Canucks Takeaways: Lankinen still unbeaten in shootout this season

There have been 17 penalty attempts against him this season. Kevin Lankinen conceded zero goals.

Let that sink in for a minute. Seventeen intentional breakaways by the National Hockey League's most experienced players, and Lankinen's save percentage is 100 per cent. Vancouver Canucks' net. This is stupid. This shouldn't be possible in the best league in the world.

On Monday, the Canucks goalie looked unflinching at three more Seattle Kraken penalty dreamers. Liam OgrenThe goal gave Vancouver a 3–2 road victory in the I-5-valry series at Pacific Northwest.

Lankinen is unbeatable and Ogren is unstoppable.

The 21-year-old rookie, the fourth player sent to the Canucks by the Minnesota Wild in the Quinn Hughes blockbuster 2 1/2 weeks ago, made it two for two in career NHL shootout attempts when he put a shot between the skates of Kraken goalie Joey Daccord to win another game for Vancouver.

Ogren scored a beautiful late goal in the seventh round of a shootout win in Boston nine days ago. Canucks coach Adam Foote was so impressed that he advanced the team to the third round on Monday when he was the lone scorer.

Daccord stopped Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson, while the ever-patient Lankinen thwarted Freddy Gaudreau and Jordan Eberle and watched Eeli Tolvanen hit high for Seattle.

Lankinen was also in goal in Boston and is now 4-0 in tiebreakers this season, accounting for two-thirds of his shootout wins.

The goalkeeper's performance in the shootout is staggering, but to say that Lankinen's performance on Monday was all about the shootout would be to grossly understate his influence throughout what was arguably the best game of a difficult season for the 30-year-old Finn.

Lankinen stopped 37 of 39 shots for the Kraken, which had won its last four games. He went 25-for-25 after the first period and pulled his team into overtime in the third period as the Canucks lost 16–3.

Since Seattle had beaten the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 the night before, the Canucks should have been the fresher team. This is wrong. They were sluggish in the first 10 minutes and underwater in the third – not a good place to play against the Kraken.

But Lankinen made a ton of big saves, including point-blank saves in the third period against Tolvanen and Jared McCann, a wide shot on Kaapo Kakko, a breakaway save late in regulation against Ryan Winterton, and overtime saves from Tolvanen and Vince Dunn on the last of Seattle's six power plays.

It was a masterful performance, the second in a row for Lankinen as he tries to raise his .880 save percentage for the season and improve his 6-10-3 record.

The Canucks tied the game 2-2 at 5:23 of the second period, in what was easily Vancouver's best period, thanks to Elias Pettersson's vintage shot from the slot off a centering pass from Evander Kane.

Canuck Linus Karlsson's fourth goal in four games off an assist from Ogren at 15:20 of the first period offset McCann's early power play goal for the Kraken. But a suspicious line change that sent Canucks defenseman Elias Pettersson Jr. into Tyler Myers allowed the Kraken to get a two-nothing break that ended with Winterton scoring with 20 seconds left in the frame.

The Canucks take on Rick Tocchet's Flyers on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the game will be played in Vancouver, where the feisty Canucks have lost eight of their last nine home games.

After Saturday's disappointing 6-3 home loss to the San Jose Sharks, coach Adam Foote restored $38.5 million forward Jake DeBrusk, who led the Canucks with 28 goals last season but has scored just one in his last 16 games. Center David Kampf, who has one goal in 17 matches, was also scratched.

Foote needed to bring center Aatu Rathi and forward Nils Hoglander back into the lineup, but DeBrusk's first goal since signing with Vancouver two summers ago was a bit of a surprise as the 29-year-old looked more engaged against the Sharks, recording a pair of shots and four hits in 18:01 of ice time, his best in nine games.

Clearly unhappy with his team on Saturday, Foote had to get the attention of his players in Seattle. He definitely gets DeBrusk's attention.

“Yeah, it sucks,” he said after Sunday’s practice as an extra. “I mean, any time you miss a game, yeah, it's embarrassing. I'd be remiss if I didn't say I'd be angry, but I understand, and I need a shake-up. Obviously, I wasn't good enough.”

“At the end of the day, you just have to do the right things, do the right details. Get back to your ABCs… and eventually they will come into play. I usually have a hot streak. But it looks like it probably won't happen this year. So (I) just need to be more consistent day in and day out. You have to be mature in that place. You have to be a professional.”

After missing four of the previous six games, Ratey didn't take a shot in 11:05 of ice time. But he went 12-5 on faceoffs and picked up a key win late in overtime when the Canucks overcame a four-on-three disadvantage after Kane took a penalty at 3:20.

Wins and losses aside, virtually every coach in Vancouver ends up being criticized for his team's style of play. (See Tocche, Travis Green, Willy Desjardins, John Tortorella, Alain Vigneault…). So it's not surprising that some have protested Foote's conservative overtime strategy, where the Canucks prioritize possession as a means of preventing their opponents from scoring. But the idea, born over the summer as a result of Foote and his team's deep thinking about three-on-three play, is to take the game to a shootout, because with Lankinen and Thatcher Demko in goal, the Canucks' chances of winning the shootout are much better than their chances of winning in overtime.

This is the idea. And considering that the team is now 4-0 in shootouts (thanks to Lankinen), and only 2-3 in decisive matches in overtime, it is impossible to say that Foote’s strategy is not working.

If you were to guess which Canucks would be most likely to want to leave Vancouver after trading Quinn Hughes, Conor Garland and Filip Hronek would top many lists. After all, Garland was Hughes' best friend on the team (Hughes is the godfather of Garland's son, Quint). And Hronek was a potential partner for Hughes—the guy who signed an eight-year, $58 million extension to play for Tocchet and with Hughes in Vancouver.

But after Hughes was traded, both were pretty emphatic that they remained loyal to the Canucks and were ready to be a part of whatever came next.

Against Seattle, the five-foot-nine Garland, who was nursing an undisclosed injury while keeping himself in the lineup, galvanized his team by taking on McCann at 15:17 of the first period when the former Canuck challenged him with a tricky reverse shot. Garland finished the fight with an uppercut and a takedown on McCann.

And all Hronek did was lead by example, delivering another tough, tight game in which he blocked four shots, including the eventual overtime game-winner by Jordan Eberle, while recording a season-high 29:26 of ice time.

They are examples of why, even with the “hybrid” rebuild or retooling the Canucks say they are undertaking, the organization wants characterful, middle-aged veterans to set the standard for young players.

“Garley, that was a damn good job there,” Ogren told Canucks TV in Seattle. “It kept us moving forward.”