Garland, Lankinen leading Canucks through rough waters

You never turn down a life raft. But you’d never have guessed before the season that the co-captains of the Vancouver Canucks’ life rafts would be goalie Kevin Lankinen and winger Conor Garland.

With far more injuries and adversity in the first quarter of this National Hockey League season than the Canucks navigated all of last year, the team would be hopelessly adrift without Lankinen and Garland — the free-agent goalie added after training camp began, and the play-driving winger who has been far more than just a solid, complementary piece.

In Vancouver’s first game without top-pair defenceman Filip Hronek, captain Quinn Hughes was again the best player on the ice Friday afternoon in Buffalo. But Vancouver doesn’t beat the Sabres 4-3 in overtime without Lankinen and Garland.

Lankinen stopped 31 of 34 shots, and made his best save in overtime when he stuffed Tage Thompson alone in front of the net (and Bowen Byram on the rebound) the shift before Garland won it at 3:59 with his second goal of the game, set up beautifully by Hughes.

The Canucks built, then blew, a 3-1 third-period lead. But it’s hard to be too critical when Alex Tuch’s tying goal with 5:03 remaining in regulation was a double-deflection that doinked in off his head.

Unchecked in the low slot, with time and space to make a move on Lankinen, Thompson was denied the game-winner about 35 seconds before Garland, crouching to make himself almost invisible at the far post, stopped Hughes’ deflected pass, then pulled the puck back between his legs and into the net behind Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

Garland’s tap-in, power-play goal, from Brock Boeser’s pass on another back-post play, had broken a 1-1 tie at 5:15 of the third period. And the smallest Canuck made possible Pius Suter’s breakaway goal in the third period by stacking his pads like Kirk McLean from the 1990s to block Thompson’s point shot and send Suter on his way.

Even before Hronek injured his shoulder in the final minute of Wednesday’s 5-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Canucks were missing top forward J.T. Miller for personal reasons. Star goalie Thatcher Demko (knee) has yet to play this season, Brock Boeser (concussion) just missed seven games, key supporting forward Dakota Joshua sat out the first five weeks while recovering from cancer, and $92.8-million centre Elias Pettersson was largely invisible in October.

Into this void dashed Garland, who averaged 48 points during his first three Canucks seasons but now leads the forwards with eight goals and 21 points in 22 games. Lankinen is now 10-3-2 with a .909 save percentage and two shutouts. The goalie is 9-0 on the road.

The Canucks are 3-1 on their six-game trip and 9-2 on the road this season as they head to Detroit for a lunchtime game on Sunday.

FLYING WITHOUT FIL

In his first game without Hronek as his defence partner, Hughes was spectacular. Which is about how you would expect him to be, with or without Hronek.

The Canucks will miss their No. 2 defenceman, who averages 23:36 of ice time, plays in all situations, has an expected-goals-for mark of 58 per cent, and leads the team with a 25-11 scoring differential at five-on-five. Every team in the NHL would miss a player like Hronek.

But fears that Hughes could be a significantly lesser player without his favourite blue-line partner are misguided. Although Hughes’ xGF is about the same with or without Hronek, the Norris Trophy winner actually controls a greater share of five-on-five shot attempts (66 per cent, versus 60 per cent) playing with other defencemen. And all of the other Canucks blue-liners' shot shares soar when paired with Hughes, who has proven he can play with and elevate anyone while remaining world-class.

In Buffalo, Hughes was paired with Tyler Myers and had a shots-for percentage of 59.5 and expected-goals of 64.8 per cent. In a game when the Canucks were outshot 23-16 at five-on-five, shots were 11-8 for Vancouver when Hughes was on the ice.

Yes, the Canucks will miss Hronek, whose undisclosed injury brought Vincent Desharnais back into the lineup. But they’re not going to miss Hughes when Hronek is out.

In his first game since Nov. 14, Desharnais was reunited with Erik Brannstrom on the third pairing. Carson Soucy and Noah Juulsen were the second duo.

BETTER BROCK

Three games since his return from a concussion, Boeser is back where he belongs on the Canucks’ top line.

After playing this week in Boston and Pittsburgh on the third line with centre Teddy Blueger, Boeser actually began Friday’s game alongside Aatu Raty on the fourth unit before he was elevated in the second period to a line with Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk.

Boeser, who looked a step behind in the first two games, played his best of the three in Buffalo, setting up the first two Vancouver goals. Without Miller and their one-two punch at centre in the top six, it seems like a good idea for the Canucks to attach Boeser to Pettersson and try to ride the top line. Garland can continue to drive the second line with Suter and Joshua, who eight games into his return from testicular cancer is starting to look like the impact player he was last season.

SCORING BY COMMITTEE

Through 22 games last year, Boeser already had 15 goals and Miller (33 points), Hughes (33) and Pettersson (29) were all top-eight in NHL scoring. By contrast this season, Hughes (25 points in 22 games) is the only Canucks player with at least a point per game, and Suter and Garland co-lead the team in goals with eight.

But Pettersson and DeBrusk have seven goals, and three other players have six. Hughes has five goals. The Canucks are on pace to have seven forwards score 20-something goals. That may not make them as exciting this season, but it could eventually make them harder to shut down.

QUOTEBOOK

Conor Garland to reporters in Buffalo: “We're missing guys, it seems, every game. So we're just fighting right now, and we've got some guys playing some really good hockey for us. We're just a pack mentality right now. A lot of teams go through it, and we're going through it right now. We've just got to fight each and every game. We know how we've got to win in this league.”