Canucks: 3 takeaways from embarrassing 7-1 loss to Colorado

Elias Pettersson continues to struggle

Speaking of broken records – what is going on with Elias Pettersson?

The young Swede has had an extremely underwhelming start to his season, and doesn’t appear to be breaking out of this funk anytime soon.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the smoothest transition for Pettersson this year, something that fans and media have been taking into consideration. The 23-year-old centre missed the majority of training camp and exhibition play due to his ongoing contract negotiations, and was only able to suit up for one preseason game as a result.

However, given his hefty new raise, as well as his previous point production and extremely high standards that he set for himself, it’s no longer acceptable for Pettersson to be performing at such a mediocre pace, especially now that we’re already just under 20% into the 2021-22 campaign.

The former Calder Trophy winner has provided subpar offensive support so far, having only notched three goals and six assists in 14 games, including nine straight games without a goal. Pettersson has yet to find strong chemistry with any of his linemates, particularly the Lotto Line in J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, which seems to be drastically affecting his overall ability to make a dent on the scoresheet.

Pettersson’s overall gameplay has also been an area of high concern.

The former 2017 first round selection hasn’t been creative or confident with the puck, both at 5-on-5 and on the powerplay. In particular, Pettersson has struggled to establish quality scoring chances in the offensive zone, while also lacking the ability to control the play in the neutral zone.

This was particularly evident during several occasions on Thursday night, including when Pettersson tried to pull off a simple dangle to create space at his own blueline, but just ended up losing the puck en route to Colorado’s third goal of the period.

Pettersson finished the contest with zero points, zero SOG and a minus one rating over 17:18 of ice time, marking the second time in three games that Pettersson has logged less than 20 minutes TOI.

Yes, you can’t put all of the blame of this disastrous defeat on Pettersson. The rest of the top-six forwards didn’t perform nearly as well as they should’ve, and it was painfully evident all night.

However, in a game where your top players needed to step up and be your top players, especially when they don’t have to go up against world-class talents like Nathan MacKinnon, Pettersson once again fell short of the mark.

This will need to change soon if the team wants to escape their current downward spiral.

Special teams sink even lower

Might as well talk about broken records one more time, eh?

To make matters even worse, the Canucks once again strung together a series of disastrous performances on Thursday night, further twisting the knife that is their special teams.

Let’s start with the penalty kill.

As we’ve seen far too often this year, the Canucks continued to underperform and underwhelm while down a man. The team has fortunately improved their faceoff winning percentage, thanks to the services of their captain, who once again put up strong numbers in the dot.

However, even if the Canucks were able to take control of the puck in their own end, they faced large difficulty trying to hold onto it. It also doesn’t help much when you make your way to the sin bin so early on in the contest.

The team was able to thwart off Colorado’s primary unit, led by Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar, but stumbled and fell as soon as the second unit hopped over the boards.

The blame can fall primarily on Jason Dickinson, who has not lived up to the sturdy defensive label since arriving in Vancouver. The former Dallas Star was easily beaten by rookie Alex Newhook as he charged down the flank, and was also badly out of position on the rebound, which led to an easy tap-in for Valeri Nichushkin.

Vancouver allowed one more meaningless powerplay goal in the third period to bring their success rate to just 33% on Thursday night. This marked the fifth time in six games that the Canucks surrendered two powerplay tallies, which plummeted their penalty kill success rate further down the standings. The team currently sits dead last in the league at 62.8%.

The powerplay isn’t much better.

The team has a chance to even up the score early in the first period, thanks to a tripping penalty drawn by Juho Lammikko.

You can see where we’re going with this.

The Canucks looked even more lethargic and unmotivated than their previous outings, once again unable to set up any sort of offensive opportunity or set play in their opponent’s zone. They looked slow with the puck, and weren’t able to execute their crisp, simple passes and quick shots on targets that led to their powerplay success in Dallas.

The team fired blanks on three separate opportunities, bringing their powerplay percentage down to 16.7% overall, good for 21st in the league.

The cherry on top? Vancouver also allowed their first shorthanded tally of the year, marking a new low for their so-called highly lethal units.

Aside from Thursday night, the Canucks had been performing well at 5-on-5, but will need to make serious adjustments with their special teams if they don’t want to continue to get exposed and executed, night in and night out.

Other notes:

• Demko was given a breather in the third period, after facing six goals and 24 shots in the first 40 minutes. Jaroslav Halak played in relief, but also fell victim to Colorado’s scoring touch. The Canucks will wrap up the weekend with back-to-back contests, so expect Green to roll with both netminders. Demko currently holds a record of 5-5-1 with a 2.97 GAA and .907 SV%, while Halak is still looking for his first win with his new team.
• Colorado was awarded a five-minute man advantage in the third period, courtesy of Tucker Poolman’s hockey swing to the head of Kiefer Sherwood. Poolman was assessed a match penalty, and could receive supplemental discipline from the league.
• Miller was able to notch a secondary assist in the third period, extending his point streak to six games, while Nils Höglander found the back of the net for the second time this year. Miller currently leads the team in scoring with 16 points.
• Jack Rathbone returned to the line-up on Thursday after being reassigned to Abbotsford on November 1st. Rathbone posted one hit, one takeaway and one blocked shot in just over 16 minutes of ice time, skating on the third pairing with Kyle Burroughs. Rathbone was recalled from Abbotsford prior to the road trip in relief of Travis Hamonic who was unable to travel with the team due to his current vaccination status.

The Canucks will play the second game of their current road trip on Saturday night, facing off against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is set for 7pm PST.

What were your thoughts from Thursday’s 7-1 disaster? Let us know in the comments!