Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

I Watched This Game: Canucks fall flat versus visiting Vegas

Canucks 2, Knights 5
I Watched This Game - IWTG Banner

When I was a kid, my dad was my baseball coach. The first year that we were allowed to steal bases, he had us stealing second base on the first pitch. We stole third base on the second pitch, every time. It didn’t matter how we got on first base: two pitches later, we were on third base.

Opposing coaches began complaining, but my dad had a simple answer: if you don’t want us stealing bases, stop us.

They couldn’t. We were just little kids and the catchers couldn’t throw out even our slowest base runners. The following season, they literally changed the rules for that age group to disallow stealing bases.

That’s the way the Vegas Golden Knights play hockey: fast and aggressive, giving opposing players no time to think. It’s probably the best possible strategy for a team that lacks high-end skill. A good puck-moving team will pick you apart if you play that way against them, just like a catcher with a good arm will wreck you if you try to steal on every pitch, but there are a lot of teams in the NHL that can’t play fast enough to take advantage of the holes that such an aggressive strategy creates.

The Canucks were a nine-year-old catcher when I watched this game.

  • What a dreadful game. The Canucks barely got any shots on goal, managing just 21, which is great in blackjack, but pretty lacklustre outside of the casino. It’s particularly troubling that they only got 11 shots after the first period, when they were down by two goals and needed to mount a comeback. As much as this game bore a superficial similarity to the one in Los Angeles, the Canucks played significantly worse and deserved the result they got.
  • When you’re facing a fourth-string goaltender is not the time to get shy about shooting the puck. Of course, the bigger issue was everything leading up to the shooting part: the Canucks struggled to get the puck out of their own zone, struggled to move the puck through the neutral zone, and struggled to gain the offensive zone. Just like first world problems, the struggle was real.
  • This was the rush leading to the Knights’ first goal. Everything looks more hunky-dory than a handsome, gender-swapped Pixar protagonist:

Canucks Knights rush 1

  • This was the rush a moment later as David Perron shot the puck:

Canucks Knights rush 2

  • A 3-on-3 rapidly turned into a wide open shot from between the hashmarks, all because Daniel Sedin followed James Neal instead of switching to David Perron as the two Knights’ crossed paths. It was actually a perfect opportunity for a massive open-ice hit, but Daniel Sedin is Daniel Sedin, so, like a Threeve of Clarts, that wasn’t in the cards.
  • There were some Canucks fans eager to blame Alex Edler for that first goal, but look at the gap between him and Perron: there’s simply no way to get to him in time. Edler has to assume that Daniel will switch to the puck-carrier, leaving Neal for him to cover as he heads to the net. That breakdown was all Daniel: he was the one going into half-time with a chugging rhythm section. 
  • Edler was definitely at fault on the second goal, however. He and Derrick Pouliot have been very good together the last couple of games and they were still the most effective defence pairing in the offensive zone, but they both made glaring errors in the defensive zone. Pouliot got easily shoved aside when he attempted to check Alex Tuch, giving the Knights winger space to pass to a wide open William Karlsson in front. Like an audience member at a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Edler was puck-watching and did nothing to check Karlsson.
  • Note, however, how Thomas Vanek skates in alongside Karlsson, then leaves him alone in front of the net. There’s some blame to share with Vanek, who does not communicate to Edler that Karlsson is there and is now Edler’s responsibility. Always plenty of blame to go around in a free-flowing game like hockey.
  • Travis Green broke out the Line Blender 3000™ and hit fricassee after the disastrous first period. Brandon Sutter took Bo Horvat’s spot between Sven Baertschi and Brock Boeser. Markus Granlund skated in place of Sutter with Brendan Gaunce and Derek Dorsett. And Horvat took up residence on a line with Thomas Vanek and Sam Gagner. They changed even more as the game progressed, with Granlund moving to the Baertschi/Boser line and even the Sedin line at one point. With nothing working for much of the game, Green just took to button-mashing on the Line Blender 3000.
  • The first round of line-shuffling worked for a bit, producing two goals to tie the game. After Brandon Sutter put on some pressure on the forecheck, the Knights coughed up the puck to Brock Boeser in the slot and he quickly rifled the puck past Maxime Lagace. It was the Canucks’ first shot on goal in nearly eight minutes.
  • Another new-look line got the tying goal when Vanek’s shot attempt was partially blocked, slid slowly in on goal, and was deflected to Horvat in front of the net by Lagace, who had to contend with his own defenceman colliding with him. Brayden McNabb is apparently McNamby-Pamby, as he was unable to out-battle the significantly smaller Gagner as he went to the net, leading to an easy tap-in for Horvat for his team-leading eighth goal of the season.
  • This game had an extra oddity in it, as a fan was hit with a puck with a minute left in the first period. Since she needed medical attention and was taken to the hospital, the referees chose to start the intermission early and play the final minute of the second period after the intermission. The goaltenders came out after the intermission and didn’t switch ends, the teams played a minute of hockey, the buzzer rang out, and the two teams switched ends for the third period. It was weird, but simultaneously the right call.
  • McNabb got his revenge on Gagner in the post-intermission final minute of the second period, laying him out with a massive hit in the neutral zone. It didn’t un-score the goal, though. Unlike Superboy Prime, he can’t hit hard enough to change continuity.
  • Whatever you may think of Erik Gudbranson, he has some legitimate strengths and one of those is literally his strength. But it seems like he’s forgotten how to play to his, well, strengths. On the Knights’ third goal, he should have hit James Neal, taking him out of the play behind the net and taking the puck at his leisure. Instead, he tried to pick the puck up off the wall and out-skate Neal. Unfortunately, the puck didn’t cooperate, ending up in his skates, and Gudbranson fell over and slid into the corner trying to get it back on his stick. Neal passed to Perrom, who fed Erik Haula at the back door for the open net.
  • Jacob Markstrom wasn’t outright terrible in this game, but he also wasn’t particularly good. The Canucks’ skaters needed him to bail them out a couple times in this game and he just wasn’t up to the task. That was particularly the case when Pouliot mishandled the puck and gave Jonathan Marchessault a sudden breakaway; Markstrom should have been able to stop Marchessault’s weak backhand shot, but it slid right underneath him like Chiranjeevi on a horse.
  • Here’s a question: why in god’s name are Brandon Sutter and Derek Dorsett on the ice with the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker? Down 4-2, Sutter hit the ice with Gagner and Vanek for the faceoff and when Markstrom left the ice, Dorsett came on to replace him. Just, why?