Canucks: Three takeaways from 3-2 preseason win over Winnipeg Jets

#2 Will Lockwood, Phil Di Giuseppe, Nic Petan, and Justin Dowling impress

With Sutter and Motte out with injuries, it will be interesting to see who gets the fourth-line spot. In the preseason so far, there have been several names battling to be on the fourth line on opening night in Edmonton.

Will Lockwood is one of these guys. He was showing off his speed and energy all night. The Canucks third-round pick in 2016 was also making plays with his crisp passing. Despite being only 5’11” and 172 pounds, Lockwood wasn’t afraid to lay out some hits. He had five of them (led all Canucks) on the night including this one where he almost sent Luke Johnson into the Canucks bench.

Phil Di Giuseppe looked good. He was helping out on the rush, making simple passes, and did a good job of helping out on the defensive side.

Nic Petan scored the second Canucks goal of the game. The former Jet had three shots on goal and got minutes on both the power play and the penalty kill. He worked hard on both sides of the ice.

“I came in trying to get more pucks on net tonight,” said Petan after the game.  “I’m happy I put one in there, focused on the little things in the defensive zone and playing on both sides of the puck.”

Justin Dowling also impressed. He was always in the right areas of the ice and making the right play. He even got some looks on the power play and penalty kill. Here, he does a good job of breaking up the Jets zone entry and kills time being taking the puck up the ice and by battling for it on the boards.

With Sutter not ready to go to start the season, Petan and Dowling are each making the case to be the Canucks fourth-line centre.

#3 Oliver Ekman-Larsson helps power play impress but not capitalize

The Canucks went zero for six on the power play.

That does sound bad but despite not capitalizing on the man advantage, they looked good for the most part.

This was evident on the first power play as the Canucks were moving the puck well and managed to get four shots on goal and hit two posts.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson was one of the players who struck iron.

Ekman-Larsson did a great job of quarterbacking the power play from the blue line. He was making quick and clear passes and shooting it on the net through traffic.

Green shared his thoughts on Ekman-Larsson’s preseason so far.

” I think both games he’s played well, his intensity level is probably higher than I knew it was,” said Green. “He looks energized, hungry to win, and ready to play.”

With Hughes and OEL, it will be great to have two puck-moving defencemen on both units. That is something the Canucks haven’t had in a long time.

The power play’s passing and traffic in front of the net looked great.

However, there were cases where the power play looked sluggish particularly on the four-minute double minor.

Other notes

• Vasily Podkolzin only managed 9:15 total ice time. He didn’t really do anything noticeable but he’ll be fine. He’s still adjusting to the North American game.
• Alex Chiasson played with hardly any energy and looked slow. He looks like he could be cut from his PTO. Chiasson is a power-play specialist that likes to be the net-front presence but he hasn’t impressed.
• Speaking of cuts, the Canucks have cut 16 players. You can see the whole list here.  One of the names that haven’t been cut is Danila Klimovich. Maybe the Canucks want to see another game of him before sending him to the QMJHL or Abbotsford.

The Canucks welcome the newcomers to the NHL, the Seattle Kraken to Rogers Arena on Tuesday. Puck drop is at 7 PM.