The Stanchies: Canucks waste vintage Pettersson performance in 4-3 loss to Canadiens<\/p>\n
It was all going so well. And then a Vancouver Canucks game broke out.<\/p>\n
Vancouver\u2019s 4-3 loss on home(?) ice to the Montreal Canadiens was far from the Canucks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s gonna take part of the blame.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Lot of Hab jerseys in the stands tonight gross #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019t even want to attend.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n These Canadiens fans were ready from the jump and made their presence known all game.<\/p>\n Best \u2018Game Loading\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n The Habs fans might\u2019ve been ready for puck drop, but their team wasn\u2019t prepared for Elias Pettersson.<\/p>\n EP40 was on it from shift one, first battling with old foe Mike Matheson near the net front and making Jakub Dobes\u2019 life difficult by putting the puck between his legs off a carom near the side of the net.<\/p>\n Then, he and the Canucks showed what they can do when they get a real rush chance, and that\u2019s so god damned MAGIC.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cAH, PLAYER ALERT! INITIATE SELF DESTRUCT!\u201d<\/p>\n 1-0 for the good guys, and the Petey naysayers are quieted for another day.<\/p>\n You\u2019re so right shorty waking up to croissants is exactly like waking up in paradise<\/p>\n John Shorthouse is the Martha Stewart of NHL commentary. No, I don\u2019t mean he\u2019s committed insider trading, I mean his advice will make your house into a home!<\/p>\n I\u2019d hear what he has to say about throw pillows and cooking a four-course meal any day of the week.<\/p>\n I get that Interference is a penalty but I think the word would be a better place if we stopped saying a player was \u201cinterfered with\u201d<\/p>\n Kiefer Sherwood\u2019s 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\u2019t subsided by this game.<\/p>\n The Canucks\u2019 first power play didn\u2019t amount to anything, but the penalty set the table for the night.<\/p>\n tiny Conor Garland absolutely bodying people will always be hilarious to me<\/p>\n I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n Is Alex Carrier the biggest guy on the ice? Definitely not. But it\u2019s still a phenomenal experience watching a 5-foot-10 Corolla sit him right down near the boards.<\/p>\n It\u2019s such a smooth hit too. It happens so quickly that I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Carrier just saw a flash of black, yellow and red before he knew he was landing on his derriere.<\/p>\n I’m going to keep asking this question until he gives me an answer #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n WHAT DOES EVANDER KANE DO???????????????????????????????????????? #Canucks<\/p>\n I\u2019ve covered three games so far this season. In each one of them there has been a \u2018Biggest Disaster\u2019, and it\u2019s been the same guy every time.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t test us.<\/p>\n Lukas Reichel, welcome to Vancouver!<\/p>\n 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\u2019s been firing on all cylinders. Simple enough, right?<\/p>\n Reichel\u2019s first game as a Canucks was definitely subpar (no points and on the ice for two goals against), but that\u2019s to be expected for a player who hasn\u2019t had the benefit of a single practice to adjust to a new team and situation. If there\u2019s ever a time for a \u2018Get Out of Jail Free\u2019 card, it\u2019s here.<\/p>\n But Reichel did expose a part of Jakub Dobes\u2019 play that a different team might\u2019ve jumped on more efficiently. And that was Dobes\u2019 rebound control.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve noticed that he was giving out a lot of juicy rebounds in this game.<\/p>\n Reichel inadvertently figured this out, after Brock Boeser picked off a Habs clearing attempt and fed him the puck. Reichel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Dobes\u2019 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\u2019t amount to much.<\/p>\n Now Ivan Demidov trips a linesman while entering the offensive zone.<\/p>\n Habs punishing the officials tonight \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\n The current biggest battle in the sporting world isn\u2019t between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. It\u2019s between the Canadiens and NHL\u2019s referees.<\/p>\n Look how Brandon Schrader makes an extra effort to skate right in Ivan Demidov\u2019s blind spot as he spins around near the boards, taking the ref\u2019s legs out from underneath him and forcing a turnover. \u201cYou DARE complain about our calls, peasant? Feel the wrath of me being right in your way!\u201d<\/p>\n Referees: For legal purposes, this is a joke. Please don\u2019t take this as an excuse to give the Canucks more PKs, there\u2019s only so many goals I can clip a night.<\/p>\n Best it starts at one end\u2026<\/p>\n Right as the Canadiens were starting to sustain some pressure in the Canucks\u2019 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\u2019d need to win the faceoff clean.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Anderson beats Lankinen, but not the iron.<\/p>\n A close call, but they\u2019re still alive. Time to make Montreal regret that miss.<\/p>\n Best \u2026and finishes at the other<\/p>\n I like it when the Canucks score goals<\/p>\n This goal\u00a0technically 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Between this picture perfect goal and the Anderson post at the other end, could the Canucks\u2019 luck finally be turning?<\/p>\n Elias Pettersson’s first multi-point game of season. And first since March 20th vs STL<\/p>\n Damn..it’s a home game for Montreal like that. #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019 shiny new stadium. One of these fanbases is inescapable, and it shows.<\/p>\n After Arber Xhekaj and Linus Karlsson take penalties a minute apart, the Canadiens are able to start tilting the ice at 4v4. Montreal\u2019s speed and skill starts to factor in more with extra room on the ice, and the chase commences.<\/p>\n Once Xhekaj\u2019s penalty expires and the Habs have the extra man, it starts turning into inevitable Globetrotter ball. As the Canucks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n Surely this WON\u2019T become a trend!<\/p>\n Kiefer Sherwood has broken 3 sticks already in this game. #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019m certain Kiefer Sher-wood be firmly planted at the top.<\/p>\n On this play, Sherwood\u2019s stick breaks for the thousandth time, but that doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n If you wouldn\u2019t run through a brick wall for Keef, you might be dead inside.<\/p>\n The Canucks had controlled Montreal through the first half of the game pretty well. They were leading shots, they\u2019d gotten practically all the best scoring chances, and importantly, looked comfortable doing so.<\/p>\n So it shouldn\u2019t come as too much of a surprise that once the second period ended, the bottom immediately fell out.<\/p>\n First the Canucks started the final frame shorthanded, thanks to this Aatu R\u00e4ty trip called at the buzzer in the second.<\/p>\n With the Habs\u2019 potent power play running the Canucks\u2019 penalty killer ragged, it took a broken play to beat Kevin Lankinen. Lane Huston\u2019s shot ends up hitting his teammate Demidov standing in front of the net, who smartly pokes it to Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd waiting near the short side. Slafkovsk\u00fd\u2019s stick collides with Marcus Pettersson\u2019s as he shoots, breaking it in two. But the puck had gotten off the blade first. Tie game.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0again.<\/p>\n Best I Think You Should Leave<\/p>\n Just when the Canucks needed a hero, Evander Kane shows up wearing Tim Robinson\u2019s hot dog costume instead.<\/p>\n This is where Kane takes an egregious penalty, cross-checking Cole Caufield in the offensive zone for no good reason. He could\u2019ve tried to cut him off near the boards and muscle him off the puck instead, but he opts for the lazier route instead.<\/p>\n \u201cYou call that a f***ing penalty?! For what?!\u201d Kane repeatedly barks at the ref. Either he was playing dumb, or is just that dense. Who\u2019s to say?<\/p>\n That fourth round pick to the Oilers is looking more and more like an overpay every game.<\/p>\n Canadiens really KASHED in there<\/p>\n Lucky for Kane, the Canucks penalty kill does come through and kill the man advantage. But the Habs don\u2019t 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\u2019s first lead of the night.<\/p>\n We all missed the Blue Jays playing in the World Series for this.<\/p>\n The third period wasn\u2019t all bad. Elias Pettersson was determined to make sure of it.<\/p>\n The Canucks fans in the building hadn\u2019t had much to cheer about in the final frame. EP40 brought them back to life with a thunderous hit on the Canadiens\u2019 captain.<\/p>\n If more of his teammates can find that urgency and intensity, maybe this game isn\u2019t lost!<\/p>\n The Canucks might just be classically bad<\/p>\n The other Elias Pettersson had a rough shift against Demidov. Can’t keep up with him and then deflects in the one timer.<\/p>\n Orrrr\u2026 a defensive breakdown can lead to Ivan Demidov teeing off on the Canucks instead.<\/p>\n Look. I know I\u2019m the eternal goalie defender. But in this particular scenario, that\u2019s a save you need Kevin Lankinen to make. It\u2019s not his fault his defenders didn\u2019t clear the zone and Demidov was that open, but he didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n Someone is not happy on the Canucks bench \ud83d\udde3\ufe0f<\/p>\n