Canucks: Three takeaways from demoralizing 4-2 loss to Avalanche

1. There was some effort but not enough

At least they didn’t give up seven goals, right? The bar has been set quite low.

After being outshot 9-1 in the first, the Canucks decided to turn on the gas and evened up the shots at 12 apiece when the period ended. In the second, they outshot 15-7.

The Canucks did get some good zone time. They were quick to move the puck up the ice and played with energy.

Conor Garland got the Canucks on the board with a nice effort to drive to the net. He didn’t get a point (and unfortunately the Canucks Twitter account cut it out in the clip below) but the play started with a good forecheck from Vasily Podkolzin.

Jason Dickinson somehow made the pass to Garland in the scrum.

Garland was definitely the best Canuck forward on the night. He led all Canucks with five shots on goal and had a respectable 61.29% Corsi for at five on five per NaturalStatTrick.

Nils Höglander also looked like one of the better Canucks out there.

The effort was there but they couldn’t keep it for a full sixty minutes and top players like Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser looked invisible.

“I thought we played really good in the second there,” said Quinn Hughes. “It was disappointing for sure.”

After the Canucks took a 2-1 lead the self-sabotage began in the third.

2. Undisciplined penalties from J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes

Hughes and J.T. Miller were frustrated and they let them be known.

First with the Canucks on the penalty kill, (more on that in the next takeaway) Nazem Kadri scored on the rebound and Miller made an unnecessary and dangerous hit. The tempers flared on both teams and both Miller and Mikko Rantanen were assessed minor roughing penalties.

After Hughes got hit by Samuel Girard in the Avalanche zone, he cross-checked Girard soon after. It kind of feels out of character for Hughes as he usually doesn’t retaliate after hits and is a quiet guy.

“I got hit and I don’t think I was planning on doing anything and then he showed up and I saw him and I just cross-checked him,” said Hughes. “Not a good penalty for me to take there at that time, I can’t do anything about that now.”

I get the frustration from both Hughes and Miller but both were unnecessary and undisciplined. Yes, Hughes needs to stand up for himself but that was a clear cross-check. For Miller, he was lucky to get only two minutes as that was a dangerous and gutless hit. The puck was in the net already and regardless of what you think of Kadri, you never want to see any player’s head hit the post like that. It was a late and vicious hit that was futile.