Vancouver Canucks: 3 takeaways from 5-2 win over Minnesota Wild

After an embarrassing home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Vancouver Canucks regrouped and defeated the Minnesota Wild. Here are three takeaways from their seventh win of 2018-19.

The Vancouver Canucks went from their most embarrassing home loss in ages to perhaps their finest performance of the 2018-19 season thus far, taking down the Minnesota Wild 5-2 at Rogers Arena on Monday.

With the victory, the Canucks ended Minnesota’s five game winning streak, 48 hours after they lost a 5-0 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was an excellent performance in every aspect, as the injury-ravaged Canucks took it to a red-hot Minny team that was playing near-flawless hockey for two weeks.

Rookie Elias Pettersson led the way with two goals, further cementing himself as the Calder Trophy favourite. The defencemen did their job despite missing Alexander Edler and Chris Tanev, while Jacob Markstrom was sharp — turning aside 37 shots to preserve the victory.

Here’s what we learned from the big win.

1. Welcome back, Elias Pettersson

There’s the scoring Vancouver needed.

After mustering nothing against the Penguins on Saturday, the Canucks got a big boost from their rookie standout. Pettersson scored his sixth goal on the season late in the second period, rifling a beautiful one-timer from the right circle over Devan Dubnyk to put Vancouver up 3-1.

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Pettersson then put the game on ice with a breakaway dandy in the third period. On his second goal, Pettersson blocked a slap shot and raced down the ice, taking a feed from Brock Boeser and roofing it over the shoulder of Dubnyk.

That’s what a Calder Trophy winner does, folks. There was so much Sidney Crosby written all over that goal from Pettersson.

And so, despite missing six games, Pettersson already has seven goals and 10 points on the season. He’d be in the early race for the scoring title if it weren’t for that dirty hit from Mike Matheson.

That’s all for another day, though. The Canucks have Pettersson back, along with the engine of their offence.

As long as he stays healthy, this team should stay competitive throughout the 2018-19 season. It’s been a long time since the Canucks had a young franchise center of Pettersson’s caliber to be excited about. Enjoy it, folks. You deserve this after five long and frustrating years.

2. Canucks show they can hang with anyone

The Canucks have continued last year’s success against some of the NHL’s better teams. They snapped Minnesota’s five-game winning streak, adding the Wild to the list of top-tier clubs they’ve beaten this early in the season.

Remember, Vancouver escaped with a 4-1 road victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 11. They also defeated the powerhouse Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 on the road two weeks ago, and took down the Boston Bruins 2-1 in overtime at Rogers Arena last week. The two latter wins came without Pettersson, too.

These Canucks, no matter the opponent, have shown their ability to win games. Even if they have to play without key players, head coach Travis Green has this group ready for every game. It goes to show the character of this young team.

The Canucks took two out of three meetings from the Wild last season, and now they defeat their old Northwest Division rivals soundly without Edler and Tanev. Vancouver simply won’t be an easy opponent for anybody going forward, and that alone should tell fans how different 2018-19 is going to be.

3. Slump busters?

Vancouver didn’t rely solely on their top line to win this game, as Jake Virtanen and Markus Granlund ended their respective goal droughts on Monday. Each player scored their first goal since the Oct. 11 road win at Tampa Bay.

The Canucks are going to need more of that going forward, if they’re to remain in the playoff hunt. Boeser, Horvat and Pettersson are going to need support, and that’s exactly what they received on Monday.

Will Virtanen and Granlund build off of these goals? Are the slumps over with? If not, will the other struggling Canuck forwards follow suit and end their own goal droughts? Coach Green can only hope so.

Vancouver will hang in the playoff race as long they’re getting contributions from most of their forwards. We know what the ‘big three’ of Horvat, Boeser and Pettersson can do on any given night. But secondary scoring is crucial if Vancouver wants to stay competitive down the stretch of 2018-19.