
Best it starts at one end…
Right as the Canadiens were starting to sustain some pressure in the Canucks’ zone, Joe Veleno took an offensive zone penalty when he tripped P-O Joseph. A clear chance for the Canucks to widen the gap on the power play, but they’d need to win the faceoff clean.
Pettersson gets no help as two Habs swarm on the tie up, but his three wingers all skate for the puck heading to the corner. That leaves Quinn Hughes as the only man back right as Jake Evans finds Josh Anderson streaking through the middle for a shorthanded breakaway.
Anderson beats Lankinen, but not the iron.
A close call, but they’re still alive. Time to make Montreal regret that miss.
Best …and finishes at the other
I like it when the Canucks score goals
This goal technically will go down as another deflected puck in front, but the bones of what I was talking about was there. Namely, Quinn Hughes stepping into a shot with the power and speed of a Max Verstappen-piloted Red Bull.
Elias Pettersson fed Hughes the puck for the one-timer, giving him his second point of the night, while Jake DeBrusk was the one to get his stick on the howitzer for his second goal of the season.
Between this picture perfect goal and the Anderson post at the other end, could the Canucks’ luck finally be turning?
Elias Pettersson’s first multi-point game of season. And first since March 20th vs STL
Damn..it’s a home game for Montreal like that. #Canucks
When the Canadiens score at Rogers Arena, its hard to feel the way one does when 49ers fans show up en masse to the LA Rams’ shiny new stadium. One of these fanbases is inescapable, and it shows.
After Arber Xhekaj and Linus Karlsson take penalties a minute apart, the Canadiens are able to start tilting the ice at 4v4. Montreal’s speed and skill starts to factor in more with extra room on the ice, and the chase commences.
Once Xhekaj’s penalty expires and the Habs have the extra man, it starts turning into inevitable Globetrotter ball. As the Canucks’ penalty killers all drop to block an Ivan Demidov shot that never comes, chaos ensues. The rookie feeds Nick Suzuki waiting on the other side, who rips it into the yawning cage.
Surely this WON’T become a trend!
Kiefer Sherwood has broken 3 sticks already in this game. #Canucks
The Dawg Ratings might be a stat long lost to us at CanucksArmy, ever since Chris Faber went to fight laser dolphins in Guam. But if we did still have that stat, I’m certain Kiefer Sher-wood be firmly planted at the top.
On this play, Sherwood’s stick breaks for the thousandth time, but that doesn’t stop him from chasing down Lane Hutson to the complete other end of the ice and bowling him over in the attacking zone like a rogue defensive back in Madden.
If you wouldn’t run through a brick wall for Keef, you might be dead inside.
The Canucks had controlled Montreal through the first half of the game pretty well. They were leading shots, they’d gotten practically all the best scoring chances, and importantly, looked comfortable doing so.
So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that once the second period ended, the bottom immediately fell out.
First the Canucks started the final frame shorthanded, thanks to this Aatu Räty trip called at the buzzer in the second.
With the Habs’ potent power play running the Canucks’ penalty killer ragged, it took a broken play to beat Kevin Lankinen. Lane Huston’s shot ends up hitting his teammate Demidov standing in front of the net, who smartly pokes it to Juraj Slafkovský waiting near the short side. Slafkovský’s stick collides with Marcus Pettersson’s as he shoots, breaking it in two. But the puck had gotten off the blade first. Tie game.
Clearly, letting the Canadiens power play set up is a recipe for total disaster. The two-goal lead is already blown, but only an idiot would take a bad penalty and force his penalty killers to face them again.
Best I Think You Should Leave
Just when the Canucks needed a hero, Evander Kane shows up wearing Tim Robinson’s hot dog costume instead.
This is where Kane takes an egregious penalty, cross-checking Cole Caufield in the offensive zone for no good reason. He could’ve tried to cut him off near the boards and muscle him off the puck instead, but he opts for the lazier route instead.
“You call that a f***ing penalty?! For what?!” Kane repeatedly barks at the ref. Either he was playing dumb, or is just that dense. Who’s to say?
That fourth round pick to the Oilers is looking more and more like an overpay every game.
Canadiens really KASHED in there
Lucky for Kane, the Canucks penalty kill does come through and kill the man advantage. But the Habs don’t wait long to make them pay after it expires, and Kane has a front row seat when Mike Matheson steps into the high slot and rifles a shot off bar down past Lankinen for Montreal’s first lead of the night.
We all missed the Blue Jays playing in the World Series for this.
The third period wasn’t all bad. Elias Pettersson was determined to make sure of it.
The Canucks fans in the building hadn’t had much to cheer about in the final frame. EP40 brought them back to life with a thunderous hit on the Canadiens’ captain.
If more of his teammates can find that urgency and intensity, maybe this game isn’t lost!
The Canucks might just be classically bad
The other Elias Pettersson had a rough shift against Demidov. Can’t keep up with him and then deflects in the one timer.
Orrrr… a defensive breakdown can lead to Ivan Demidov teeing off on the Canucks instead.
Look. I know I’m the eternal goalie defender. But in this particular scenario, that’s a save you need Kevin Lankinen to make. It’s not his fault his defenders didn’t clear the zone and Demidov was that open, but he didn’t help matters by being so deep in his crease when the puck was around the perimeter. Lanks simply left too much room in the top corner for a sniper like Demidov to aim for.
Someone is not happy on the Canucks bench 🗣️
🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks
Which Canuck is yelling at his teammates right after the Demidov goal? Vote now on your phones and we’ll announce a winner tomorrow! (Editor’s note: the prize is knowledge.)
Best Phoenix Rising from the Ashes
Needing two goals in four minutes, Adam Foote hooked Lankinen for the extra attacker. Right off the faceoff, we see a level of methodical, surgical precision that you only wish the Canucks had found a little earlier.
Pettersson wins the O-zone draw, DeBrusk parks himself in front of Dobes, Hughes passes back off to EP40, who uses Corolla Garland’s stick blade like a pinball trigger for the puck.
THIS is the Alien we’re used to seeing wearing the #40 jersey. If there’s anything positive you should take from this game, it’s that Elias Pettersson is getting rewarded like Elias Pettersson again.
THIS is the game we (and Petey, probably) have been waiting for.
The Canucks very nearly tied this game twice in the dying moments.
The first opportunity was courtesy of another EP40 shot from the flank, but this time the puck gets to Hronek pinching near the net. His shot is stopped by Dobes, and so is Garland’s backhander that floats up into the air.
For a brief moment, time stands still. Then the puck lands right on into a mess of humanity that no one can knock into the net.
Then in the last few seconds, Garland found Brock Boeser in the slot, but he couldn’t get a clean shot through as he lost an edge.
Canadiens clear, game set and match.
Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the Vancouver #Canucks have interest in Bruins centre Pavel Zacha
🎥: Sportsnet
The Canucks have one game plan for fixing their now below .500 hockey team, and it’s an epiphany they’ve had before: trade for Pavel Zacha.
I don’t know who exactly needs to hear this, but you can’t just solve all your problems with some Pavel Zacha. It might make them a little better down the middle, but they’re also not a Zacha away from being a contender. You need bigger fixes than that.
But that’s a decision for another day.
Poor Brock, you could always tell how much he loved and adored Coolie. 🥺💙
Coolie Boeser, Brock Boeser’s lovely rescue dog, sadly passed away last week.
Boeser took time away from the team to be with his beloved pet in Coolie’s last days before crossing the rainbow bridge, a decision any person with a heart wouldn’t dare criticize. When my family lost our first two dogs, Scooby in 2016 and Luna in 2022, I was truly devastated. Just as I will be the day my parents’ current pooches, Norbert and Kingsley, decide to leave this mortal realm (which hopefully won’t be for a long time).
Pets are family, just as much a part of every joyous moment or sad occasion as any human, including a lot of your favourite sports memories. I’ll remember Scooby and Luna’s barking after Burrows slayed the dragon in 2011 just as much I do the goal itself. And if you’ve had a pet, you probably have a similar story with your animal companions.
So, to celebrate the legacy Coolie leaves behind, here are some of your lovely pets, each as important a member of Canucks Nation as the rest of us.
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