If the Vancouver Canucks can’t beat the Seattle Kraken, who are they going to beat in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
The Kraken are 28th in the NHL right now with a 26-31-4 record. Their underlying statistics are some of the worst in the league, with a 45.2% expected goals percentage that is better than only the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, and Chicago Blackhawks. Assuming they sell at the trade deadline, the Kraken have a strong chance of sliding further into the basement and getting a shot at winning the draft lottery for the first-overall pick.
In other words, the Kraken are not a good team. And the Canucks gave up four unanswered goals to the Kraken to lose 6-3. So, what does that say about the Canucks?
This road trip was particularly painful given what preceded it. The Canucks went into the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off having won six of their previous eight games. They’d executed a pair of major trades and the initial returns seemed positive, with new arrivals Filip Chytil, Drew O’Connor, and Marcus Pettersson playing well.
Experienced Canucks fans knew not to get too optimistic, especially not this season, as the 2024-25 Canucks seem determined to disappoint at every turn. So, maybe it wasn’t as painful for those fans because they’ve become numb to the pain over time.
Still, there was a glimmer of hope that the Canucks might actually get their act together coming out of the break, especially with Quinn Hughes returning from injury to join the new additions.
Instead, the Canucks went 1-4-0 on their five-game road trip, with their only win coming in overtime. They repeatedly squandered leads in the process, giving away points that they desperately needed.
To make matters worse, Hughes appeared to aggravate his oblique injury during Saturday’s game. He didn’t play the final nine minutes of the third period, even with the team down by a goal and then two goals, and even when they pulled Kevin Lankinen for the extra attacker to go 6-on-5.
You have to wonder if it’s time for the Canucks to pull the plug on this season. Sure, they’re still just barely clinging to a playoff position, one point up on the Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues and two points up on the Utah Hockey Club, but that’s starting to feel like a technicality. Is it time for the team to sell off their unrestricted free agents at the trade deadline and resign themselves to trying again next season?
Because the Canucks haven’t given any indication that they can win four out of seven games in a single playoff series, let alone do it four times in a row. Can the Canucks realistically convince themselves that they’re a team that can legitimately compete in the playoffs?
Actually, the Canucks have given every indication that they can’t convince themselves of anything. This is one of the least confident groups I’ve ever seen.
Maybe the Canucks can still turn things around. Maybe Elias Pettersson will wake up, Brock Boeser will remember that he scored 40 goals last season, and Thatcher Demko will magically return to full health. Maybe Quinn Hughes isn’t hurt at all. He’s fine. Everything’s fine.
But the odds are low. I know, because I watched this game.
- Perhaps the most depressing part of this game is that the Canucks teased us with what they might look like if they were actually good. The Canucks were zooming in the first period, hemming the Kraken in and outshooting them 15-to-6. For an all-too-brief 20 minutes, the Canucks looked like the team they were supposed to be heading into the season. And all they got out of it was a 2-1 lead over one of the worst teams in the league.
- You can tell Hughes wasn’t 100 per cent even in the first period, because the opening goal came off an uncharacteristic giveaway by the Canucks captain. He sent a pass way behind Pius Suter on a zone entry and the Kraken broke the other way for a 3-on-2. Shane Wright chipped a cheeky backhand pass to Andre Burakovsky and he smashed the one-timer past Lankinen like a YouTuber asks you to smash that subscribe button.
- Coming off a strong game in Anaheim, Tyler Myers was still flying early in Seattle. He had a great chance off a give-and-go early in the game, then went on a solo dash up the ice for another shot from the slot after a power play midway through the period. It seems like he really enjoys having Marcus Pettersson as a partner, as it gives him a little more leeway to activate up the ice. The Canucks outshot the Kraken 13-to-6 while he was on the ice at 5-on-5.
- Some of the Canucks’ success in the first period can be credited to their forecheck. Kiefer Sherwood, at the end of a minute-long shift, harassed Adam Larsson to prevent an easy exit, then Nils Höglander pressured Vince Dunn to force a giveaway. Pius Suter turned on the turnover, snapping it past Joey Daccord with a quick release for his career-high 16th goal of the season.
- “He really worked on his shot over the summer and it’s paying off,” said Rick Tocchet of Suter. “He’s getting some good slot shots. He’s a positive for us.”
- The Canucks took a 2-1 lead five minutes later. Chandler Stephenson lost his footing off a faceoff in the Kraken zone, allowing Filip Chytil to dart to the front of the net. When Myers’ point shot hit Oliver Bjorkstrand’s stick, the puck deflected to Chytil, who had Daccord at his mercy after the goaltender went down to stop the initial shot.
- Now, did Chytil subtly help Stephenson down to the ice? Maybe. He did seem to hook Stephenson’s leg as he pivoted around him and maybe pushed his left skate out as well. It’s hard to say, even in slow motion. If he did, it was kind of brilliant, but also very cheap.
- Maybe this game could’ve been different if the Canucks had hit the net instead of the post on a couple of opportunities. Dakota Joshua rung the post on a shot off the rush. Then Höglander forced another turnover but Jake DeBrusk hit the post from the slot. DeBrusk hit the post one more time on a Conor Garland slap pass early in the second period.
- DeBrusk even when to his knees to make sure he made contact with the Garland pass or perhaps he was praying for a goal. The hockey gods refused to answer his prayer. Or maybe they did answer it and the answer was, “lol no.”
- In the second period, the Kraken suddenly became everybody in the club, because they were getting tipsy. Bjorkstrand got the tipping start with a deft deflection to tie the game 2-2 when Filip Hronek was too slow getting to him to tie up his stick.
- The bigger issue on the goal was that Hughes went down awkwardly while tied up with Burakovsky and seemed in some discomfort as he got back up. He even briefly left the bench to go to the locker room but returned soon after, but kept trying to stretch out his injury on the bench and, as mentioned in the intro, barely played in the third period. That’s a major concern for the Canucks and it raises the question of whether he returned too early from his injury.
- “He tweaked something,” said Tocchet. “We’ll look at it tomorrow, I’m not sure what’s going on.”
- The Canucks regained the lead with a rare shorthanded goal. Dakota Joshua picked up an errant pass from Jared McCann and fed Drew O’Connor for a 2-on-1. O’Connor returned the puck to Joshua and he showed off his soft hands with a lovely deke to his backhand around a hapless Daccord. That guy was all out of haps. Not a hap to be found.
- The lead lasted four minutes. Pettersson lost a faceoff to Matty Beniers, then lost Beniers. Pettersson got caught looking at the puck for a second too long and an unimpeded Beniers tipped in a Dunn point shot. The one thing you could say about Pettersson was that he was at least playing well defensively but that was an ugly lapse.
- Seattle took the lead for good a minute later. Hughes broke his stick on an attempted pass from below the goal line and the Kraken converted his bad luck into a goal a moment later. Hughes and Teddy Blueger got their signals crossed and they both checked the same player, leaving Eeli Tolvanen wide open to tip in a shot from Ryker Evans to make it 4-3.
- The most frustrating part of this game was that the Canucks’ two best forwards — or, at least, the two players who are supposed to be their two best forwards, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser — finished the game with zero shots on goal. It was particularly glaring since both of them passed up extremely obvious opportunities to take a shot, squandering their chance to make a difference in this game.
- Pettersson’s most obvious chance to shoot came with 20 seconds left in the first period on the power play; Boeser’s came 20 seconds into the third period on a 3-on-2 rush. Pettersson double-clutched and nearly lost the puck; Boeser forced a pass back to Pettersson who was being tightly checked. Watching those plays, you’d never guess that those two have 39 and 40-goal seasons under their belts.
- “Those guys’ve got to get some shots on net,” said Tocchet. “I don’t think a couple guys got any shots. You’ve got to get pucks to the net in this game. Sometimes, you’ve got to get a greasy goal. Whatever it takes.”
- A few minutes into the third period, Pettersson had a strong shift in the offensive zone, where he was distributing the puck well and made a diving play to keep the puck in at the blue line and the possession alive. Then he swung wildly for a rebound and tripped Stephenson to put the Kraken on the power play. He might be legitimately cursed.
- For added salt in the wound, the Kraken didn’t score on the power play. No, Brandon Montour hammered a slap shot past Lankinen three seconds after the power play ended, right after Pettersson had stepped back on the ice, just so it would be at even-strength and he could get a minus for the goal. I’m telling you: cursed.
- The Kraken added an empty net goal for good measure. Daccord even tried to go for the empty net but Myers made like his basketball-playing brother, Quentin Grimes, and went up for the block, swatting the puck out of mid-air to at least prevent the humiliation of a goalie goal. It didn’t matter. Tolvanen picked up a wild pass by Garland and made it 6-3.
- “I thought we had a pretty good game,” said Tocchet. “They got three tip goals — I think we could’ve boxed out on one of them, you have to get under people’s sticks. We had a couple posts, a couple breakaways. It’s one of those things where the moments are there, we just couldn’t capitalize.”
- “That was a big game for us,” said Joshua. “A chance to pull a couple more points ahead, and we let that one slip away. We started off strong and then — that’s just been our motto lately, is blowing leads, and we couldn’t get that one back.”
