This game didn’t get off to a great start for the Canucks.
First, Jonathan Lekkerimäki got laid out in open ice by Kaiden Guhle, then seconds later, Cole Caufield ripped home his 22nd goal of the season to make it 1-0 Canadiens early on. Vincent Desharnais has played much better as of late, but he gave Cole Caufield far too much space on this goal.
Funny enough, the game had very little space to go around after the opening goal. It was tight-checking hockey, and based on how the Habs were playing, it seemed like game one of the playoffs. Montreal was hard on the forecheck and was finishing every hit they could.
JT Miller scored his first goal on a goaltender since October 26th after a great feed from Nils Höglander to make it 1-1.
Miller needed that goal, and Höglander needed that assist. And while he didn’t need it per se, it was nice to see Quinn Hughes get his 35th assist of the season on this goal, too.
Derek Forbort collided with Alex Newhook in the neutral zone, and immediately grabbed at his leg. He was able to put minimal pressure on his left leg as he skated off the ice and walked down the tunnel. He returned later, which was great to see based on how unlucky he’s been this season.
On the next shift, Jonathan Lekkerimäki benefited from a fortunate bounce off the boards, moved in on a partial break, fanned on his shot, and then JT Miller came in to take out the trash to make it 2-1 Canucks.
Clearly feeling bad about himself for fanning on his shot, Lekkerimäki moved back in on his next shift to remind everyone why his shot is his most dangerous weapon.
3-1 Canucks.
Tremendous work from Miller on the breakout pass here, and a smart move by Brock Boeser to help create the odd-man rush. And of course, it was great to see Lekkerimäki trust himself and elect to shoot instead of trying to force a pass to Tyler Myers.
All of a sudden, it was the Canucks protecting a lead.
The Habs chipped away at it after Kaiden Guhle fired a point shot through traffic that appeared to deflect off of Carson Soucy and in.
That’s a tough shift for Soucy. As you’ll see in The Stanchies later tonight, it was Soucy who was caught pinching which created the rush opportunity for Montreal. Then he failed to clear the puck, which led to the Habs hemming the Canucks in their own end in the leadup to the goal. 3-2.
The Canucks got a power play to close out the second period, but were unable to capitalize, meaning they entered the third period protecting a one goal lead.
The third nearly got started with a bang, but instead started with a loud ping as Tyler Myers moved in and rang one off the inside of the post.
Shortly after, Kiefer Sherwood took a slashing penalty to give the Habs their third power play of the night, and it didn’t take long for Kirby Dach to make the Canucks pay.
3-3.
Montreal jumped out to the lead after Lane Hutson threw a puck across the crease that deflected off of Quinn Hughes’ foot and past Kevin Lankinen to make it 4-3 Habs.
Cole Caufield took a silly retaliatory penalty to put the Canucks on another power play, and this one felt like they needed to score on. And that’s exactly what they did. Hughes slid the puck to Miller after a nice keep at the line, and Miller fooled everyone in the building before finding Jake DeBrusk for the tying goal.
4-4.
That’s two goals and two assists for Jonathan Tonathan Miller tonight, who more and more people are referring to as a “great man.”
Kevin Lankinen made perhaps his best save of the night on the next shift, as he slid over to deny Alex Newhook on what would have been another go-ahead goal for Montreal. He held up his end of the bargain tonight.
Nils Höglander took an interference penalty on Lane Hutson that probably shouldn’t have been a penalty. The World Juniors refs looked at this and thought it was a soft call.
The result was the Canucks starting overtime shorthanded.
And it took Nick Suzuki less than a minute to end this one.
5-4 final.
Some more takeaways from tonight:
-Amazon’s cameras caught Quinn Hughes with quite the apparatus on his left hand during warmup. It’s pretty cool to see warmup on the broadcasts rather than Jays in 30 or the 10th rerun of the day of Plays of the Month.
-My Grandpa, who I’ve vowed to watch every Canucks Prime broadcast with so he doesn’t miss a game (he doesn’t have home internet), is not happy about the Prime games, and is even less happy about WWE moving to Netflix. A tough conversation to have with the patriarch of our family given that he was looking for WWE Raw on his TV Guide during the first intermission of tonight’s game.
-A solid bounceback game for JT Miller, and to a lesser extent Brock Boeser. Both players struggled during the Canucks’ 3-0 loss to the Nashville Predators on Friday, and were criticized accordingly. Miller deserves his flowers for tonight, no doubt.
-Kevin Lankinen made some great saves once again, especially in the second period.
-Tyler Myers was feelin’ it tonight.
-Jonathan Lekkerimäki might be The Answer.
-Hughes obviously isn’t playing at 100%, but he’s still so much fun to watch and makes the Canucks a much better team. As long as him playing before having fully recovered doesn’t make the injury worse, I’m more than happy to see him in the lineup.
-Rough night for the DeBrusk-Suter-Garland trio tonight.
-9th career four-point game for JT Miller.
-Concerning to see the Canucks give up another multi-goal lead.
What’s your instant reaction to tonight’s game?
