Canucks: 3 takeaways from frustrating 6-4 loss to Washington

Pettersson carries the team on his shoulders

Just like last year’s visit to Washington, Elias Pettersson was a man on a mission for his Vancouver squad.

The young Swedish centre was easily the best Canuck for much of the 60 minutes, trying his best to replicate the success from his performance back in January 2022.

As many fans likely remember, the Canucks entered that contest having barely survived the Florida road trip gauntlet, while also putting their newfound winning habits into question after an extremely dominant December.

Fortunately, Vancouver was able to bounce back in a big way, thanks to a two-goal performance from Pettersson that not only kept his team from veering off the playoff racetrack, but which also catapulted his gameplay to another level for the remainder of the season.

Although this year’s final score didn’t favour the Canucks, it was still an impressive performance from Pettersson, who notched one goal, two assists and three shots on goal in just over 17 minutes, marking the 18th three-point night of his young career.

Pettersson now leads the team in scoring with four points in three games and, if all goes well, should easily smash the 68-point output from last year. Now it’s just (hopefully) a matter of time before his teammates find their scoring touch, too.

The Canucks won’t be able to dwell on this defeat for too long, facing off against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night for their first back-to-back contests of the season.

Puck drop is set for 4:00pm PST.

What are your thoughts from Monday’s frustrating 6-4 loss in Washington? Let us know in the comments!