Canucks: 3 takeaways from 6-5 OT loss to the Calgary Flames

Juolevi, Chatfield struggle on the blueline

Olli Juolevi and Jalen Chatfield will probably chalk this game up as one to forget.

The two young blueliners made up the third defensive pairing on Sunday night, with Jack Rathbone slotting out to make room for Juolevi. Chatfield logged just over 14 minutes during Saturday’s contest against the Edmonton Oilers, whereas Juolevi was given the day off that afternoon, but both struggled right out of the gate on Sunday night.

Let’s start with Chatfield.

The right-handed defenceman, who just turned 25 years old on Saturday, was a defensive liability on almost every Calgary goal.

After a bad line change led to a far-too-easy zone entry from Matthew Tkachuk, the Flames forward was able to throw a fairly harmless shot on net. The puck whizzed past Braden Holtby, caroming off of the boards behind him before eventually landing in the blue paint for an easy tap-in goal for Tkachuk.

By just reading the description of the play above, it sounded like a rather fortunate bounce for the Flames. But it’s important to see how Chatfield responded to the play.

Instead of marking Tkachuk and following him to the net, Chatfield looked for the bouncing puck. By doing this, he left Tkachuk wide open in front of the net, and we all know that he’s not going to miss many uncontested chances like that.

The defensive woes continued for Chatfield just seven minutes later, as he was caught screening Holtby for Calgary’s fifth goal of the game.

Chatfield finished the contest with two blocked shots, zero SOG and a minus four rating over 13:13 of ice time. He’s only played 17 games this season, and is expected to be on the outside looking in next season, but this still doesn’t bode well for the Canucks’ prospect pool.

Now onto Juolevi.

The former first-round pick didn’t play as poorly as Chatfield overall, but he was absolutely burned on the Flames’ second goal of the game, no pun intended.

*Warning: viewer discretion is advised*

Let’s break down this play in detail.

The Flames worked their way out of their own zone, with Vancouver native Milan Lucic leading the pack up the middle. Before crossing the blueline, Lucic fed a quick pass over to Leivo, who was streaking down the left flank. It was a simple pass from teammate to teammate, much like we’ve seen the Canucks do on their zone entries, but Juolevi was caught flat-footed with poor defensive positioning, and the Flames eventually made him pay.

On a night like this, where two non-playoff teams are squaring off in a meaningless game, most people might not take too much notice of it. But this happened against Calgary’s third line, with two of their slower players leading the charge. Imagine the carnage that would’ve taken place if this occurred against a faster, more-skilled team in the league, like a Tampa Bay or a Colorado, clubs that the Canucks could very well be playing against again next season if the league returns to their previous format and travel schedule? They’d be picking apart Juolevi every chance that they’d get, and that’s not a great look for this already-struggling Canucks’ blueline.

To make matters worse, Chatfield was also on the ice for that goal.

Juolevi finished the contest with one SOG, one block, one hit and a minus three rating over 12:23 of ice time. He also logged some minutes on the penalty kill, almost falling victim to an exploding stick blunder that would’ve been the cherry on top.

Juolevi will most likely dress for at least one of the two remaining games this year, but, after last night’s performance, his future role with the team should definitely be put under the microscope.

Welcome back, powerplay!

Finally.

Fans were able to collectively breathe a sigh of relief on Sunday night, as the Canucks were finally able to break their powerplay slump, which had gone 0-for-21 in the past seven contests.

It was looking very bleak in the opening frame, with the Canucks once again unable to capitalize on their first powerplay opportunity.

But, much like Saturday afternoon, the team decided to wake up in the third period, much to the delight of Newell Brown and the rest of the special teams staff.

The Canucks were awarded their second powerplay of the game less than one minute into the third period. Naturally, the first unit stepped over the boards right away, but it had a slightly new look to it. The Canucks opted for the old-school, two-defencemen approach, with veteran Alex Edler returning to his former powerplay point position, alongside Hughes.

The first unit looked dangerous, but the breakthrough came at the middle point of the powerplay, with Hughes streaking down the left flank while some of his teammates were on a change. He eventually sent a cross-ice pass to Miller, who quickly threw it to an open space in front of the net for an easy tap-in from Graovac, his third goal in seven games.

After that, it appeared that the flood gates opened right up.

The Canucks capitalized on their next powerplay opportunity just five minutes later, this time with Brock Boeser finding himself on the receiving end of a Hughes’ cross-ice dish. He was able to unleash his rediscovered one-timer and blast the puck past Jacob Markstrom for the team’s third goal of the game.

The Canucks didn’t capitalize on their final powerplay chance, but did finish the contest going 2-for-4 on the man advantage. Their penalty kill also came up clutch, shutting down the Flames on six separate opportunities, and even put up a short-handed tally of their own, thanks to a nifty play from Jimmy Vesey.

The next steps? Bring back Kole Lind, and see what he, Gadjovich, Rathbone and Nils Höglander can do on the second unit.

Other notes:

• The quest for Edler’s 100th goal continues on, as the veteran blueliner has still not been able to find the back of the net all season. It appeared that he hit the milestone late in the third period to tie the game up at 5-5, but the goal was eventually awarded to Boeser, who deflected the puck past Markstrom. To add more salt to the wound, Elias Lindholm’s overtime goal ended up deflecting off of Edler’s stick and into the back of the net, but we’re pretty sure he won’t want to count that as goal #100.
• Bo Horvat played his 500th NHL game on Sunday night, all with the Vancouver Canucks. He was unable to find the back of the net, but posted four SOG over 24:23 of ice time. He also won 60% of his faceoffs taken.
• With one point collected from the overtime loss, the Canucks leap-frogged over Detroit and Columbus in the standings, taking sole ownership of 26th in the league standings. With two games remaining, the Canucks could hold onto 26th if they don’t collect any more points, but there’s also a chance that they could finish as high as 22nd overall.

The Canucks will have a day off before battling with the Flames on Tuesday. Puck drop is at 1:00pm PST.

What were your thoughts on the team’s 6-5 OT loss to the Flames? Make sure to drop a comment below!