The Canucks came back from 3-1 down to the Carolina Hurricanes to force OT, and then promptly lost in the extra frame. A strong third period wasn’t enough to undo the first half of the game, but the Canucks earned a point and will pocket it. If you missed the game, here are your highlights:
Well, Tocc had some things to say about the game.
“The last 10 minutes was great, but before that we have to learn,” he said after the loss. “I don’t think we were ready to play and Carolina was. They believed in what they were doing and beat us to pucks and we had a lot of guys early not moving their feet and not winning battles.
“Then we decided to do the things and made a game of it and take the positives and the point. There was a little bit of body position and playing a team that’s man on man, you can’t watch the puck, you have to find your man. You can’t let people jump by you. That’s why Carolina was all over us in the first period.
“There are lessons to be learned.”
Glass half full: the Canucks are a hard team to keep down, and they’re managing their losses as they incorporate new players and tweak their system. This team is resilient, and they’re trending in the right direction, despite not playing to their full potential yet.
Glass half empty: the Canucks are putting themselves behind the eightball by not starting on time constantly, their powerplay is a shoddy 3 for 21 after the opening night with only 27 shots in that span, and they’re relying on their goaltender too much to bail them out. They’ve been lucky to pick up some of these points early in the year, and certain players need to find their mojo quickly.
“Obviously, I think the first half of the game was a different story than the second half,” newcomer Jake DeBrusk observered. “I really liked our response. You know, you never want to go down against a team like this that plays a certain style. And to kind of claw back, especially late, is always something you can build on. But in saying that, we need to do a better job of putting ourselves in (better) positions.”
“We didn't play that well,” Garland said, calling his own performance “sh--.” “We didn't have a great effort, but I think we converted when we needed to and fought to get a point. But it would have been nice to play a little better and earn two points. I mean, we battled and it's a good fight at the end there. That's what made us successful last year.”
After a few solid games, the Hoglander-Petey-Garland line was shuffled around as the night went on. Tocchet wasn’t happy with them.
“You obviously change a line, you don’t like it, and I didn’t like a couple of things,” added Tocchet. “I didn’t like Hoggy at all and Petey, you know, but I’m not going to pick on that line.”
Definitely not a glowing review of their game.
For those who had a glowing game, that would be Lankinen. The training camp free agent signing has been stellar in all his starts. The Canucks are being propped up by him right now, but that’s also why you sign a guy. Lankinen had a number of huge stops throughout the game to keep the Canucks close. He’s been a stalwart while Demko recovers from injury, and without him it would be interesting to know how the Canucks’ 4-1-3 record would look.
“We played a good team and went toe-to-toe with those guys,” said Lankinen. “Tough one to swallow, but the last 20 minutes we were pretty decent so we’ve got to build on that. They play hard and always a challenge. I try to weather the storm and I’m going to just keep grinding.”
Lastly, the power play. It was an issue last year, and it’s an issue again this year. Is it personnel? Is it coaching? Either way, things have to change as it’s again becoming a narrative with these losses. With how good the first unit looks on paper, it’s just not clicking on the ice.
“We have to make some changes,” suggested Tocchet. “Just not working hard enough and very lackadaisical against a pressure team. You have to make one or two plays and get it to the net. A couple of guys were playing slow.”
The Canucks have a day to right the ship as the Devils are in town on Wedensday night.
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