Home "Not Sweet" Home

Another successful road trip, another let down on their return to home ice. The Vancouver Canucks suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of their divisional rival Edmonton Oilers. Saturday night’s 7-3 result was another addition to a common theme this season in Vancouver.

The nightcap of Hockey Night in Canada saw the Canucks dealt their fifth loss at home     (T-31st) so far this season (1-2-3). Considering this was just their sixth contest in front of the Vancouver faithful, this has been a disappointing run of games for the Canucks at Rogers Arena to say the least. Through all 41 games played in Vancouver during the 2023-24 regular season, the team only left their fans going home wanting more on 14 occasions (27-9-5) – collecting the fifth most wins at home. The team is collecting points at home at a clip of 0.417, where last year they finished with a points percentage of 0.72 at home. If they are going to find sustainable success this season, they will need to flip the script that has seen them collect the 27th most points at home and start playing like the team that had the fourth most points in their own barn.

Saturday’s contest was originally a back-and-forth contest that saw momentum sway from period to period. Edmonton received an early powerplay after Canucks captain Quinn Hughes was penalized for a light hold on Oilers captain Connor McDavid. Leon Draisaitl would make light work of recently recalled Vancouver forward Nils Åman at the half walk, leading to the play that would set him up on the back door to score the game’s first goal 2:48 into the first period, seconds after the Vancouver captain stepped back onto the ice. This would be the lone tally through 20 minutes as the teams traded chances until eventually the Oilers potted two goals within 1:13 of each other during the first five minutes of the second frame.

What seemed to be a tight game between two closely matched teams had suddenly been blown out of the water. Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet was now faced with a similar challenge to that when his team returned home to play Pittsburgh two weeks prior – a multigoal deficit almost halfway through a game that was meant to be the homecoming of a team riding high on its travelling success.

One thing that we have seen from Tocchet’s team is that they are rarely out of a game before it is over. Eighteen seconds later, the Canucks entered the scoresheet with a tip in Elias Pettersson. It was about time as the underperforming centre had demonstrated his best performance of the season through 25 minutes of play. It was evident Pettersson had felt he earned that goal, as emotion beamed from the player after scoring his third goal in what has been a difficult start to the season.

Those in the rink and watching on TV all saw glimpses of the superstar that has been draped in a shroud of frustration and poor form since returning from the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. Pettersson had two shots on goal and another three attempts miss the net, but as a whole it seemed he had more confidence with the puck on his stick than he had in months. One shot on the powerplay beat Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner but buzzed off the crossbar in what seemed to be an old-fashion-Petey wrister coming down from the point. He finished the night with a goal and assist, his first multipoint game since a match up in late March against the Calgary Flames last season.

While this appeased the many viewers in the market who have been calling for quantitative production from Vancouver’s #40, Pettersson also left many thinking that he was the Canucks best skater and a resemblance his old self. On the other side of the ice, Pettersson demonstrated his ability to once again be a dominate 200-foot player. In what at the time appeared to be a game saving stick check, the Canucks forward denied Connor McDavid of a surefire scoring chance during an Oilers’ powerplay. This was during a Tyler Myers’ penalty where he was all over the ice trying to keep the Oiler’s lead to just one goal. Overall, Pettersson was on the ice short-handed for 1:51.

It would not be much longer before everything went downhill for Vancouver. The Oilers made it 4-2 six minutes into the third on a goal in tight from Connor Brown. Any hopes of another comeback would soon be squandered as the floodgates opened for Edmonton. It was a very uninspiring remainder of the game which included three Oilers’ goals (McDavid, Kulak, C. Brown) where JT Miller was uncharacteristically not the Canucks best forward. In the ten minutes that followed the Oilers’ fourth goal, Miller had only three shifts. In the end, the Canucks centre finished with 17:14 TOI, which is his third lowest total on the season – the least since the two games versus Philadelphia and Chicago where he was nursing an undisclosed discomfort that restricted his abilities.

For the Canucks to turn things around on this homestand, they are going to need both JT Miller and Elias Pettersson to perform at their best, becoming the two-headed monster that Vancouver has utilized in the past to neutralize some of the leagues best lineups. Especially with forward Brock Boeser now deemed ‘day to day’ by the head coach, the team will look to its duo of elite centres to lead the forward-core, along with rookie call-up Jonathan Lekkerimaki and the heavy hitting forward Dakota Joshua who has been out all season recovering from cancer procedures.

Early Season Rematch:

            Rogers Arena will host another Alberta team on Tuesday as the Canucks welcome the Calgary Flames back in town for the second time this season already. The first time, Vancouver’s home opener, saw a total breakdown from the home team as the Canucks blew a first period 4-1 lead, eventually losing in overtime 6-5 to the Flames. Since their first meeting, Vancouver and Calgary are 7-3-2 and 6-5-3 respectively, both good for 17 points in the standings (Vancouver leads in points percentage due to games in hand). However, Calgary is coming off a three-game eastern road trip and will be playing the first half of a back-to-back at home Monday before playing Vancouver Tuesday. Prior to Monday’s game against Los Angeles, Calgary has only won three of their last ten contests. Vancouver will hope to make the most of their remaining games this home stand in order to reset their winning ways on home-ice.