Welcome to Instant Reaction, the series here at CanucksArmy where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Vancouver Canucks game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below!
Here was the lineup for tonight’s game:
Jordan Eberle opened the scoring just under five minutes in.
Nate Smith took a penalty while forechecking to give the Kraken an early power play. Derek Forbort got to show off his penalty killing acumen as he disrupted the Seattle man advantage on multiple occasions, especially with how much Seattle tried to work the puck down low.
The Canucks got a power play of their own in the moments immediately following the Seattle power play, as Arshdeep Bains drew a high-sticking call.
The Canucks’ first power play unit featured Arshdeep Bains at the net front with Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek roaming the blue line. Brock Boeser roamed the right side wall while Jake DeBrusk got a look in the bumper spot. The first power play looked like a true feeling out process, as they didn’t generate very much and ultimately didn’t convert.
A very good sign early on was Kirill Kudryavtsev and Sawyer Mynio not looking out of place against what was essentially an NHL lineup. Mynio had a nice play at the line in the opening frame and a solid backcheck to cleanly disrupt a Jordan Eberle breakaway attempt. Kudryavtsev handled the Seattle forecheck well on more than one occasion, and even joined the rush a few times. Both nice signs for a young defenceman.
Brandon Montour scored in the dying minutes of the first, and it was another long deflected shot through traffic that beat Kevin Lankinen.
The second period started much better for the Canucks, as they got a couple of solid early shots off on Joey Daccord. But that was about as good as it got for the Canucks, as a bad turnover in the neutral zone followed by some horrendous puck watching quickly made it 3-0 Seattle.
After this, we saw Rick Tocchet send a pretty clear message to his veteran players by skipping some shifts and shaking up some lines. This was another game where the Canucks’ top players just kind of seemed like they didn’t really care to put in a full effort. You can only say “It’s just preseason” for so long, if you ask me.
One player whose effort you NEVER have to question? Tyler Myers. And that’s who got the Canucks on the board first tonight with a beauty wraparound goal:
The pace started to pick up for the Canucks after this, as Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk got Brock Boeser on their line. They started to build some momentum, and almost as soon as they did, the second period came to an end.
Kevin Lankinen started to look more comfortable as the game went along, and his rebound control improved throughout the night. Another player who seemed more comfortable as the night went on was Sammy Blais, who started to get in on the forecheck and wreak some havoc. Blais wreaked a bit too much havoc, however, and took a penalty for a hit on Brandon Montour.
The Canucks managed to kill off the ensuing penalty, but time was running out on them to muster up a comeback.
Some takeaways from tonight:
-Pius Suter wasn’t very good in the faceoff dot tonight. With Aatu Räty showing so well in that department during his two preseason games, it will be interesting to see if the Canucks feel comfortable with Suter at third-line centre or if they’ll consider putting Teddy Blueger in that spot with Räty on the fourth line and Suter playing the wing.
-I get that Seattle had a more veteran-heavy lineup than the Canucks did tonight, but holy smokes it would have been nice to see the Canucks veterans play like veterans for more than one or two shifts.
-The Canucks were just a second late all night long. Late on the forecheck, late to their defensive assignments. It was just not a good game for them.
-I liked what I saw from the young guys tonight. They were hustling and there were some undeniably promising signs among the young guns tonight.
-A solid start to Kevin Lankinen’s Canucks tenure. It feels like it’s only up for him from here.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?
