A great trip ended badly because Vancouver Canucks lost 5-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.
The Canucks' five-game pre-Christmas road trip ended 4–1. So they're not perfect. When were they?
But after an emotional and revealing 10 days, the Canucks are far less flawed than before.
Instead of defeating them, the monster trade of captain and best player Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild on Dec. 12—during a trip to Vancouver—brought clarity and purpose to a struggling National Hockey League team. It also energized the arrival of half-six center Marco Rossi, a world-class (and NHL-ready) defenseman prospect. Ze'ev Buyumand speedy forward Liam Ogren.
Management changed course and the Canucks became a new team on a road trip that began with three games and a full week in the New York area.
Goalkeeper back to top form Thatcher Demko was the deciding factor, and even on Monday, a Canucks starter was beaten cleanly by a Flyers scorer only once, when Owen Tippett sealed the win with a breakaway shot from his right under the back crossbar after a rare mistake by the Canucks rookie. Tom Willander.
As we've already noted, if Demko stays healthy, he'll be a one-man tank destroyer, a goaltender too good and too capable of carrying his team for the Canucks to remain near the bottom of the standings.
What helped him was a noticeable improvement in the team's defensive play, although they gave up the middle ice too often in Philadelphia and Boston, where the Canucks fell to the Bruins 42-22 but won the shootout 5-4 on Saturday thanks to backup goaltender Kevin Lankinen and a timely goal from members of the Vancouver youth movement.
Coach Adam Foote noted after that game that the Canucks' younger players, such as Ogren, Linus Karlsson and Max Sassonled the attack in the absence of a blow from experienced attackers.
Two days later in Philadelphia, there really was no one behind the wheel.
The Canucks actually had some good first shifts, outscoring the Flyers 10-2 in the first six minutes and outshooting them 3-2. But a terrible power play after Christian Dvorak's stick-holding penalty at 10:52 snuffed out Vancouver's momentum, and Philadelphia's dangerous power play after a Tyler Myers penalty at 13:51 swung things the other way.
The Canucks never got him back. Since then, they have been overtaken and outplayed by Rick Tocchet's Flyers. Vancouver struggled through the neutral zone, rarely made offensive changes, was a step too late everywhere and left too much open ice in front of Demko.
The goalie kept the game scoreless until Nikita Grebenkin deflected the puck past him at 13:13 of the second period after Flyer Rodrigo Abols easily turned the puck past Sasson.
With the game still in their hands, the Canucks had chances to tie the game early in the third, but Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar stopped Evander Kane at the net and Conor Garland on a dribble, and Kiefer Sherwood hit the post from long range.
But at 5:58, unstopped in the middle of a Canucks three, Carl Grundstrom rebounded off Demko after Trevor Zegras' center pass forced him to tap the ball from point-blank range. And at 7:49, with the Canucks disorganized on a back check after a botched interception and an outnumbered Flyers rush, Dvorak made it 3-0 with a friendly rebound of Zegras' long shot.
Sasson scored a beautiful goal for the Canucks at 1:05 p.m., sliding the puck between Vladar's pads on a breakaway off a beautiful pass from Garland. But Tippett answered with his solo rush at 15:35 after Willander, Vancouver's smart and quick rookie defenseman, was caught off guard and then turned the wrong way by one of the NHL's fastest skaters.
After Matvey Michkov's goal into an empty net at 18:49, Buium, 20, had his best offensive game since the trade from Minnesota, driving deep into the Philadelphia zone before scoring on Drew O'Connor with 18 seconds left.
“They had more juice than us, their legs hurt, they penetrated us with ice,” Foote told reporters in Philadelphia. “They got to the gate and, you know, that made the difference.
“It was a good ride… especially with all the traffic and what happened. It just looked like we ran out of gas tonight.”
The improvement in the system's play over the past month, the correction of the penalty kill, and Demko's return to health and fitness means the Canucks' biggest challenge now is what was expected before the season began: scoring goals.
During the trip, they brought in timely depth and youth, some luck with the puck, and a Sherwood hat trick on Long Island. But most of the veterans at the top of the lineup continue to struggle to score. Garland (1-4-5 points in 9 games), Jake DeBrusk (1-4-5 in 13) and Evander Kane (1-3-4 in 9) each scored one goal in December, and Brock Boeser's last goal came on November 28th. Since then, he has recorded one assist in 11 games. Even Rossi had just one assist in his first five games with the Canucks.
If the Canucks continue to be the goaltenders they were on this trip, they won't need to score much. But they can't rely on Sasson and O'Connor (in Philadelphia) and Karlsson, Sasson and Ogren (in Boston) to lead the attack.
Although neither of them talk about it, it's clear that Bozer and Garland are dealing with ongoing trauma. Their team is in last place, their close friend and captain has been traded, so Boeser and Garland are not only in the lineup, but they're giving it their all in big minutes.
But the main player missing entirely is center Elias Pettersson, whose absence was considered day-to-day when the trip began. By definition, every game the $92.8 million center missed increased the likelihood that he would play the next one. But this did not happen.
Before Monday's game, Foote told reporters that Pettersson had “tweaked or locked down” an upper-body injury last week, but “he's getting close to it.” But the coach could not say whether or when Pettersson would play his first game back from the Christmas break, Saturday at home against the San Jose Sharks, or his second game. The Canucks need him back.
Tocchet, who left the uncertain Canucks after last season to return to the Flyers, has a starless team that was widely expected to miss the playoffs with an 18-10-7 record. With Dan Vladar as the starting goalie.
Many of the questions Tochet receives revolve around Matvey Michkov, whose empty-net goal Monday was his ninth in 35 games, and the coach's handling of the second-year player, including intense interactions on the Flyers bench during Saturday's game. Michkov's average time on ice (14:41) is two minutes less than last season, when the Russian enjoyed greater freedom of action compared to previous coach John Tortorella.
This is a condensed version of what Tocchet told reporters before Monday's game: “What are we 17-10? We have a good record. I answered six questions from Michkov. I mean, that's enough, guys. You're trying to do something that isn't there. He's got to learn how to play the game, and he's trying. He's a much better defensive player, he's a much better team player, and that's how you win in hockey.” It’s not about pleasing one person, I hate to tell you guys that.”
