Happy New Year Canucks fans! Let’s talk about this game.
The Flames had the better looks early on in this one, but the Canucks had their looks too. All in all, it was a fairly even back-and-forth start to the opening period.
The Canucks’ best chance of the period came as a result of a quick zone exit that led to a rush opportunity for the Kiefer Sherwood line. Crazy what can happen when the defence get the puck out quickly, RIGHT?!
Matt Coronato made a phenomenal play to negate what would have become the Canucks’ best chance of the period when he laid out on the back check to break up a 2-on-1 between JT Miller and Jake DeBrusk.
The Flames opened the scoring with just over five minutes left in the period when Mackenzie Weegar noticed that Jakob Pelletier snuck in behind Noah Juulsen and sent the 23-year-old in on a breakaway. Kevin Lankinen made the first save, but his Juulsen and the other Canucks coming back couldn’t clear the puck out of danger, leaving it for Connor Zary to put home to make it 1-0 Flames.
It’s mental mistakes like that that just cannot happen.
The Flames started the second period with a noticeable amount of giddy up that was absent from the Canucks’ game. After multiple icing penalties, the Soucy-Juulsen pairing was out for three consecutive minutes. Somehow, someway, the Canucks escaped those three minutes unscathed.
Erik Brännström dropped the gloves with Ryan Lomberg after a spirited netfront battle, and almost immediately after that, 6’1 JT Miller did the same with 6’6 Kevin Bahl.
Gotta love some extracurricular activity on New Year’s Eve!
The temperature stayed high, as Noah Juulsen was called for tripping Mikael Backlund as a result of hanging his leg a bit, which drew a reaction from Mackenzie Weegar. Juulsen was given a roughing minor as well, putting the Flames on the power play.
Then Tyler Myers was called for cross-checking and sent to join his teammates in a standing-room-only Canucks penalty box.
The Canucks were down on a 5-on-3 for 55 seconds, but managed to keep the Flames’ power play to just one shot.
Nils Höglander actually had the best chance of the Flames time on the man advantage, as Kiefer Sherwood sprung him on a breakaway.
That’s now 28 games without a goal for Höglander.
The fights didn’t stop there, as Derek Forbort looked to avenge Brännström by dropping the gloves with Lomberg.
This game was getting chippy in a hurry, and still, the Flames led by just one goal.
The Canucks got their first power play of the game with just over three minutes left in the second. The Flames have one of the worst PKs in the league (29th), while the Canucks have an above-average power play (11th). Of course, Quinn Hughes is a big part of those power play numbers…
The Canucks got some decent looks, but ultimately failed to score in the second. This game remained a 1-0 lead for the Flames.
The Canucks got their second power play of the game just over five minutes into the third, and this time, they made good on it. Brock Boeser scored his sixth goal in four games to make it 1-1.
The officials appeared to miss a hook on Tyler Myers in the Canucks’ own end, and shortly after, Nazem Kadri found some open ice and ripped a shot past Kevin Lankinen to make it 2-1 Flames.
The Canucks’ top line of Jake DeBrusk, JT Miller, and Brock Boeser turned in some solid hardworking shifts as the Canucks tried to forge a comeback, but the Flames’ mobile defence did a good job of withstanding the pressure, moving the puck with poise, and preventing the Canucks’ top line from building any real momentum.
With 1:50 left on the clock, the Canucks pulled their goalie down by a goal. Carson Soucy set up Jonathan Huberdeau with a tape-to-tape pass in the neutral zone to seal this one.
3-1 Flames final.
Some more takeaways from tonight’s game:
-Canucks played a pretty solid Hughes-less game. They defended well and followed the game plan of trying to play relatively low-event hockey while getting some solid goaltending from Kevin Lankinen.
-Officials seemed to miss some key calls for both sides tonight.
-Noah Juulsen cannot be asked to play as much as the Canucks are asking him to right now.
-It’s a back-to-back against Seattle and Nashville next, so doesn’t really matter all that much, but I think I’d start Kevin Lankinen next and go to Thatcher Demko at home against the Predators. Let the road warrior cook. Agreed?
-Canucks will enter 2025 outside of the playoff picture. Not ideal.
What’s your instant reaction from tonight’s game?
