Canucks Takeaways: Road trip ends with renewed identity, intensity

Even without their best forward and, latterly, their second-best defenceman, the Vancouver Canucks found their identity on the six-game road trip that ended with nine out of 12 points and a 3-2 overtime loss Tuesday to the Minnesota Wild.

Now, they need to pack it home with them and remember who they are when they play nine of their next 11 games at Rogers Arena.

Against easily the strongest opponent they faced on their 4-1-1 odyssey that started without top centre J.T. Miller and ended without key defenceman Filip Hronek, the Canucks played their best game of the trip.

They outshot the 17-4-4 Wild 23-13 over the final 40 minutes of regulation. And Vancouver’s third period was probably its best of the road trip despite Jake Middleton tying the game 2-2 for Minnesota at 1:43 of the third period after teammate Joel Eriksson Ek upended Canuck Jake DeBrusk in front of Kevin Lankinen, disrupting the goalie.

The Canucks played fast, direct hockey, extended offensive-zone shifts with their forecheck, maintained tight gaps in the neutral zone and transitioned quickly when they forced the Wild into turnovers. They were strong in front of both nets.

“Great game,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Guys played really hard tonight. It's a helluva road trip. Guys should feel good about themselves. Everybody was scrappy tonight.

“We just played a solid, solid game. I mean, the guys are doing a good job blocking out noise, and we're just. . . moving along every game. I like the attitude.”

Quinn Hughes and DeBrusk, with his eighth goal of the trip, scored for Vancouver. 

But Minnesota won it at 4:36 of overtime when Kirill Kaprizov buried Marco Rossi’s pass on a two-on-one after Brock Boeser hit the post on a Vancouver breakaway.

There were outstanding saves in overtime by both Lankinen and the Wild’s Filip Gustavsson.

This game, and the Canucks’ 4-3 win in Ottawa that opened the road trip 10 days earlier, are the closest the team has looked this season to last year’s 109-point team. Vancouver is 10-2-1 on the road this season. And Lankinen, after Tuesday’s loser point, is now only close to perfect at 10-0-1 away from home.

The challenge for the Canucks is to be the same team at home, where they have won only three of 11 games and struggled mightily to execute with the efficiency and intensity they displayed on Tuesday.

They open a six-game homestand Friday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

FOR FIL, THRILL IS GONE

The Canucks released a statement before the game from general manager Patrik Allvin announcing that Hronek will miss approximately eight weeks after undergoing a successful “procedure” for a lower-body injury, but will not require surgery on his upper-body injury. 

The 23-minute, top-pairing defenceman appeared to suffer a right shoulder injury when he was knocked backwards into the boards by Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Jack St. Ivany in the final minute of Wednesday’s 5-4 Canucks loss.

Shoulder surgery had the potential to end Hronek’s season, but eight weeks is still a long time for the Canucks to tread water. Allvin and his hockey-operations team have been exploring the market for another NHL defenceman, preferably a puck-mover who can play on the second pair, since the season began. Clarity about the duration of Hronek’s absence could intensify the search for help.

But the longer the Canucks can wait to make a trade and accrue salary-cap space, the higher the quality (and salary) the acquisition is likely to be. 

In this context, two of the most positive developments of the road trip was Tyler Myers’ fairly seamless shift to the top pairing alongside Hughes, and the return to form of defenceman Carson Soucy on a new second pairing with Noah Juulsen.

At five-on-five, the Canucks outscored opponents 5-2 on the road trip with Soucy on the ice, and the six-foot-five blue-liner posted expected-goals of 58 per cent or higher in four of the six games, according to naturalstattrick.com.

On Tuesday, the Canucks outshot the Wild 10-8 at full strength with Soucy and Juulsen, who posted expected-goals-for of 71 per cent.

QUOTEBOOK

Via The Athletic’s Michael Russo, Wild defenceman Jake Middleton: “Both of the teams were kind of ass----- out there, but it was good. Like that was a fun hockey game. Xcel Energy (Center) rockin’ on a Tuesday night. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I know we did.”

THE NON-CALL

Under this heading could be a description of Myers’ cross-check on Eriksson Ek that outraged the Wild and their fans in the third period of a tied game. But we’re going to highlight the stunning non-call in overtime when Kaprizov, the huge Minnesota and NHL star, clearly chopped down Conor Garland after the Canuck blocked his shot and was headed the other way on a likely three-on-one rush.

“Oh, my goodness,” was Sportsnet analyst Dave Tomlinson’s revealing observation as play continued.

We’re not comparing the non-calls or the obviousness of the infractions (Kaprizov’s was worse), but use them to illustrate there is rarely an NHL game completed without each team feeling aggrieved at some point.

That said, dismissing the overtime non-call with a shrug, as if officiating mistakes in the NHL are acts of nature and nobody can stop the rain from failing, does not compel the system to get better.

Not only did the Canucks not get a four-on-three power play against the third-worst home penalty-killing in the league, but Kaprizov went on to score the winner. Since the NHL is in the dark ages when it comes to media access and officiating accountability — and don’t even get us started on reporting injuries — there is no mechanism to allow a “pool” reporter to put a question to referees in order to seek clarification on their decisions. So we have no idea what Kelly Sutherland was thinking as he stared, unmoved, at the Kaprizov-Garland incident from about 15 feet away.

Maybe he thought Garland fell easily as his legs were chopped from under him. Maybe he thought power plays were already 3-1 for the Canucks. Maybe he thought he and partner T.J. Luxmore missed the third-period call on Myers. Maybe Sutherland simply didn’t want to penalize Kaprizov, the league’s leading scorer, for a second time in the same game since the first penalty, 46 seconds into the second period, was one of those ticky-tacky stick-on-hands calls in the neutral zone.

Sutherland is indisputably one of the best referees in the NHL, even if some infamous decisions have gone against the Canucks when he works games involving his hometown team. The veteran referee has been selected to officiate 10 Stanley Cup Finals. Maybe he gets an 11^th final next spring, maybe he doesn’t.

But his non-call did not “cost” the Canucks the game. They lost because Boeser hit the post on a breakaway, leading to a two-on-one the other way that the Wild perfectly executed against Hughes.