VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks were without Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes on Saturday afternoon, compounding the absence of Filip Hronek, and it still shouldn’t have mattered against the Seattle Kraken.
For 55 minutes it didn’t. The Canucks built an early lead, and looked to be cruising with only some fortunate Kraken bounces — including a Matty Beniers goal that Thatcher Demko would want back — creating any sense of real suspense.
It was a boring game, in a good way for Vancouver, until suddenly it wasn’t. Sometimes that’s the magic of hockey.
A bounce off of Noah Juulsen’s posterior started the pebbles rolling, as a 4-1 Vancouver lead was halved. By the time Carson Soucy flubbed a clearing attempt to Vince Dunn right in front of Demko, leading to a 4-3 goal, it began to feel like an avalanche. When Jaden Schwartz took an absolute can opener in the final minute to Vancouver’s defensive structure and levelled the score late, it felt like something of a bad dream for a Canucks side that had performed pretty remarkably for 55 minutes on Saturday afternoon.
It all serves as a reminder, perhaps, that Vancouver’s margin for error in its diminished state is effectively nil. And when your margin for error is nil, a convincing, one-sided victory can flip in an instant, apparently.
Here are three takeaways from a shocking Canucks loss on Saturday.
In the absence of a trio of star-level performers, it was Brock Boeser that stepped up and provided the offensive spark that the Canucks required on Saturday.
The first goal, a four-on-three power-play marker, was a reminder of just how far Boeser’s game has evolved. It was a grimy, workmanlike goal, as Boeser used a clever bit of hand-eye to bat a skyward rebound into the Kraken net, spotting the Canucks an early lead.
The second, however, was vintage, a reminder of the player that Boeser has always been. As a play broke down, and Soucy had the puck with Kraken’s defensive structure cracked wide, Boeser sniffed out the quiet ice and showed solid discipline by stopping — rather than doing the simpler thing and charging the net.
It was a goal-scorer’s goal, and Boeser made no mistake one-timing Soucy’s lovely feed past Grubauer.
Conor Garland has a trusty move for partial breakaway opportunities, one he’s used previously — with memorable success — against Grubauer, and which helped him secure a key go-ahead tally for his club on Saturday afternoon.
The goal came at a moment in the game where the low event style of the proceedings appeared to be favouring Seattle. A run of Canucks penalties had spotted the Kraken consecutive power-play opportunities, and with the score level following a Matty Beniers goal that squeaked by Thatcher Demko, Vancouver’s overall lack of star power appeared to have an impact.
In that moment, however, as Garland’s interference penalty expired, the Canucks winger found some daylight and streaked in unencumbered on Grubauer. He uncorked a half-slapper, hesitated, and deposited perfectly far-side low:
Corolla Garland goal: pic.twitter.com/PQZeebI6CO
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) December 28, 2024
It’s a move we’ve seen Garland use before. In fact, the goal is nearly a carbon copy of the against-the-grain spoiler that Garland once scored in the first-ever Kraken home game.
It was a timely call back from the Canucks winger, and a crucial one that seemed to wrest control of this contest in his side’s favour on Saturday.
Where do the Canucks go from here?
For most of Saturday afternoon, the Canucks were solid and disciplined and held the fort with their usual tactical nous.
There wasn’t much going on either way, frankly, in terms of scoring chance generation. The Canucks built a lead with some opportunistic finishing and an inspired set of shifts late in the second period, and it seemed like that would be enough. Usually it has been for this Canucks side.
When Jake DeBrusk beat Grubauer off of the rush to make it 4-1, and Dakota Joshua appeared to open the floodgates shortly thereafter (only for the goal to be ruled off because Joshua, apparently, batted the puck into the net with his hand), it felt like the Canucks were going to get away with it once again.
Whatever this team generates, and they’re generating less than anybody in the sport at five-on-five over the last six weeks, and they generated very few quality opportunities five-on-five again on Saturday, they’ve kept finding ways to win and to keep their head above water.
And then suddenly in a dizzying five-minute stretch on Saturday afternoon, the Canucks stopped getting away with it.
The truth is that Seattle had the puck more often than Vancouver did on Saturday, but mostly performed listlessly despite their edge in possession. The truth is that neither side generated much of anything five-on-five in the contest, and Vancouver’s 4-1 lead was somewhat undeserved given the run of play.
That the game flipped so suddenly is inexplicable, really. A compounding set of errors — from Soucy with a bad fly-by clearing attempt, from Derek Forbort who lost the puck below the goal line at a crucial moment, and from Tyler Myers in overtime — from Canucks defenders effectively let the Kraken back into the game.
Which highlights, perhaps, just how limited this Canucks team is at the moment — especially on the back end. In the absence of their usual top pair, there just isn’t the space for this club to survive a critical error (or two, or three).
Vancouver is in a relatively soft part of their schedule, with games upcoming against the Calgary Flames, the Kraken again and then the Nashville Predators and the Montreal Canadiens before the schedule gets both condensed and difficult for the latter three weeks of January.
With Pettersson and Hughes’ timelines unknown and Hronek out at least another month, the Canucks are going to have to capitalize off of the next four games to have any margin for error in January. Consider Saturday, then, a tremendous missed opportunity in the big picture to get this critical segment of the schedule started off in a promising way.
Consider Saturday a massive let down too, in the small picture.
A holiday kick in the groin for Canucks fans, with some additional salt poured in the wound, given how regularly this club has underwhelmed on home ice this season.
(Photo: Rich Lam / Getty Images)
