Canucks Takeaways: Even in loss, 'Life Line' still pumping energy

The Vancouver Canucks have elevated their standards and everyone’s expectations so dramatically that they can take six of eight points on a difficult four-game road trip while extending their points streak to 6-0-2, and come home feeling like they left something on the table.

The National Hockey League’s first-place team lost 4-3 in overtime Thursday against the excellent Dallas Stars — after the Canucks took the lead late in the third period, lost it just 86 seconds later and then were beaten by Matt Duchene’s overtime breakaway less than 30 seconds after Elias Pettersson was stuffed on a two-on-nothing for Vancouver.

The start of the last paragraph was not an error. With the single point they earned in their fourth game in six days, the Canucks moved past the Vegas Golden Knights on a tie-breaker for first-overall in the standings. On points-percentage, the 22-9-3 Canucks (.691) are tied for third.

With four days until Christmas and seven games until the halfway point of their schedule, the Canucks are on top of the NHL — and you’re not reading the standings upside down. This time last season, Vancouver was 13-15-3.

Thursday’s game was played with the speed and emotion of a playoff game, and it kind of felt like the Canucks had lost one of those when Duchene took Thomas Harley’s pass behind Vancouver defenceman Quinn Hughes and fooled goalie Thatcher Demko with a shot between his skates.

Demko was displeased also with Harley’s tying goal with 3:30 remaining in regulation time when the Star’s shot from the slot went under the goalie’s pad, although it may have ticked the stick of defenceman Ian Cole, whose rim-around after the Canucks won a defensive-zone faceoff was intercepted by Miro Heiskanen.

It was all terrific theatre, even if the highly-tactical overtime was another reminder the league needs to bring in some restrictions for three-on-three, like not allowing teams to retreat from the attacking zone with the puck.

In the first 4 ½ minutes of OT, there was one shot on net. But then Dallas goalie Scott Wedgewood stopped Pettersson, who had taken a return pass from Dakota Joshua on the two-on-zero, and Duchene beat Demko.

The Canucks fly home Friday and play their final pre-Christmas game Saturday against the San Jose Sharks.

THE LIFE LINE

We’re running out of things to say about the Canucks’ third line of Joshua, Conor Garland and Teddy Blueger, but the Life Line again pumped energy into Vancouver and drove the team.

Joshua opened scoring at 2:51 of the first on a beautiful no-look pass from Garland, who profiled shot on a two-on-one but hooked a pass across to his linemate as soon as Dallas’ Heiskanen moved his stick into the shooting lane from the passing lane.

And at 15:04 of the third, amid the team’s best spell of the game, Garland broke a 2-2 tie by sliding to one knee to sweep Joshua’s feed into an open net for one of the prettiest goals the Canucks will score this season. Blueger caused a turnover in the neutral zone, then saucered a diagonal cross-ice pass to Joshua, who drew the goalie to him before dishing to Garland.

Without a goal since Nov. 12 – and only one in 32 games since opening night – Garland celebrated like he scored — on one knee, with a fist pump. It was one of his best games as a Canuck. He had two points and two shots while helping his line dominate its matchups yet again.

Garland finished with two points, two shots, a 9-3 shots advantage when he was on the ice at five-on-five (in a game when total shots were 36-20 for Dallas) and a team-leading expected-goals percentage of 63.5.

In the last nine games, the Life Line has generated nine even-strength goals.

PRIORITIES

For anyone who thinks Andrei Kuzmenko’s healthy scratch is the biggest sub-plot on the Canucks, we disagree. (See first-place NHL, above). But we will offer this: Joshua is an outstanding example of a player who used coach Rick Tocchet’s tough love and his own timeout to re-assess then re-set his game. And Joshua has used every game since then to do everything in his power to ensure the coach doesn’t scratch him again.

It is difficult to find two players on the Canucks more opposed in style than Kuzmenko and Joshua. But much of Tocchet’s present demands on Kuzmenko, the $5.5-million winger who on Thursday sat out a second straight game, were also put to Joshua: more engagement, intensity, consistency. 

Joshua was a healthy scratch on Nov. 2 and, starting with a game against Dallas two nights later, hasn’t been out of the lineup since. He logged a season-high 18:04 of ice time on Thursday, while scoring his eighth goal of the season – two more than Kuzmenko with 114 fewer minutes of power-play time – and registering his second two-point game in a week. He also led the Canucks with five hits, bringing his season total to 101, fifth-most in the league.

Joshua will never score 39 goals in a season like Kuzmenko did last year. But right now, the 27-year-old American is indispensable and headed towards a huge pay increase when he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1 after earning $825,000 this season.

BEST AND WORST

During a 39-minute stretch that began seven minutes into the first period, the Canucks managed only seven shots on Wedgewood. But they outhit the Stars and their level of engagement was evident in their level of celebration when scoring. 

Joshua screamed towards Garland after the opening goal, and Garland looked like the happiest guy on Earth after ending his goal drought in the third. In between, stoic Brock Boeser raised his stick in confident triumph in the second period after skating from the bench and on to J.T. Miller’s pass to the high slot, then lasered his 24^th goal of the season into the top corner.

That said, the Canucks know they need to have more of the puck than they did against the Stars. And their power play, especially, has to be better. The Canucks’ man-advantage unit has been cold for a while. It peaked at 33.3 per cent through 17 games, and in 17 games since has operated at 13 per cent efficiency. But rarely has it looked as inert and disjointed as it did in Dallas, where the Canuck power play was 0-for-3 and did not generate a shot on goal during 4:55 of advantages.

Most games it has looked dangerous. Numerous times recently, it has sustained pressure for the entire two minutes – or most of it – without being able to finish. But not Thursday. It needs a refresh and to get back to the fluid, swirling power play that was almost impossible to defend in the first month of the season.

Even with the power outage, the Canucks are 10-5-2 the last 17 games.

QUOTEBOOK

Canuck coach Rick Tocchet: “We didn’t have a lot of energy, but I thought we grinded it. That’s what’s good about this team; we didn’t have energy but we stuck with it. We had the lead. The tying goal, we kind of made a couple of mistakes and it’s in our net. Then we had a 2-on-0 in overtime. It’s good to be upset. But just keep your head up and we’ll march on.”