The Vancouver Canucks didn’t win a lot of games on their six-game road trip but they did offer up plenty of metaphors for their season.
The team fell apart, rallied back, and fell apart all over again. There were devastating injuries, young players from the AHL coming through with big performances, and late-game comebacks that still resulted in losses after regulation. Almost every game in some way felt like the 2024-25 season writ large.
The latest metaphor was almost too on the nose. Looking for one more miraculous comeback in the third period against the Winnipeg Jets, the Canucks instead shot themselves in the foot with an unforced error. With Thatcher Demko pulled for the extra attacker, an extra extra attacker stepped over the boards for a too many men on the ice penalty.
That’s the 2024-25 Canucks. All too often, they were the makers of their own demise.
Of course, there were plenty of obstacles outside of their control, as there were all season. Their top two centres are both injured and they were trying to beat the best team and goaltender in the NHL. But it’s particularly difficult to overcome those obstacles while suffering from self-inflicted wounds.
The Canucks desperately needed a strong road trip to stay in the playoff race, especially with the St. Louis Blues storming up the standings. Instead, they went 2-2-2, picking up six points of a possible 12.
They started the trip in the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, in control of their own destiny. They now end their road trip six points back with just eight games remaining.
Mathematically speaking, the Canucks have not yet been eliminated. , the Canucks are done. :
Goodbye, sayonara
They are tired
Write the eulogy
For the time being, actually, I’m going to write about this game because that is what I always do after, , I say the line: I watched this game.
- The Canucks got in trouble early in the first period when a pair of penalties gave the league’s second-best power play a minute-long two-man advantage. Fortunately, the Canucks have the third-best penalty kill in the league and shut the Jets down . Thatcher Demko made four saves on the penalty kill but none of them came during the 5-on-3, as the skaters harried the Jets, took away passing and shooting lanes, and got two solid clears.
- Pius Suter nearly opened the scoring midway through the first, as he slipped into someplace more comfortable and took a great pass from Filip Hronek. Unable to one-time the pass as it came across his body, he instead settled the puck, waited until Connor Hellebuyck dropped lower in his stance, then ripped the puck off the crossbar so hard that I thought he might have dented it.
- Suter eventually did get the opening goal with a minute left in the first. A quick regroup in the neutral zone by Jake DeBrusk caught the Jets on a bad change and Tyler Myers sent Suter in alone on Hellebuyck. Suter kept things simple with a quick backhand-to-forehand move to get Hellebuyck leaning to his left and then sent a perfectly-placed shot over his right pad. Suter made scoring on Hellebuyck look easy; it is very much not, as the rest of the game illustrated.
- Even that one goal nearly didn’t count. The Jets challenged the goal for offside and they had a pretty strong case. It certainly looked like Suter’s skate was a millimeter across the blue line ahead of the puck but, after an exhaustive review by the officials, they ruled that Suter was onside. Personally, I would have gone with, “We have no idea if he’s onside or offside; your guess is as good as mine.”
- The goal extended Suter’s scoring streak to four games, with eight points in those four games. Heck, he’s got 13 points in his last 10 games — he’s been fantastic down the stretch and down an admirable job stepping in as the team’s first-line centre with Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil both out with injuries.
- “[Suter] has been unbelievable,” said Myers. “He’s stepped up in a big way for us. He’s playing big minutes and he’s playing really good hockey for us. He’s played solid all year but obviously he’s getting more opportunity now with some guys out. He’s been awesome.”
- Credit to Aatu Räty for not only going 11-for-16 on faceoffs but also controlling possession. The Canucks outshot the Jets 6-to-1 when Räty was on the ice at even-strength. At the very least, he's making a strong argument to make the Canucks out of camp next season.
- After Demko made some fantastic saves, the Jets tied the game in anticlimactic fashion midway through the second period. Kyle Connor and Alex Iafallo skated in 2-on-2 but there was no fancy passing play. Connor just took a shot from distance and, like a maid with a rug , it beat Demko clean. At first, it looked like it might have deflected off Derek Forbort’s stick, but nope. The puck just fooled Demko, perhaps because Connor couldn’t fully follow through on the shot with Forbort’s stick in the way.
- Late in the second period, Linus Karlsson did a neat thing, and if Pass it to Bulis is about anything, it’s neat things in hockey. Karlsson was under pressure in the corner on the power play and, instead of trying to kick the puck free, he intentionally stepped on the puck, preventing the Jets from poking the puck away, then slid it free to Jonathan Lekkerimäki. It was neat.
- The Jets nearly got a lucky goal in the opening minute of the third period, as a wild Logan Stanley shot that looked like it was heading over the glass was tipped back towards the net by Nino Neiderreiter. It was a bizarre-looking path for the puck to take but Demko reacted to make the stand-up save like a young Kirk McLean.
- The Canucks could only hold off the Jets for so long. Adam Lowry redirected a Nikolaj Ehlers pass on net, then kicked the rebound back towards Demko. If that kick had gone in, it would have been no goal. Instead, Demko made the pad save and Mason Appleton outbattled Quinn Hughes to swat the puck into the open net.
- After the Jets took the 2-1 lead, the Canucks had chances but they just couldn’t finish. Conor Garland sent a Teddy Blueger pass sailing over the net from point blank range, then Blueger got robbed by Hellebuyck on a 2-on-1. Hellebuyck made stops on Brock Boeser, Suter, and DeBrusk is short succession on a later sequence. They just couldn’t beat him and, unfortunately, is not an option in hockey.
- Cole Perfetti put the game out of reach with a stunning goal. Derek Forbort has been very good defensively for the Canucks but Perfetti undressed him with a gorgeous outside-inside move through Forbort’s legs. He finished it off with a top-shelf shot while falling to the ice. It was an unreal goal.
- Rick Tocchet pulled the goaltender with 4:40 left on the clock, which was an extremely hopeful move. Ultimately, they weren’t undone by an empty-net goal but by a too many men on the ice penalty. They can’t complain about it being a borderline call: the Canucks had seven players on the ice for a good 20 seconds before the whistle was blown.
- The Canucks managed to get an offensive zone faceoff with about a minute left, giving them an opportunity to pull Demko again to go 5-on-5. Instead, it seemed like even Tocchet gave up on the game, keeping Demko in the net to go 4-on-5. Unsurprisingly, they did not score.
- Let’s be honest: winning this game against this team at the end of this road trip was a long shot. This road trip and their chance at the playoffs were lost a lot earlier.
