Vancouver listless in Seattle as team reaches midway mark of NHL exhibition schedule
In the week since President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford declared the Vancouver Canucks a playoff team -- IF -- everything goes right, the team is 0-2-1 in exhibition action, was embarrassed 10-0 in Calgary, has managed just two goals in three games, has one goal from a forward halfway through the preseason and has seen Jack Studnicka emerge as the best story from training camp.
In other words, the Canucks have plenty of work to do before they start playing games that matter on October 11th.
On Thursday in Seattle, the Canucks went through the motions falling 3-1 to the Kraken. The outcome at this stage of the proceedings doesn't matter, but the process does. And with several NHL-calibre players in the line-up in the Emerald City, the Canucks were clearly the second best team on the ice getting outshot 28-17 by their Pacific Northwest neighbours.
This is what stood out from 60 minutes at Climate Pledge Arena:
*Conor Garland became the first Canuck forward to pot a goal in the preseason when he beat Philip Grubauer with a quick shot from the left face-off circle eight minutes into the second period. The play started with some strong work along the right wing boards by Anthony Beauvillier who thwarted a Kraken breakout. He freed the puck for Pius Suter who fed a cross slot pass into Garland's wheel house and the veteran winger made no mistake tying the game at one.
*As they have during their brief time in the NHL, the Kraken looked quicker than the Canucks for much of the night. Some of that may have had to do with the fact that several Canucks were playing for the second straight night. Rick Tocchet and the Canucks coaching staff tested the likes of Dakota Joshua, Sheldon Dries, Max Sasson, Arshdeep Bains, Christian Wolanin and Guillaume Brisebois by dressing all of them after they had played on Wednesday in Edmonton. Joshua, Dries and Sasson have appeared in all three Canucks preseason games so far.
*It was another remarkably quiet night for Vasily Podkolzin who took an early penalty and had a late shot on goal. In between, there really wasn't much to his game. In fact, outside of those two events, his individual stat line was empty. No hits, no blocked shots, no takeaways in 12:58 of ice time. According to the NHL game sheet, Podkolzin had just one shift over the final 11 minutes of the second period. Others have stepped up their games in an effort to win a job on the opening night roster, you have to wonder how many more opportunities Podkolzin will get with just three games left on the preseason schedule.
*Matt Irwin led the Canucks with four hits and six blocked shots. That was the good news. The bad news was the veteran defender had an individual Corsi of 20.83% and both the shots and the scoring chances were 11-2 for the Kraken with Irwin on the ice at even strength. Irwin played 16:28 on the night and logged 1:21 of short-handed ice time.
*Thatcher Demko looked sharp in his first game action of the preseason stopping 25 of the 28 Seattle shots including 20 of 22 at even strength. He didn't have much chance on the second of two Eeli Tolvanen third period goals as the Canucks got caught on a slow change and the Kraken moved the puck around nicely before Tolvanen snapped home what proved to be the insurance marker. Demko will get get at least one more full game in the preseason and possibly two. More importantly, the Canucks are not on the road now until October 15th, so Demko will have plenty of practice time to continue to work with goalie coach Ian Clark to ensure he's ready to go when the season starts.
*Filip Hronek gave the Canucks a glimpse of some of the things he will do to shore up their defense. On a pairing with Ian Cole, Hronek logged 22:01 and had an individual Corsi of 57.6%. On a night when the Kraken held a wide edge in play, the Canucks outshot Seattle 7-4 and out-chanced the home team 12-7 with Hronek on the ice. He looked steady in his own zone and generated looks in the offensive end. It was an impressive start to the preseason for Hronek who was easily one of the best Canucks on the night.
The Canucks are home to Edmonton on Saturday for their first preseason game at Rogers Arena. They will face the Kraken next Wednesday in Abbotsford and then round out the preseason at home to Calgary next Friday.