2 weeks Ago
It’s funny how quickly a period can flip sometimes. The first several minutes of the Canucks’ game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night were relatively low-event. Sure, Pittsburgh was up 1-0 after Blake Lizotte deposited a fortunate carom off the end boards, but the actual pace and flow of the game were choppy and sluggish on both sides.
Neither team could string passes together in transition, speed through the neutral zone or extend offensive zone possessions. About eight minutes in, Lizotte’s goal was the only high-danger chance recorded between both teams. Advertisement If the start was any sign of what was to come, we were about to witness a sleepy game, especially with the Canucks on the second leg of a back-to-back.
Boy, did that tepid tempo change in a hurry. Aatu Räty scored an equalizing goal after a physical, buzz saw-like shift, but after that, Vancouver repeatedly shot itself in the foot. It was an ugly combination of shoddy defensive zone coverage, poor goaltending and an undisciplined penalty, all of which gift-wrapped the Penguins a 4-1 lead when the horn sounded at the end of the first period.
Then when it seemed like the game was out of reach, the Canucks battled back and nearly completed a comeback. Here are three takeaways from Vancouver’s eventful 5-4 loss. Arturs Šilovs’ nightmare season continues Thank goodness Thatcher Demko looks close to returning, because Šilovs can’t be trusted to play NHL games with his current form.
The 23-year-old Latvian, who entered the game with an ugly .857 save percentage, surrendered five goals on 23 shots. He’s lost five of his six starts this season.
He appeared to be stabilizing recently — he stopped 28 of 29 shots against the Blackhawks and was competent against the Rangers on Nov. 19 — but it all fell apart again at PPG Paints Arena. On Pittsburgh’s first goal, Šilovs was too aggressive moving to his right tracking Ryan Shea ’s point shot.
He lost his net as the puck bounced off the end boards and out to the other side, where Lizotte was ready to backhand it in. Blake Lizzote plays the carom off the boards perfectly to put the puck past Arturs Silovs, and the Penguins lead 1-0. #Canucks #LetsGoPens 🎥: Sportsnet | NHL pic.
twitter.com/PNXdwChcNM — CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 28, 2024 Šilovs left a juicy rebound right in front when Evgeni Malkin directed a puck toward his pads on the power play. Kevin Hayes pounced on it for the Penguins’ third goal.
Penguins score again, Kevin Hayes gets an open look at the rebound on the power play, 3-1 Pittsburgh. #Canucks #LetsGoPens 🎥: Sportsnet | NHL pic.twitter.
com/8JUuFvWykk — CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 28, 2024 Then Bryan Rust cleanly beat him off the rush with a shot from distance around the top of the faceoff circles. Bryan Rust beats Silovs cleanly off the rush, 5-1 PIT. #Canucks #LetsGoPens 🎥: Sportsnet | NHL pic.
twitter.com/R9cgB4uu0A — CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) November 28, 2024 To be clear, the loss isn’t entirely on Šilovs because the team in front of him was disorganized, too. Noah Juulsen should have swatted the rebound before Hayes had a chance to get on it.
Carson Soucy got caught chasing a puck carrier near the blue line and neither he nor Juulsen recovered in time to take away a backdoor pass to Rickard Rakell on the Penguins’ second goal. Rust’s 4-1 goal was off a clean two-on-one rush. The Erik Brännström-Tyler Myers pair noticeably struggled too.
Advertisement Pittsburgh had a commanding 8-3 edge in five-on-five high-danger chances during this game, so clearly, the Canucks were outplayed. But your goalie has to make a save at some point, and Šilovs hasn’t proved he can bail them out often enough this season. Blown power-play opportunity stymies comeback attempt The Penguins have been notorious chokers this season.
They blow multi-goal leads like the most hopeless version of the Bruce Boudreau-era Canucks. Their blue line can’t defend. Their forwards are slow and don’t track back quickly enough.
They’re vulnerable in goal, where Tristan Jarry is trying to re-establish himself after an AHL stint. It’s a fragile group that often folds at the first sight of adversity. They almost did it again against Vancouver.
Down 5-1, the Canucks slowly but surely began chipping away. Conor Garland ’s line was buzzing in the latter half of the second period, with Pius Suter scoring his seventh goal of the season to tie for the team lead. Less than a minute into the third, Quinn Hughes scored off a glorious end-to-end rush.
Vancouver was handed its first power-play opportunity of the night a minute later, with a chance to pull the game within one and tons of time on the clock to chase an equalizer. The Canucks not only failed to convert on the man advantage, they didn’t even look threatening. They couldn’t get set up, and Lizotte, in fact, nearly scored on a breakaway after Brock Boeser ’s pass back to Elias Pettersson at the point didn’t work.
Look, the Canucks didn’t deserve to win this one anyway. But there are plenty of times over an 82-game season where top teams will steal a game they barely showed up for. Vancouver missed its opportunity to do that against a vulnerable Penguins side with that lifeless power play attempt.
Why so many flat offensive starts this season? Heading into this game, the Canucks ranked 14th in the league with 3.15 goals scored per game. That doesn’t sound too bad on the surface, but the process hasn’t looked very convincing.
Advertisement Vancouver ranks 19th in the NHL for generating five-on-five shots and 24th with 2.32 expected goals per hour. Calgary and Minnesota are the only teams in a playoff spot by points percentage that rank below the Canucks in that category.
Keep in mind, too, that the Canucks have had a soft schedule littered with bottom-feeders through the first quarter of the season. This is when they should be feasting. Yes, the Canucks eventually scored four against the Penguins, but they struggled mightily to manufacture any sustained offence leading to the initial 5-1 deficit.
Score effects had a major impact on the pushback. And even then, Vancouver mustered just three high-danger chances offensively during the entire game against one of the worst defensive teams in the league. A big part of the Canucks’ mediocre offensive profile this season comes down to the performance and availability of their top forwards.
J.T. Miller wasn’t performing at last year’s elite level and has since taken a leave of absence.
Boeser missed seven games with a concussion. Pettersson is well below a point per game. But even when those big guns were firing on all cylinders last season, the Canucks’ ability to generate shots and scoring chances was underwhelming, so this is a lingering concern.
I suspect the bottom-four blue line is a significant bottleneck, but the club’s middling offensive profile is a key trend to keep an eye on. (Photo of Arturs Šilovs: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images).
