{"id":385567,"date":"2026-01-03T12:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385567\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:33:11","slug":"trial-and-error-of-canucks-youth-movement-on-display-in-loss-to-kraken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385567\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial and error of Canucks’ youth movement on display in loss to Kraken"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2013 If you wanted to see the manifestation of what the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>\u2019 transition-rebuild looks like, rookie defenceman Tom Willander<\/a> provided a perfect snapshot on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Trapped on the ice for a marathon, two-minute-plus shift that led to the Seattle Kraken\u2019s first goal, Willander was caught up ice with fellow 20-year-old defenceman Zeev Buium on a three-on-one, then lost a puck battle to Kaapo Kakko, then screened his goalie as his check went to the front of the net while Cale Fleury was blasting past Thatcher Demko.<\/p>\n

But in the second period, there was Willander wheeling confidently with the puck while getting a trial at the point of the first power-play unit, which scored twice in six minutes to keep the Canucks in the game.<\/p>\n

Willander, who had only five games in the minors between college hockey last spring and what seems like a semi-permanent promotion to the National Hockey League in October, even got a shift in overtime before Matty Beniers scored the only goal of a shootout to give the Kraken a 4-3 victory at Rogers Arena.<\/p>\n

With a handful of first- or second-year prospects, including forward Linus Karlsson<\/a>, who scored the tying goal in the third period a few hours after signing a two-year, one-way extension with the Canucks, there is a lot of learning on the fly in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there is,\u201d Willander said after his 30th\u00a0NHL game. \u201cBut I think, like, I feel a lot more comfortable now and I’m making a lot less mistakes than I did in the beginning. At the same time, you know, I always try to look at the mistakes and learn from them. You always try to cut them down but, especially at this level, there\u2019s so many good players, it’s so hard to not make any mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s important to be critical of your game. If you’re not, I think it’s hard to get better. But there\u2019s different mistakes, too. Sometimes, there\u2019s just something new on this level. . . and it\u2019s like a new thing. I feel like that’s a lot easier to handle. But then there’s also, I think, those mistakes that you know you really get pissed off about because you know you shouldn’t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willander said he couldn\u2019t remember all the details of his 138-second shift that preceded Fleury\u2019s goal at 17:34 of the first, but admitted there was a \u201cseries of bad plays\u201d on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got caught out there for a long shift, and those are always tough,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t remember the whole shift. . . but it gets harder the longer you’re out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 11th-overall pick from the 2023 draft picked up the second assist on Kiefer Sherwood\u2019s power-play rebound goal that cut a 2-0 deficit in half at 13:06 of the second period. Willander has 12 points in his 30 NHL games. Operating at the top of the first-unit power play is something he said he didn\u2019t even do much during his two years at Boston University.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get thrown on the first power-play unit, you get a little nervous,\u201d veteran Jake DeBrusk<\/a> said after breaking out of a personal slump with a three-point night. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of responsibility. But he\u2019s got a good head on his shoulders, and he’s a confident guy. But there’s always going to be trials and errors. We have trials and errors as veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeBrusk\u2019s second goal in 18 games nudged the Canucks within one, down 3-2, with 37.8 seconds remaining in the second period. DeBrusk charged to the net and got his stick in front of Kraken penalty killer Ryan Winterton\u2019s stick just in time to direct in Brock Boeser\u2019s hard centring pass 10 seconds after Elias Pettersson won a faceoff to start the power play.<\/p>\n

The man-advantage unit also produced Vancouver\u2019s first goal as Sherwood jammed a rebound through goalie Joey Daccord, who couldn\u2019t control DeBrusk\u2019s deflected shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karlsson, who was around the Seattle net all game, coolly made it 3-3 at 6:15 of the final period by gathering the rebound from Filip Hronek\u2019s shot and sliding a backhand between Daccord\u2019s pads for the rookie\u2019s 10th\u00a0goal, tied for second on the Canucks behind only Sherwood, who has 17.<\/p>\n

Karlsson and Willander are part of a large group of younger players who have pushed their way into the Canucks\u2019 lineup this season.<\/p>\n

Another of them, second-year centre Max Sasson, was easily beaten to the front of the Canucks\u2019 net by Ben Meyers on the Kraken\u2019s third goal, at 18:13 of the second period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always fun to play power play,\u201d Willander said. \u201cBut I didn’t think too much about it. I mean, Zeev was on it earlier and he’s an amazing player. I think he did a great job. So I don’t know exactly, like, the reasoning behind it, but maybe just trying something new. I’m happy about it. It’s always a bonus to get some goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willander said it\u2019s a bonus, too, having others on the team his age (or at least at his experience level) also trying to establish themselves as Canucks. Players like Buium and Karlsson and Sasson, as well as fellow Swedes Elias Pettersson and Liam Ohgren, and centre Aatu Raty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we have a lot of veteran players that I feel are easy to talk to,\u201d Willander said. \u201cMaybe best, in that sense, is Tyler Myers. He’s very easy to talk to, very helpful. I think our coaches do a good job, too, trying to teach us. But I definitely feel there\u2019s a few of us in the same boat, too. It’s kind of good to have, you know, a good crew to talk to. And it’s not only about the hockey, but outside, too. It feels good to have some other people that are in the same boat as you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it\u2019s fun,\u201d Karlsson, 26, said of re-signing halfway through his rookie season. \u201cI love to play here. I\u2019m really excited for two more years in the organization. I\u2019m really excited for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boston Bruins visit Vancouver on Saturday before the Canucks embark on a six-game eastern road trip that starts Tuesday in Buffalo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2013 If you wanted to see the manifestation of what the Vancouver Canucks\u2019 transition-rebuild looks like, rookie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-385567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}