The Vancouver Canucks pushed hard in the third period to secure a point Saturday night against the red-hot Ottawa Senators.
In the third period, at least, Vancouver’s pressure game finally got to the Senators defence. The Canucks’ execution was sharp and they played on the front foot throughout the final frame. The point mattered and so did the push, as Vancouver forced overtime in a game in which it trailed on three occasions.
If the Canucks had matched the effort and intensity they brought in the third period throughout the game, perhaps they might’ve come away with a victory. Instead, Vancouver was flat in several key moments — throughout the first period and a power play in the second, in particular — and spent much of the night chasing the game on its way to a 5-4 overtime loss.
It was an opportunity squandered. The Senators didn’t start star netminder Linus Ullmark, opting to save him for the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday. Even though the Canucks managed to score three goals, largely thanks to a stupendous individual performance from Quinn Hughes, it took Vancouver until the final 10 minutes of the game to really apply pressure against Senators backup Leevi Merilainen, a quad-A calibre netminder who has appeared in only three NHL games.
And it was a loss that meant Vancouver dropped a result for the seventh time in 10 games — although it’s at least amassed a 3-3-4 record during that stretch to preserve a .500 point percentage.
Vancouver will have one more shot to get right before the holiday when Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks come into town Monday night. Although truth be told, the Sharks over the past several weeks aren’t playing like the “free two points” team they’ve been in previous years.
Here are three takeaways from Vancouver’s overtime loss Saturday night.
The short-handed goal
This game turned on the Senators’ sharply executed short-handed set play that sprung Josh Norris for a breakaway and resulted in a 4-3 lead heading into a tight-checking third period. The Canucks overcame the deficit to earn a point in regulation, but Ottawa’s key short-handed tally stands out as the pivot point that defined the game.
It was a wonderful sequence from the Senators and a goal that highlighted several moments in which the Canucks’ first-unit power play seemed unprepared to deal with the defensive side of the game.
What a beautiful goal, one of the prettiest of the season.
Sanderson with a Karlsson-esque pass to Giroux who sauced it on a platter to Norris.pic.twitter.com/khw5vVAFnM
— Alex Adams (@alexadamsBTP_) December 22, 2024
The sequence opened with Travis Hamonic jumping into the lane, beating Brock Boeser to the puck and securing a winger win to open the Ottawa kill. The puck squirted over to Jake Sanderson, who took his time before hitting a perfect stretch pass to Claude Giroux streaking down the right wing.
Perhaps the Canucks expected Sanderson to simply clear the puck because Boeser took time to get back after Hamonic beat him off the draw, and J.T. Miller never really appeared to recognize the danger posed by the Senators’ set breakout. Boeser ended up having to hustle back to attempt to check Norris, who should’ve been Miller’s check.
Boeser, however, couldn’t get back. Giroux hit Norris perfectly, and Norris made no mistake beating Kevin Lankinen and spotting the Senators a late second-period lead.
It set the tone for the third period and was one of those moments that proved costly for Vancouver when it lost in overtime.
Quinn Hughes can do it alone, but it’s too much to ask every night
The Canucks were flattened pretty thoroughly by the Senators in the first period until Hughes led a rally — setting up a Boeser goal with a lovely skilled pass and scoring another. Hughes’ efforts permitted the Canucks to end the first period level with the Senators at 2-2, a flattering result given Ottawa’s sharp play and Vancouver’s listless form to start the contest.
Across the board, with Hughes on the ice at five-on-five, Vancouver at least could occasionally look dangerous. Without him at five-on-five, the Canucks looked popgun, almost like one of those teams that overachieved in the Stanley Cup playoffs only to bump into an obviously superior opponent and finds itself completely out of answers.
Truthfully, Hughes willed the Canucks into this game and helped them secure a point they earned through their third-period push but probably didn’t deserve based on their form throughout the evening.
Hughes was on the ice for all of Vancouver’s five-on-five goals. While Vancouver was still in tough against a Senators team that played disciplined hockey and outplayed the Canucks for much of the evening, even in Hughes’ minutes (until score effects kicked in), at least the Canucks manufactured shots on goal and actual goals — three of four off of Hughes’ stick as either the goal scorer or primary passer — with Hughes on the ice.
Without Hughes, entering the third period, the Canucks were outshot by a wide margin and outscored 2-0. They generated just four shots on goal in about 16 1/2 minutes of five-on-five ice time minutes when Hughes sat.
We know that generating offense in general and shots on goal, in particular, have been issues for this Canucks team of late. That continued Saturday, although it was a low-event game both ways.
The issue, however, was especially pronounced in Vancouver’s non-Hughes minutes. Another testament to his value, perhaps, but also to a roster construction issue that has proved intractable as the season has gone along — and has intensified in recent weeks.
The showcase showdown
Between Hughes and Sanderson, the game served to showcase two apex individual performances from two top-end blueliners in this league.
We know what Hughes is. He should be the clear front-runner for the Norris Trophy and, honestly, should be generating Hart Trophy consideration. One suspects he might if the Canucks can get their game in order and go on a run after the holiday.
Sanderson, however, is still coming into his own in the NHL. And with the Senators peaking, his time might be now.
Obviously, Sanderson’s offensive game isn’t at the level of Hughes’ and likely never will be, but he brought it consistently — scoring the game winner to cap off a night in which he helped the Senators control much of the game. The hit he put on Tyler Myers, knocking the 6-foot-8 veteran defender to the ice in the third period, also stood out as proof of Sanderson’s well-roundedness as a two-way player.
This Senators team looks like a real threat to qualify for the postseason in the Eastern Conference, and the emergence of Sanderson as a star-level No. 1 defender — and his partnership with Nick Jensen — is a major reason for it. On Saturday, he was a ton of fun to watch.
(Photo of Kevin Lankinen stopping Ridly Greig: Rich Lam / Getty Images)
