Canucks: 3 takeaways from 4-3 shootout loss vs Wild
The Vancouver Canucks welcomed the Minnesota Wild to Rogers Arena on Wednesday night and newcomer Tyler Toffoli made his blue and green debut.
Tyler Toffoli was set to make his big debut for the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night. With a win over the Wild, the Canucks would be at a deadlock with the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the tightly contested Pacific Division — A loss and Vancouver falls even closer to the wild card. Playoff positioning still nowhere near set in stone.
Coming into the Western Conference bout, the wounds of a 5-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks still sting, and the eight-week loss of star sniper, Brock Boeser doesn’t feel any better for Vancouver. Nonetheless, the show must go on, and the Canucks must find a way to get back to their winning ways. Insert Toffoli, the Boeser replacement, literally. He looks just like him.
All jokes aside, the fans of BC’s big hockey club were anxious to see the newest addition to the top-six. Surprisingly, coach Green ignored the 70s chemistry of Tanner Pearson and Toffoli and decided to slot the newcomer in beside Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. With another Stanley Cup champion added to the fold, a healthy Canucks roster would mean a vicious top-nine that can play both sides of the puck. Let’s be real, that’s something that could very well push this team from playoff hopefuls to playoff contenders. Here are three takeaways from the Canucks’ 4-3 shootout loss.
Toffoli makes a difference, can’t score the shootout winner
Number 73 made his presence known in Van-City. Toffoli, a Stanley Cup champion and three-time 20-goal scorer with 47 playoff games under his belt made quite the impact in his Canucks debut. He fit in quite nicely on the top line and proved for however long it takes, he can serve as the perfect Boeser replacement.
He racked up an impressive 18:52 of ice time and even got a look from Green in overtime. Not surprising how quickly his experience was welcomed and how fast he managed to win over the confidence of the coach. He finished the contest with four shots on goal, two hits, one blocked shot, zero penalty minutes, an even plus/minus and a slick primary assist on the Canucks second goal of the game.
It happened quickly and Toffoli gets the monkey off his back right out of the gate. His first point wearing the orca came in the offensive zone when Toffoli scooped the puck off the ride side half-wall. He took a few strides towards to net and let off an accurate half-speed wrist shot that was deflected in front by Miller and directly past the Minnesota netminder to tie the game.
After Pettersson converted in the shootout, the Canucks drew on Toffoli with an opportunity to close out the game. Toffoli took the chance he was given, gave a big sweeping deke in an attempt to close out the game, but he oversold it, fell over and failed to score the game-winner. All-in-all though, a great first game for Toffoli.
Quinn Hughes is hungry to break rookie records
It was only the 60th game of the Canucks 50th year, but Quinn Hughes appears hungry to hold sole possession of the most three-assist games by a rookie. Currently, the 20-year-old defender is tied with the one and only Ray Bourque with four games. 22 contests left in Vancouver’s regular season, Hughes might just make history, it almost happened versus the Wild.
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When the dust settled, Hughes skated off the ice with two more assists to his rookie resume. 39 on the season, one shy of 40, probably a total for points fans were expecting out of this jaw-dropping young star, not assists alone. The sky is the limit for Hughes, who just keeps doing crazy things on a very regular basis. A three-assist night just feels normal these days, it’s only a matter of time until he does it again.
With his two assists, Hughes passes Bo Horvat on the team scoring list for possession of third. He has 47 points in 59 games played, he leads all NHL rookies in scoring and, he widened the gap by two with his latest performance. An incredible game for the young stud as expected. He built quick chemistry with Toffoli and isn’t showing signs of fatigue late into the season.
J.T. Miller becomes team-leading scorer
For Miller, it was just another night of taking care of business. WIth fellow linemate, Boeser announced out of action for the remainder of the regular season, Miller wasn’t going to leave the team’s fate in the hands of his replacement, Toffoli. No offence, but Miller had work to do and he was prepared to take on the load himself.
With Pettersson arguably struggling lately, feeling a lot of the playoff pressure down the stretch, Miller took matters into his own hands, scoring two goals from behind to get the Canucks back into the game, and then later the third period lead. It was squashed with under five minutes to play, but it was the overall effort of Miller that was impressive, yet expected.
Miller continues to improve and exceed expectations. Wednesday night was no different. He was a beast for Vancouver, a fearless leader who wants to win. He proved it by tying Pettersson for the team lead in goals with 24 but also passing him for the team lead in points. Flirting with a point per game pace, Miller now has 59 points in 60 games played.
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Final thoughts
The Canucks are still in deep and have lots of work to do before playoffs. It doesn’t get any easier as they close out the six-game homestand against the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Rest up, they are going to need it. Puck drops at 7 PM.