Canucks: 3 takeaways from 3-1 loss to Detroit (October 16th)

What a wild, frustrating night for the Vancouver Canucks.

The Canucks travelled to Detroit on Saturday to take on the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena, marking the third contest of their six-game road trip, as well as their second contest in 24 hours. The team had already accumulated three of a possible four points heading into their afternoon match-up, thanks to back-to-back shootout appearances against Edmonton and Philadelphia, and were looking to keep up their winning ways in the Motor City.

Unfortunately, Detroit had other ideas in mind.

Unlike Friday afternoon’s game in Philadelphia, the Canucks made sure to come out flying in the opening frame on Saturday, putting their roster’s speed, physicality and grit on full display. As we’ve seen so often in this city, however, the hockey gods turned a blind eye to Vancouver’s hard work, ultimately rewarding the first goal of the game to Detroit at the halfway mark of the first period, thanks to a nifty deflection from Robby Fabbri.

The Canucks continued to pour on the pressure heading into the middle frame, and were able to tie up the contest in the final minutes, but it all imploded into sheer chaos from there. The referees handed out 40 minutes worth of penalties in the final frame, including a handful of offsetting minor infractions, that muddied the game entirely.

Vancouver actually outshot their opponents by a fairly large margin of 41-21, but weren’t able to come away with the well-deserved victory.

Detroit would score two goals in the third period, including the cherry-on-top, kick-in-the-groin empty-netter from former Canuck Sam Gagner.

It was no doubt an infuriating game to watch for fans, players and coaching staff alike, and it’s even worse that Vancouver wasn’t able to walk away with at least a point, but there are definitely some shining moments that the Canucks should look to carry over into the back-half of their current road trip.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday afternoon’s 3-1 loss to Detroit:

Greiss comes out on top

It was a battle of the back-ups on Saturday afternoon, with both Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss looking to start things off on the right foot with their new teams.

Unfortunately, Greiss came away with the victory this time around.

The former New York Islander, who inked a two-year, $7.2 million deal with Detroit during the offseason, was tremendous between the pipes, stopping 40 of 41 shots that he faced.

Greiss wasn’t too busy in the opening frame, large in part to the impressive work of the players in front of him. Despite the consistent pressure, the Canucks had a difficult time entering the offensive zone and establishing dangerous scoring chances, with most of their shots coming harmlessly from the outside areas.

The Canucks were able to adapt for the final two frames, essentially throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Greiss, but the 35-year-old veteran didn’t budge. According to Natural Stat Trick, Vancouver generated an impressive expected goals rate of 3.73. On most nights, that statistic would be enough to take home two points, but it also showed how dominant Greiss performed.

It appeared that the Canucks were able to beat Greiss for the second time late in the third, but the goal was immediately waved off due to goaltender interference. Greiss finished the contest with a .976 SV% en route to his first victory of the year.

The story wasn’t the same for Halak.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad outing for the former Boston Bruin, who stopped 18 of 20 shots faced. Halak didn’t have much of a chance on the first two Detroit goals, and was able to track the puck well otherwise, but he still looked shaky overall, especially compared to his counterpart.

The 36-year-old, who signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Canucks this past summer, made big saves when needed, particularly in the third period when the teams were playing 4v4, but it was a scrambled effort.

Halak definitely isn’t as quick as Demko, nor is he able to cover as much of the net, both of which are expected given the 11-year age gap, but he still didn’t seem 100% dialled into the game nonetheless.

Hopefully he can bounce back when the Canucks turn to him next.

Welcome to the Conor Garland show

The new guys definitely haven’t shied away from big performances so far.

It first started off with Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who appears to be on track for a bounce-back year after his impressive outing against the Oilers on Wednesday night, in which the Swedish blueliner notched one goal, three hits and four SOG in just under 24 minutes of ice time.

The spotlight stayed on the blueline, moving next to Kyle Burroughs. Although limited in TOI due to his third-pairing role, the 26-year-old still managed to impress, showcasing his offensive vision and natural ability to join the rush that has ultimately kept veteran Luke Schenn in the press box.

However, on Saturday afternoon, it was all about Conor Garland.

The 25-year-old winger has been one of Vancouver’s most dominant forwards so far, and easily had his best game of the year against Detroit.

For the third straight contest, Garland found himself on a line with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson, and has provided much of the energy and offensive prowess. Nothing against Horvat and Pearson, both of whom are slowly starting to pick up their own games after relatively quiet starts, but Garland has undoubtedly been the driving force of this trio to kick off the new hockey campaign.

And that didn’t change on Saturday.

Throughout the entire contest, Garland was elusive, creative and up-tempo, creating scoring opportunities on almost every shift, including a handful of chances for Pearson. The former 2015 fifth round selection is extremely crafty with the puck, and has the ability to twist and turn out of almost all situations, as seen here:

Despite not being able to register any assists, the former 2015 fifth round selection still found a way to help his team offensively with this accurate, deceptive and very-much planned laser beam from the goal line.

Garland found ways to contribute outside of the scoresheet as well. During the second period, Garland didn’t hesitate to join the post-whistle scrum after Givani Smith took a run at Ekman-Larsson.

The former Arizona Coyote, who only clocks in at 5’10” and 165 pounds, also showcased his own physicality and snarl with this reverse hit on Filip Zadina. Garland was able to establish body position first and didn’t utilize his elbow to deliver the hit but, as we all know, the Red Wings were not pleased with the interaction, turning Garland into public enemy #1 for the remainder of the final frame.

Yes, Canucks fans are probably still upset at how the referees handled all of the third period altercations, particularly the ones that were targeted at Garland, but the winger handled himself extremely well given the circumstances, and made one large step in cementing his position as a fan favourite in Vancouver.