The Vancouver Canucks defeated the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Saturday night.

It wasn't pretty, but the Vancouver Canucks found a way to defeat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Saturday night. Vancouver's offence came from Pius Suter, who scored twice, including the game-winner, and Jake DeBrusk, who scored his first goal as a Canuck. In net, Kevin Lankinen was once again solid, stopping 22 of the 24 shots he faced and improving his record to 5-0-2 on the season. 

While Vancouver claimed victory over San Jose, this was not a good game by any stretch. The Canucks were giving pucks away left, right and center, finishing the night with 25 giveaways, according to the stat sheet. There were also numerous times, including with one second left, where Sharks players were left all alone in scoring positions. Ultimately, Vancouver was lucky to escape with the two points, as this was not a strong effort from a defensive perspective. 

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After the game, Head Coach Tocchet was asked about his team's performance. While he said the team did well on the forecheck, Tocchet did mention that there were too many rush attempts against. Tocchet's full quote was, "Well, I thought we did some good things. Our forecheck is probably one of our best forchecks of the year. We had a video on that yesterday because I don't think we were forechecking properly. Still, got to worry about, there's too many odd man rushes. That's something we got to really make accountability, because, I think that's my only bone to pick, is where we're losing that F3 there. They're diving in too much. Not as much as the game before, but not to the level that we want."

Shifting over to the positives, the Canucks once again were perfect on the penalty kill. Vancouver went two for two on the kill while allowing zero shots over the four minutes. Now with eight of nine penalties killed in their last four games, the Canucks are showing that they can be one of the best teams in the league when down a player. 

Another positive was DeBrusk finally getting his first goal with the team. When asked about his goal post-game, DeBrusk said, "Yeah, I was actually shocked. It's been too long. It's one of those things where you always want to get the first one with the new team as fast as possible. It's one of those things that just didn't happen, and you try to stay with it. They've had confidence in me. The guys have had my back, and it's one of those things where you just want to produce more and to do that in the game at that point was getting off the lead is kind of what I do, so it was nice to see it go in."

Conor Garland also deserves a shoutout, as he was arguably Vancouver's best forward. He was a pain in the neck to play against all game and made several crucial plays on the sequence that led to the game-winning goal. Now up to eight points in ten games, Garland has easily been one of the Canucks best players early in the season. 

In the end, the biggest takeaway from this game is that Vancouver needs to play better moving forward. While Lankinen has been great so far, they need to find a way to put away teams and not have to rely on their goaltender as often. The hope is that this game can be used as a learning lesson for the club, and they can be stronger defensively on Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks. 

Facts and Stats:

- Quinn Hughes has now recorded 5+ shots in four of his ten games this season

- Derek Frobort (500), Filip Hronek (400) and Carson Soucy (300) all celebrate games played milestones

- Pius Suter becomes the eighth Swiss player to score 60 career NHL goals

- Vancouver's 25 giveaways are the most in a regular-season game since December 1, 2005, when the team recorded 26 against the Edmonton Oilers

Scoring Summary:

1st Period:

No Scoring

2nd Period:

2:37- SJS: Nico Sturm (2) from Luke Kunin 
14:41- VAN: Pius Suter (3) from Nils Höglander

3rd Period:

15:38- VAN: Jake DeBrusk (1) from Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek
18:43- SJS: Mikael Granlund (6) from Tyler Toffoli and William Eklund 
19:34- VAN: Pius Suter (4) from Conor Garland and Carson Soucy

Up Next:

The Canucks continue their California road trip on Tuesday against the Ducks. Last year, Vancouver swept the season series with Anaheim and is currently on a seven-game winning streak versus the Ducks. Game time is set for 7:00 pm PT from the Honda Center.