VANCOUVER – Anyone who bet the Vancouver Canucks to be 2-2 — four games in six nights, three of them against projected Stanley Cup contenders — would have made money on the over.
The Canucks have looked overmatched at times, but not overwhelmed. And they’ve found ways to dig in and compete, like they did Sunday when they were pressing for a tying goal at the end but lost 3-2 to the formidable Vegas Golden Knights after being outshot 26-11 through two periods.
The game at Rogers Arena started less than 24 hours after the Canucks powered through a difficult first half and pulled away from the Calgary Flames for a 4-1 win.
Considering the Canucks were by far the worst team in the National Hockey League last season, you might think going 2-2 in a difficult opening week would have Vancouver players feeling pretty good. But Sunday, they weren’t.
“I think you nailed it,” centre Max Sasson said. “I think from the outside, yeah, people are probably saying that. But in here, as I've said, there's a lot of belief. We think we're a good NHL hockey team that isn't an easy out by any means. And obviously, our schedule, we're playing the best teams in the league. I think this was a very winnable game. You know, if we have probably a better start, don't take too many of these penalties, I think we're going to give ourselves a chance to win every night.”
“For us, it's not really about what anyone expects of us,” veteran winger Drew O’Connor said. “We go into every game and we want to win, and that's our expectation. That's our mentality going into every game. It was a close one tonight and we played hard, but I think our starts, especially, have to be a little bit better to give ourselves a better chance.”
Much more than their systems, coaching and management staff, and roster have changed since last season. So have the Canucks’ standards.
For the first time this season, Vancouver actually led at the first intermission on a power-play goal from Paul Cotter, the former New Jersey Devils’ fourth-liner who scored his fourth goal in four games for the Canucks on a redirect from Filip Hronek at 18:28.
Fed momentum by early Canuck penalties to Jamie Oleksiak and Aatu Raty, Vegas outshot Vancouver 12-6 in the first period, then 14-5 in the second as Brendan Gallagher and Tom Willander took more penalties for the home team.
And yet, the Canucks were still even at 2-2 after rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki snatched a tying goal at 17:54 of the middle frame, shooting from a sharp angle between Knights goalie Adin Hill’s arm and torso.
But the Canucks gave the goal back on the next shift when a couple of defensive-zone turnovers by Liam Ohgren and puck-watching by defenceman Elias Pettersson (and others) allowed the Knights to generate a fourth-line winning goal by Marc Gatcomb at 18:28.
“Whether you're scored on or you get a goal, that's the opportunity to take control of the game and get momentum back,” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said of the pivotal moment. “So, it’s been talked about, it's been addressed. Just like the start of our game, you have to be ready to go. Much the same right after a goal: you have to be ready to put your best game forward.”
After splitting home-and-away games against the Edmonton Oilers last week, the rebuilding Canucks will see more Stanley Cup contenders on a six-game eastern road trip that starts Thursday against the champion Carolina Hurricanes and ends against other recent winners in the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Malhotra, the rookie head coach, said his team is improving.
“We're definitely seeing progress in different areas of the game,” he told reporters. “I think we addressed it today a little bit better than the first few games, just in terms of our start. (But) obviously, in the first period, if you give a team like that, with that potent a power play, opportunities to touch pucks and feel good about themselves... they drove a lot of the play. But the fact that we stuck with it and came out of the period 1-0 up was a good start for us.”
So was the opening week.
“Well, for a team that everybody in the world has said is going to be last in the league, I'm pretty happy with how we've been doing,” Cotter said. “We have a great group. I’ve said it 10 times, but (we have) a very ego-less group. We have a mix of older, younger guys and guys in between, and a lot of skill. And when you have a room that's that close and willing to get better together, it can take you so far. We've battled.”
After getting Saturday’s game off to rest, and perhaps get some goaltending therapy after the two-game free-for-all against the Oilers ended with an aggregate score of 14-13 for Edmonton, Canucks starter Kevin Lankinen was excellent on Sunday.
A quiet leader, Lankinen made a pile of strong stops among his 25 saves to keep Vancouver close.
Of course, he’s not satisfied with .500, either.
“No, not at all,” he said. “I think we’ve got something good cooking here. Of course, it's not perfect. It's not complete yet. But we're building a new system, building a new culture, and we're showing some glimpses of that. Now we’ve just got to keep showing that every single night — you know, 60 minutes, and sometimes even more than that. We gave them a good push today, but I think we’ve still got better
“We believe in our own structure, we believe in our system. Most of the nights, it's not going to be perfect. But the most important thing is what we have here: the commitment or belief in our own abilities and the system and what we’ve got going on here. I have a really good feeling about this team.”
ICE CHIPS – Winger Jake DeBrusk missed both weekend games due to illness, which brought Raty into the lineup on the fourth line and allowed Cotter to move to the second unit as Malhotra added Marco Rossi to Elias Pettersson’s first line... Pettersson’s assist on Cotter’s goal gave the centre points in all four games so far... Cotter went 8-2 on faceoffs, Sasson led the Canucks with four blocked shots, while Rossi registered five hits... Defenceman Hronek has five points in four games, but Zeev Buium has zero.
HOW THEY LINED UP
Forwards
Rossi-Pettersson-Karlsson
Ohgren-Cotter-Boeser
Bains-Sasson-Lekkerimaki
O’Connor-Raty-Gallagher
Defencemen
Buium-Hronek
Oleksiak-Willander
Pettersson (Jr)-Schenn
Goalie
Lankinen
