SALT LAKE CITY — The Vancouver Canucks were badly outshot, and after taking the lead in the second period, squandered it in the third to drop a regulation result against a divisional opponent.
If that sounds familiar, it probably should. The Canucks’ 2-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Sunday evening felt almost like a carbon copy of what we witnessed against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.
The club was put behind the eight ball by a trio of first-period penalties as the blue line struggled to play disciplined hockey. The Canucks managed to take the lead on a Jake DeBrusk power-play goal. And then ultimately the mass of shots, shot attempts and quality looks the Canucks surrendered to their opponent became overwhelming.
So it was Saturday, and so it was Sunday when Utah stormed back to win in regulation.
The loss breathes real life into a Utah side that — despite trailing Vancouver significantly — looms as one of the biggest threats to Vancouver’s claim to the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. It’s a troubling one, too, given how familiar the script felt and how persistent this club’s primary issues — and especially its inability to consistently threaten offensively — appear to be.
Here are three takeaways from Vancouver’s loss Sunday night in Salt Lake City.
Another undisciplined game from the blue line
After stunting their momentum Saturday night in Las Vegas with a three-penalty first period, the Canucks did it again in Utah.
First Tyler Myers hung a knee on Utah forward Jack McBain and was assessed a two-minute minor for interference. Myers argued the call, but it was a fair penalty, if slightly harsh.
Then Marcus Pettersson was called for holding, a no-brainer penalty, and honestly a good one. Logan Cooley had gotten lost in front of Vancouver’s net, and without Pettersson’s manually obstructing Nick Schmaltz on the half-boards, the Canucks likely would have surrendered the first goal.
Finally, Marcus played the puck with a stick he didn’t appear to realize had broken. The minor penalty for playing the puck with a broken stick isn’t one we see all that often, but that’s par for the course for the Canucks this weekend, who managed to take some creative and improbable penalties across this back-to-back set.
Though Vancouver’s penalty killers bailed out the defence again Sunday night, all the time Vancouver spent short-handed sapped their momentum early on in the game and helped Utah build up a tremendous edge in shots and scoring chances.
Even if the flurry of power-play sequences helped Arturs Šilovs build some confidence in his first NHL start since late November — and Šilovs was solid Sunday night — this isn’t a good recipe for Vancouver.
And in fact, it was a key penalty taken late in the third period (a holding call against Derek Forbort) that resulted in the game-winning Dylan Guenther goal with the man advantage. Forbort’s penalty made it seven consecutive penalties for which Vancouver’s blueliners were directly responsible, and honestly, they could’ve ended the game short-handed, too, if Filip Hronek hadn’t got away with an errant stick with just under two minutes to play.
Though the Canucks’ defensive zone coverage was mostly very good Sunday night, their defence has to find a way to limit the power-play opportunities they’re handing out to the opposition. If this keeps up, it’s going to undermine the good structural defensive work this team is putting in at the moment.
Filip Chytil once again excelled in driving the puck up the ice against Utah. (Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)
The good and the bad of Filip Chytil
Across Vancouver’s two games on this trip so far, Filip Chytil has been the Canucks’ most impressive and most maddening individual contributor.
Chytil’s speed and ability to drive through the neutral zone are the clear strength of his game, and his transitional dynamism has brought something the Vancouver lineup has sorely missed throughout this season. As a puck carrier, Chytil has already become — by far — the most impactful forward the Canucks have going from a driving perspective.
On this trip, however, Chytil has struggled somewhat to convert his collection of thrilling rush opportunities into productive scoring chances. When he’s skated himself into shooting situations, he’s often missed the net, sometimes by a wide margin. When he’s attempted to make plays as a passer with speed, he’s been just off from really connecting on a dangerous scoring chance.
Defensively, meanwhile, it’s clear Chytil has immediately earned Rick Tocchet’s trust. He was Vancouver’s preferred option Sunday night, for example, to match up against the Clayton Keller line. It wasn’t a matchup Vancouver won, territorially speaking, but given how heavily the ice was slanted in Utah’s favour throughout the evening, it wasn’t as if it was this matchup that proved to be Vancouver’s problem.
In a couple of key moments, however, some of his coverage was lacking. He was slow off of a key second-period draw to release to Cooley. Cooley got loose and was able to deflect a John Marino shot past Šilovs to level the score at 1.
Generally speaking, Chytil’s added a lot to the Vancouver lineup since arriving. His speed and size have been welcome, and he’s driving play offensively while earning Tocchet’s trust in his own end of the rink. There’s another level for him to get to, however: one that involves making better shot-selection decisions and slightly better defensive reads.
Victor Mancini makes his debut
The Canucks tweaked their lines Sunday with Carson Soucy drawing out of the lineup and young defenceman Victor Mancini drawing in. This marked Mancini’s Canucks debut after the 22-year-old defenceman was acquired from the New York Rangers as the third part of the J.T. Miller trade.
Though Mancini was somewhat sheltered, didn’t record a defensive-zone start and almost never saw the ice against the Keller-led Utah top line, he was used pretty heavily at five-on-five in this contest — in fact, he led all Canucks blueliners in five-on-five ice time heading into the third period.
Overall, Mancini’s traits — solid mobility, size and overall defensive reliability — played up and were evident. He looked like a safe, credible third-pair option, and you could see the upside. Even on a night in which the Canucks barely played with the puck, Mancini at least helped them prevent Utah from generating much in terms of quality looks.
It was, without question, a solid first impression. He at least gives the Canucks an option intriguing enough that the club should try to get a longer look at what he can provide over the balance of this season.
(Top photo of Nils Höglander and Olli Määttä: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images)
