Canucks: 3 takeaways from 2-1 overtime loss to Ducks

The Vancouver Canucks played their second game of a California road trip in Anaheim, falling 2-1 in overtime.. Here are three takeaways from the game.

It was a frustrating night for the Vancouver Canucks, as they fell to the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 in overtime. As a result, the Vancouver’s two-game winning streak has come to an end.

The Canucks are now 8-3-2 on the season. They’ll finish up the California road trip tomorrow night against the San Jose Sharks. They’ve secured themselves at least half of the possible six points on the trip.

Now, let’s dive into three takeaways from the loss.

1. Injured Hughes hurts defence

The injury bug is back. Quinn Hughes left the game late in the first period due to what seems is an ankle injury. He fell awkwardly, and it looked painful on the replay.

Hughes’ absence was felt greatly. It was most felt on the power play (more on that in the next takeaway) as it just wasn’t the same without his breakouts..

On defence, he was missed as well, particularly in the late second, early third and in overtime.  The Ducks were starting to fly in the Vancouver offensive zone, and they had trouble getting the puck out at times. The breakouts weren’t very clean, either.

At the time of this writing, there is no update of Hughes’ injury or the timeline of it.  According to he Province‘s Patrick Johnston on Twitter, he spoke to general manager Jim Benning, and he said that the medical staff will monitor him and the initial report is positive. Benning also thinks Hughes “will be alright for tomorrow.”

According to TSN 1040’s Jeff Paterson on Twitter, head coach Travis Green said that Hughes wasn’t being ruled out for Saturday’s showdown in San Jose.

Whatever the injury is, fans can only pray it isn’t too serious — and that Hughes won’t be out for long.

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2. Power play magic disappears

The power play went four-for-six in the Wednesday game against the Los Angeles Kings. It has soared to the league’s top five and has looked deadly for the past few games.

In this game, the magic unfortunately disappeared as the Vancouver went 0-for-five. Of course, losing Hughes was a big factor.

Having Alex Edler on the first power play unit just wasn’t the same. The Canucks were turning the puck over, couldn’t break out properly and while missing shots or having them blocked.

It was also tough playing against John Gibson (who always seems to play well against the Canucks). Gibson was just outstanding in this one, and that leads us the final takeaway.

Canucks can’t solve Gibson

Gibson sure loves playing Vancouver. His first start was even the Canucks, where he got a 3-0 shutout.

And he has had Vancouver’s number ever since. Things were no different on Friday, as he stopped 39 shots to help the Ducks get the victory.Vancouver been scoring in bunches lately, but this time, the cannons were silenced.

The Canucks were the much better team for most of the game, and it could have been a blowout if Gibson didn’t play so well. They had some really good chances to score, but Gibson just kept on denying them. It simply felt like he was never going to be solved in this game.

Gibson was making saves left and righ,t and it was quite frustrating to watch because the Canucks looked so poised to score. They were hungry to do it, but Gibson stood on his head once again. Gibson’s shutout bid was broken thanks to Adam Gaudette, but he closed the door from there to help Anaheim win 2-1 in overtime.

This was a frustrating to watch, because the Canucks truly deserved the victory. They will look to bounce back tomorrow against the struggling Sharks — with puck drop slated for 7 p.m.