3 takeaways as Canucks lose 4-1 to Lightning in Tampa Bay
A look at Tuesday evening's clash with the Lightning, as the Canucks fall in their first road contest of the season and remain winless through three games.
It's fair to state that this season hasn't exactly gone to plan so far for the Vancouver Canucks. Yes it's still extremely early and we do expect them to be a serious contender come playoff time, but that doesn't exactly help or appease the fans as of right now.
After blowing two third period leads to open the 2024-25 campaign and having to settle for a couple of 'loser' points, it got worse on Tuesday evening as the Canucks lost 4-1 in regulation time to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here are our three takeaways from a dissappointing result in the first road game of this season:
1) A slow start
The Canucks' home opener versus the Calgary Flames had been marked by a blistering first period and frenetic pace. They outshot the visitors 15-5 and built a (seemingly) unsurmountable 4-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Well, Tuesday evening's first road game of the campaign saw the Canucks come out in effectively the opposite manner. They were outshot 13-7 by the hosts and were extremely fortunate to only be trailing 1-0 at the conclusion of the opening period. (More on this in a little bit.)
Pure and simple, the Canucks played poorly in the first 20 minutes and had no sense of urgency. This is totally unacceptable, for a team which entered the evening with two losses to begin the 2024-25 campaign.
In fairness though, the Canucks didn't try to hide from their lethargic start to the game against the Lightning. As per the team's X account on social media, head coach Rick Tocchet said: "We weren't ready to play the first period. I know it was only one-nothing, but I didn't think we won a battle."
Connor Garland, who scored the Canucks' only goal of the game, agreed with his head coach. As per Corey Long of NHL.com, he said: "Our start ... we just didn't come out on time. It's unacceptable on the first game in the road trip. We put ourselves behind the eight ball."
2) Better showing from Silovs
There was surprise for some, that Artūrs Šilovs got the start in Tampba Bay. The thinking was that Kevin Lankinen would get the nod between the pipes, given that he had a better outing in his first game of the season versus the Philadelphia Flyers, compared to his teammate against the Flames.
However, as we wrote on Sunday, who started this game and then Thursday's contest against the Florida Panthers, would allude to Tocchet's confidence in each goalie; yes, even at this very early stage of the season. The Canucks head coach had advised he wanted to keep both netminders involved early on in the 2024-25 campaign, and we believed whoever he had more faith in, would start versus the Stanley Cup champions.
In the end, this decision was made easy after a nightmare outing for Šilovs versus the Flames, with him giving up six goals on 26 shots. Meanwhile, Lankinen offered more of a calming performance against the Flyers, allowing just two goals on 31 shots.
We appreciate there will have been some concern about Šilovs heading into Tuesday evening, but the reality is he kept the Canucks in the game as they were outshot 8-1 in the early going. Yes the Lightning took a 1-0 lead after just 3:55 of play, but that was it for the opening 20 minutes thanks to the excellent play of the visiting goaltender in keeping the hosts at bay.
In the end, Šilovs would allow three goals on the 27 shots he faced, but the truth is you only attach any real blame to him on the Lightning's second goal. Overall, we appreciate he still has things he needs to work on, but his performance was a nice recovery from his horrendous display on opening night.
3) Lacking the finishing touch
Based on just the final score of 4-1 alone, you would think the Lightning dominated the Canucks. However, following the aforementioned first period, the visitors put on an extremely encouraging display and were arguably the better team.
This was backed up by quite a lot of the stats on the night -- and yes, we do appreciate the game is won on the ice rather than a piece of paper -- with the Canucks actually often getting the better of their hosts. This included leading the Lightning in face-off wins, hits, takeaways and fewest giveaways, while also holding them scoreless on five power play opportunities.
Where the Canucks struggled was in converting their chances, after only being outshot 28-27 on goal overall by the hosts. Of course it doesn't help when you're going up against two-time Stanley Cup champion Andrei Vasilevskiy in the opposing net, with him only beaten once by Garland's tap in, after being left stranded following a deflection.
The Canucks had their clearest advantage in chances during the second period, but just couldn't put any away as the Lightning instead extended their advantage to 2-0 through 40 minutes. As Garland said: "We should have had one late in the second and it's a different game. ... 2-1 is a big difference from 2-0."
It also doesn't help, when you're just not catching a break, with a prime example being the case of Quinn Hughes. As noted by Iain MacIntye of Sportsnet, the Canucks captain has had an astonishing 18 of his 25 overall shots blocked through three games.
Next. Rebuilding or competing? The Canucks’ identity crisis in 2024. Rebuilding or competing? The Canucks’ identity crisis in 2024. dark
Quote of the game:
Tocchet talking about the need for his players to battle more. He said:
"We need some guys to dig in a little bit. We're kind of in the corners on the ends of our sticks. It's been happening a couple games now, and we've got to make sure that we get a little bit grittier in the corners."
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