VANCOUVER — Asked about the opportunity he is getting with the Vancouver Canucks, Jacob Quillan said: “This is everything.”
A scoring star in college, the 24-year-old showed Tuesday night he is willing to do anything to stay in the National Hockey League by delivering the hit of the game and then fighting twice as the Canucks lost 5-4 to the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Arena.
Quillan did fine in his first two NHL fights when challenged by six-foot-five Roger McQueen, then rugged defenceman Travis Mitchell. He can’t build his career on fighting.
But his willingness to stand up for himself — to show his new Canuck teammates he will fight for them — was notable on a night when Vancouver couldn’t survive its penalty killing or Ducks sniper Cutter Gauthier, but literally and figuratively battled their way back into the game against one of the league’s biggest teams.
It was another game in which the rebuilding Canucks, even with their many flaws, were fully engaged, combative and played their opponents even at five-on-five.
Down three goals in the third period, the Canucks surged back with a pair of goals from Jake DeBrusk and generated significant offensive-zone pressure at the end. Jonathan Lekkerimaki just missed on a couple of shot-pass redirects from the high slot as Vancouver attacked six-against-five before losing for the 13th time in 14 games.
Their only win during this spiral came a week ago when the Canucks stunned the Ducks in Anaheim by rallying from a three-goal deficit to win 6-5 in overtime, which probably partly explains the feistiness of the rematch. The teams combined for 84 minutes in penalties and five fights.
“I think it shows we have a lot of fight in here and a lot of heart, like I've been saying,” centre Max Sasson said after his first scrap since he was in junior hockey six years ago. “But you know, I think it was a special-teams game, and we lost that battle. And it's probably why we lost the game.”
Still, he said, “It was cool to see everyone stick up for each other and stick up for themselves.”
The Canucks were two-for-four on their power play but were still thrashed on special teams. The Ducks were three-for-three and, critically, got a shorthanded goal from Leo Carlsson at 2:58 of the second period.
Carlsson beat Canuck goalie Kevin Lankinen cleanly from 35 feet on a two-on-one, shooting short side over the same catching glove that was exposed by Gauthier on all three of his goals, the last of them making it 5-2 at 4:11 of the third period as Lankinen appeared to lose the middle of his net.
In his first start in five games, Lankinen was beaten five times on 22 shots. The veteran goalie has allowed five or more goals in six of his eight starts and has yet to stop 90 per cent of shots in any of his appearances.
Lankinen’s .808 save rate for the season is by the far the worst among the 60 NHL goalies who have played at least four games.
“Everybody wants to contribute more,” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said when asked about Lankinen. “Everybody wants to do better. Yeah, he's competing for us. He's competing. He's not getting the results he wants, he's not getting those timely saves, perhaps. But he's continuing to put the work in daily. He's going over video. . . doing the extra on the ice, so it's not for lack of effort on his part. He's doing the things he needs to to improve his game.”
Over four games and eight days, a lot of Canucks have been doing everything they can to pull the team out of its nosedive.
Acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs last month in a trade for prospect Aatu Raty, Quillan was playing just his second game for the Canucks since his callup Friday from the American Hockey League due to Filip Chytil’s reported shoulder injury.
A former scoring star at Quinnipiac University who was one of college hockey’s most coveted free agents in 2024, Quillan had just one minor penalty in 24 NHL games for the Leafs.
But after taking a reach-in tripping penalty that led to Mikael Granlund’s power-play goal for Anaheim at 4:04 of the first period, the centre from Nova Scotia crushed Ducks defenceman Pavel Mintyukov with a legal check on the end boards, then won his first NHL fight against the towering McQueen.
One period later, Quillan held his own against Mitchell when challenged for clipping skates with Anaheim goalie Laurent Brossoit.
“Show the team I'm there for them,” Quillan explained of his decision to fight. “And, you know, I want to play on this team very badly. Whatever I have to do to stay here, I'm willing to do.
“This (opportunity) is everything for me. I feel like I'm getting a regular shift here so, you know, I want to show up and I want to prove myself every day, every night in the lineup. Yeah, it's huge for me.”
“He's endearing himself to the group, for sure,” Malhotra said. “Just in terms of the way he competes and brings the tenacity that we expect out of him. The fights aside, just his ability to create turnovers on the forecheck. . . he executes on breakouts, he makes plays in small areas. So there's definitely a skill aspect to it as well. But he's doing the things we're asking of him physically and forechecking wise.”
Sasson also fought when challenged by 230-pound Noah Warren for contacting Brossoit in the third period. Canuck Paul Cotter and Duck Sam Colangelo were ejected for engaging in a secondary fight during the same stoppage.
“Yeah, I don't know the guy,” Sasson said of Warren. “He was like, ‘Come on, you’ve got to go with me for that one.’ I was like, you know what, maybe I'll spark some life or something. It was my first career fight, so wasn't planning on it. But you know, it was kind of fun.”
Canuck Jamie Oleksiak, whose shot ticked off DeBrusk to make it 5-4 with 10:26 remaining, also fought Jeff Malott.
“No one's happy with the situation we're in, and we're going to do what we can to rectify that,” Oleksiak said. “I just think we could probably be a little more assertive earlier in the game and not wait until we’re on our heels to have some pushback. But I think, yeah, that was positive overall.”
Has he seen a change in his team the last four games, when the Canucks are suddenly not getting buried at five-on-five?
“It's hard to really be happy with what's happening (in the standings),” Oleksiak said. “You really have to have a short memory, and if we kind of just take it game by game, I think we are making strides. I think we're doing a better job with the shots and sustaining some (offensive) zone time and limiting their chances. We’ve just got to make sure we play a full 60 and, you know, dictate play a little bit more early in the games. I think that would be key.”
ICE CHIPS — Canuck defenceman Tom Willander, whose play had improved significantly the last half-dozen games, was an unexpected scratch after suffering a lower-body injury Tuesday morning. . . Now 1-7 on home ice, the Canucks visit the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday before facing the Oilers in Edmonton on Saturday.
