The Vancouver Canucks fell 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild last night, putting them back to .500 Hockey at a 3-3-1 Record. It certainly was a tough game to watch live, its becoming evident that this Canucks team is struggling to find an identity.
This could be due to this Vancouver Canucks team having 13 new players hitting the ice this season, with only 10 returning players from last seasons roster.
Last night, Canucks fans returned back to rogers arena after 595 days to open up a 7 game home stand. We are the very last professional sports team in North America to allow fans to return to games. The Vancouver Canucks absorbed the fan energy last night in the hectic rogers arena atmosphere, but failed to get the much needed 2 points.
The Canucks fans did an exceptional job of performing the national anthem during the start of the game, it was quite astonishing to feel the energy of 18,870 Canucks fans again.
Canucks fans chanted 'Petey, Petey, Petey' in an attempt to get the struggling superstar going. Elias Pettersson is currently in the midst of a scoreless drought, having had no goals scored in the past 4 games going into last nights game.
1st Period
Minnesota took the early 1-0 lead at 7:41 in the first, off a breakaway saucer pass from Joel Eriksson-Ek to give Mats Zucarrello his third goal of the year.
That was a very poor defensive breakdown as Quinn Hughes and Tucker Poolman got caught up ice & left Zuccarello all alone at the blue line. You can't leave so much space for such a dangerous & speedy player.
2nd Period
Early in the second period, Minnesota's Jonas Brodin scored to make it 2-0 Wild at 2:27. This was the result of a giveaway in the defensive zone by the young Canucks defenseman Jack Rathbone.
Expect Rathbone to make some mistakes & to learn from them moving forward as he is only 15 games into his young career. Jack had 3 points (1G 2A) in 8 games averaging 19:33 minutes of ice time last season for the Vancouver Canucks.
Here's another incredible display of Robbery by the Canuck's goalie Thatcher Demko who continues to impress early in the season.
Poor Freddy Gaudreau thought he sunk that one, Demko said no thanks, channeled his inner Martin Brodeur, and kept it a 2-0 hockey game.
Vancouver managed to get back within 1 goal at 10:46 in the second period on a beautiful powerplay deflection by Alex Chiasson , The recently acquired Canucks winger now has 2 goals on the season.
3rd Period
Matt Dumba (1) scored the eventual Game-winning goal at 3:54 in the third period off a nice saucer pass from Rem Pitlick on a 2-on-1 to put the Wild up 3-1 over the Vancouver Canucks.
However, the Canuck's weren't done there. Down 3-1 in the 3rd period, our captain delivered this BEAUTIFUL goal.
Once again, Bo Horvat (4) threw the team on his back & tried to steer the Canucks towards a potential third period comeback.
Unfortunately for Canucks fans, the comeback dream was crushed as the Minnesota Wild prevail in this Tuesday night thriller. Proving yet again for the Canucks that defensive errors will lead to goals against and losses.
"That was probably one of the harder teams that we've played so far," Vancouver Captain Bo Horvat said. "Just their back pressure and their recovery game, and they're kind of all over you, all on top of you all the time, its tough to make plays five-on-five out there."
“What killed us was a couple of turnovers and we weren’t getting pucks behind their defence and that caused our breakdowns and we have to be better than that.”
The Canucks had 6 giveaways in the hockey game, while the Wild only had 3. And while the Canucks managed to improve their powerplay over the last 2 games (2 for 7), they now need to figure out why they're giving away the puck so often, and fix it. This could be the difference maker in beating these tough opponents.
Other stats
The Canucks led the Wild in Face-offs with 55%
The Wild led the Canucks in shots 30 - 24
The Canucks led the Wild in hits 22 - 21
All three of Minnesota's goals tonight came from Canucks errors. This is crucial for the Vancouver Canucks to not make so many mistakes, especially against divisional opponents, if we plan to return to the playoffs this season.
In other news
Good news for Canucks fans hoping for our defense to improve, Travis Hamonic skated at the Abbotsford Center this morning before the Abbotsford Canucks practice. He is looking to make his full return to the Canucks lineup shortly.
Jason Dickinson left the lineup during practice on Monday morning and was not available for last nights game. There is still no update available on Dickinson's availability for Thursday night's game against Philadelphia.
Justin Dowling was placed on the IR on Tuesday Morning. He missed practice on Monday, Travis Green called this a maintenance day. With Dowling on the IR, He won't be available for at least a week and will miss the next 3 games at minimum.
Tucker Poolman left the game with an upper-body injury and didn't return.
Whats next?
The Vancouver Canucks return to action on Thursday night at 7PM PST when they host the Philadelphia Flyers (2-1-1) who seek revenge on the Canucks.
Vancouver beat Philadelphia 5-4 in a Shootout back on October 15th.