The Canuck Way
Fansided

3 takeaways from the Canucks’ disappointing 5-1 loss to Montreal

By Bill Huan

VANCOUVER, BC - MARCH 08: JT Miller #9 of the Vancouver Canucks tries to slide the puck past goalie Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens during the second period of NHL hockey action at Rogers Arena on March 8, 2021 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BC - MARCH 08: JT Miller #9 of the Vancouver Canucks tries to slide the puck past goalie Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens during the second period of NHL hockey action at Rogers Arena on March 8, 2021 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /
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Tomas Tatar of the Montreal Canadiens and Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
Tomas Tatar of the Montreal Canadiens and Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /

Well, the honeymoon period lasted for three games, Vancouver Canucks fans. But hey, that’s better than nothing, right?

After playing their best hockey of the season over the last week, the team went back to their old ways and lost 5-1 to the Canadiens yesterday. Just when we were beginning to hope again, the Canucks crushed our dreams as usual.

Here are three takeaways from Vancouver’s disappointing 5-1 loss to the Canadiens last night.

Lack of pushback

The first period was one of the worst frames the team played all year long, which says a lot about their performance.

The Canucks didn’t register their first shot on goal for over eight minutes, and the Canadiens had already tested Thatcher Demko seven times by then. However, the most disappointing part about the game is that Vancouver didn’t have any pushback and played almost as badly in the second and third periods.

To put things into perspective, the Canucks were outshot 16-4 in the first and 17-7 in the third, while surprisingly coming on top in the middle frame by outshooting Montreal 13-12. Even so, that number is deceiving because none of their chances were of high quality while the Canadiens had many odd-man rushes the other way.

After securing their first win when giving up the first goal of the game on Monday, the Canucks are now 1-14 when they concede the opening goal. In other words, the team simply doesn’t push back enough when trailing, which is obviously not a formula for success.

Miller had an interesting night

Oh boy, J.T. Miller definitely had himself a game, even if it wasn’t always for the right reasons. The veteran forward started off his eventful night by dropping the mitts with Ben Chiarot, which is surprisingly only his second fight in a Canucks uniform.

https://twitter.com/HockeyHoundShow/status/1369871515022467072

In the second period, he also drew and took a penalty, and there was even one hilarious shift where he played without his stick and blocked a shot as a result. It just seemed like he was out of control for the entire game, as he shifted between being Vancouver’s most engaged skater to its most disinterested in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, it wasn’t all bad for Miller, as he did assist on Brock Boeser’s power-play goal as well. I’m sure he would’ve liked to register an assist to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick.

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