The Stars maintained possession to start the game, but it was the Canucks who got the first opportunity of the game, as the Canucks turn defence into offence. Dakota Joshua wins the puck battle and sends the puck out of the zone, just far enough for Elias Pettersson to turn on the jets and win the race to the loose puck. He sells the defenceman on the pass and fires a shot behind former teammate Casey DeSmith but can’t beat the post.

You can really see Pettersson playing with some confidence early on. He’s skating faster and making those vintage Pettersson crafty plays that Canucks fans are used to seeing – at least he did on this play.

The other Elias Pettersson, the defenceman, looked good early. He made some nice jump-ups in the offensive zone to keep the puck in Dallas’s end. There was one instant where Pettersson stepped up a bit early, which led to a Dallas chance the other way, but he continues to look like he belongs. It’s considerably more impressive that he’s earning top-line time with Filip Hronek.

Nils Höglander clearly got under the skin of the Dallas Stars, more specifically, Jason Robertson. The two forwards exchanged hits and cross checks earlier in the period, and then Höglander laid a hit on Robertson in front of the bench and gave him another cross check in the back. This led to a scuffle in front of the benches, resulting in a Stars power play.

This and a Drew O’Connor tripping penalty takes the Canucks penalty kill to 93.1% (27/29) since the JT Miller trade.

It was a relatively uneventful first period. 0-0 heading into the break.

We had to wait until the start of the second period to see the first dangerous scoring chance, off the stick of Mikael Granlund.

On a broken play, the arrant pass slides to Granlund, who has a wide-open net streaking down the left side. Kevin Lankinen makes a miraculous sliding save to keep the game scoreless.

That scoreless tie would last just five minutes, as Thomas Harley put the Stars on the board.

Pettersson nearly cleared the zone as he dives for the loose puck, but Ilya Lybushkin won that battle and kept the puck in the zone. Harley gets the puck and sends a shot on net with traffic in front. And when you do that, good things tend to happen.

The shot looks to go off of Marcus Pettersson, and the puck is slowly trickling to the goal line, and Lankinen’s effort to stop it actually pushes it into the net.

1-0 Stars.

The Canucks’ only threatening line offensively in the second period was the O’Connor-Filip Chytil-Jonathan Lekkerimäki line. O’Connor had a nice short side shot after gaining speed behind the net. Chytil also had a great chance in front of the net.

This led to Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet to shuffle his lines after the Stars opening goal. Tocchet swapped Pettersson and Teddy Blueger, reconnecting last year’s dominant third line.

And it paid off.

Generating buzz in the offensive zone, Victor Mancini slides it over to Derek Forbort. Forbort sends it low to Conor Garland and, with some nice skating, opens up a lane for him in the slot. Garland performs a nice give-and-go and sends it back to Forbort, who picks the far corner and ties the game.

There were two firsts on this goal. It was Forbort’s first goal and Mancini’s first point as a member of the Vancouver Canucks.

Tied 1-1.

The second period ended with the Canucks needing to kill off a Tyler Myers penalty, bringing their total to 28 of their last 30 penalties killed.

We were well on our way to a 1-1 tie heading into the final break, but Dallas had other plans.

After a faceoff win, the former San Jose Sharks teammates connect on a goal. Cody Ceci takes a wrist shot from the point, which was blockered away by Lankinen and perfectly onto the stick of Granlund, who makes the diving play to give the Stars the lead late in the period.

2-1 Stars.

This was an unfortunate ending to the period for the Canucks, as they looked to be building momentum before the penalty and the goal.

Myers has earned his nickname “Chaos Giraffe” because of all the chaotic defensive plays. But he’s capable of making those chaotic plays well in the offensive zone, too.

Garland covers at the point for Myers and fires the puck toward the net. The pinching Myers grabs the puck in front of the net, and nobody can seem to track the puck with eight skaters in front trying to get a stick on the puck.

As we mentioned above, Höglander seemed to be getting under the skin of the Stars players. That continued as he drew a penalty early in the third period.

However, the Canucks had nothing to show for it as both units struggled to get set up in the offensive zone to generate any offence. They mustered up just two shots, one of which was a weak floater from the point from Myers.

And a few minutes later, Dallas’s star players stepped up for an insurance marker.

Dakota Joshua gets the puck stripped off of him heading into the offensive zone, and the Stars are sprung on a 3-on-2 the other way. The Canucks don’t do a great job on the backcheck, as Matt Duchene is left alone with all the time in the world to wait for Jason Robertson to get in prime positioning for a tap-in goal to extend the Stars’ lead.

3-1 Stars.

The Canucks came close to pulling within one.

The reunited Joshua-Blueger-Garland line was back to their usual tricks, with Blueger making a terrific stretch pass to Joshua on the far side.

Rookie defenceman Elias Pettersson nearly pulls the Canucks back into the fight with this snipe that hits where the post meets the crossbar – this would have been his first NHL goal.

And Höglander was the only one to actually beat DeSmith. However, he uses his hand to punch the puck in the net in an attempt to bat it out of mid-air. The goal was disallowed.

Despite all of the Canucks late efforts, it was the Stars who got were able to put the game away with a Mikko Rantanen empty net goal for his second in as many games with his new team.

4-1 Stars Final.

This snaps Vancouver’s two-game win streak and extends my article record to 0-9.

Takeaways

– Where were the Canucks’ top players tonight? After two strong games, Elias Pettersson finished as the only Canuck with a minus-3 rating, did not register a shot on goal (he hit a post early on). Brock Boeser was a minus-2 with just one shot on goal on one shot attempt. Jake DeBrusk was also a minus-2 and had two shots on his two attempts. None of their three highest-paid forwards were anywhere to be found in tonight’s game.

– Really noticed Lekkerimäki’s board play has gotten much improved. Despite the smaller frame, he was strong on his stick and made the right play to get the puck to his teammates. It seems like that’s something he’s focused on during his last stint in Abbotsford, and that’s translated to his play in Vancouver.

What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?