Tuesday night’s loss was an ugly one for the Vancouver Canucks, as they dropped their game by a score of 5–1 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Conor Garland scored the lone goal a little over a minute into the first period, but from there, Pittsburgh scored five unanswered. Kevin Lankinen started in net, stopping 20 of 25 shots faced. 

This was Vancouver’s first matchup against former Canucks goaltender Artūrs Šilovs, who was drafted to the team back in 2019. The goaltender had spoken about facing his former team earlier today, calling the opportunity “a fun challenge.” Šilovs has been on the receiving end of lots of early shots with Vancouver — despite being on a different team, he got the same experience tonight, facing five shots from the Canucks less than halfway through the first period. 

Speaking of steady starts, Vancouver continued their effort from Sunday’s game, getting off to an energetic first period tonight despite surrendering a goal. They scored the opening goal off the rush and killed their first penalty taken. While shorthanded, Elias Pettersson managed to intercept a Pittsburgh pass to spring himself and Garland on a 2-on-1, though they were unable to convert off Pettersson’s shot. 

Prior to tonight, Vancouver had scored four power play goals in their past three games. They were given their first opportunity during the first period, though the team spent most of this time attempting to break into Pittsburgh’s zone. Their second and third man-advantages of the game came during the third period and went similarly to how their first opportunity played out, with the bulk of the effort being spent trying to set up in Pittsburgh’s zone. 

The second period took a turn for the worse for the Canucks. Vancouver only managed to test Šilovs twice before the tie was broken by the Penguins. Both teams were eager to get the puck, though it was Pittsburgh who ultimately scored next thanks to a tripping penalty called on former Penguin Drew O’Connor. Sidney Crosby added another tally off a D-zone draw for Vancouver. While the Canucks followed Crosby’s goal up with a solid shift to try and generate a goal for themselves, it was Anthony Mantha who potted another to send the Penguins to the intermission with a 4–1 lead. 

"When you're running a little bit out of gas, you put yourself in a situation where you take some kind of penalties you probably most likely wouldn't take," Canucks head coach Adam Foote said postgame. "You give them five power plays, they got two goals. A lot of good things early, and we looked like we just ran out of gas." 

One part of tonight’s game that raised lots of questions was the deployment of Vancouver’s four lines. The line of Aatu Räty, Kiefer Sherwood, and Evander Kane posted the highest 5-on-5 TOI with 9:13 minutes played together. On the other hand, the line of Elias Pettersson, Conor Garland, and Jake DeBrusk — the line that scored the lone goal tonight — played only 6:21. Kiefer Sherwood was the forward with the most minutes played tonight with 19:40 total. 

Given the absences from their lineup, as well as the intensity of their schedule so early on — having played four games and travelled to four cities in six days — the result of tonight’s game wasn’t entirely surprising. Vancouver will now set their sights on Nashville, where they’ll play their final game of this rough road trip. 

Stats and Facts: 

• With his assist on Garland’s goal, Elias Pettersson extends his personal point streak against the Penguins to six games  
• The Canucks have scored on their first shot of the game twice, currently leading the NHL in this stat  
• Vancouver puts together a combined faceoff win percentage of 32.8%, with Aatu Räty being the lone natural center to put up a percentage of 50% or higher 

Scoring Summary: 

1st Period: 

1:18 - VAN: Conor Garland (2) from Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek 

11:39 - PIT: Connor Dewar (2) from Parker Wotherspoon and Noel Acciari 

2nd Period: 

14:20 - PIT: Tommy Novak (1) from Kris Letang and Justin Brazeau (PPG) 

16:18 - PIT: Sidney Crosby (4) from Rickard Rakell 

17:29 - PIT: Anthony Mantha (3) from Evgeni Malkin  

3rd Period: 

5:56 - PIT: Justin Brazeau (5) from Anthony Mantha and Kris Letang (PPG) 

Up Next: 

Vancouver concludes their current road trip with a game against the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. The Canucks played with a depleted lineup tonight, though the team seems optimistic that players such as Brock Boeser or Teddy Blueger could be back soon. Fans will have to tune in on Thursday to see if this happens — puck drop is scheduled for 5:00 pm PT and the game can be viewed on Sportsnet. 

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