Canucks: Three takeaways from wild 3-2 overtime loss to Anaheim Ducks

John Gibson was hard to solve

It seems like John Gibson turns into a brick wall every time he plays against Vancouver.

He even made his NHL Debut in Vancouver. That was on April 7, 2014. The then 20-year-old made 18 saves for the shutout in a 3-0 win for Anaheim.

Fast forward to the present and Gibson was on top form.

He was making solid saves to keep the Ducks in the game. That is pretty much what Demko has done for the Canucks all season.

One of those was a great save off Bo Horvat who streaked down the ice and made a nice deke around the Anaheim defender.

Gibson’s record against the Canucks is now 11-2-1. Yeah, he loves playing against them.

He also played two breakaway saves in overtime on Miller and Horvat.

It seemed like no matter what the Canucks tried, Gibson was going to get the shutout. However, as we all know, that didn’t happen.

Late third-period comeback despite a terrible call

Before I get to the two goals, let’s vent on the officiating.

Halak was apparently called for tripping late in the third. However, it didn’t look like his skate hardly touched Ryan Getzlaf who looked like he would be a pretty good Olympic Diver or soccer player. The Vancouver Whitecaps are in the playoffs, maybe they could sign him so they can get lots of penalty kicks.

That was an atrocious call and one of the most baffling ones I have ever seen. The only thing worse than that call was Thomas Drance’s awful puns on Twitter.

The more you look at the replay, it looks like Halak’s skate didn’t touch Getzlaf at all and the Ducks captain decided to show make an early audition for Canada’s diving team for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Fans on social media and (especially) the fans in the building were not happy with the call. The Rogers Arena crowd belted loud “ref you suck chants.”

In overtime, the Ducks had five (!) skaters on the ice and the refs pretended not to see it. They probably should have asked The Count from Sesame Street for help.

It was just an awful display of referring.

A few minutes before the bizarre penalty call on Halak, Miller got the Canucks on the board with a wrist shot that went through the screen and off Gibson’s pad. The play started with Quinn Hughes forcing a turnover which created more sustained pressure.

While the Canucks were killing Halak’s penalty, Elias Pettersson snapped one past Gibson. He now has goals in two straight games. Hopefully, he has awakened from a slumber and this continues.

Good on the Canucks for pushing in the final six minutes of the third and it was nice to see the contribution from the Lotto Line. When they get going, good things happen.

“We played a good game again,” said Miller. A good push. But we’re here for two points and not one. I guess you can take a lot of the good tonight.”