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The Vancouver Canucks nearly overcame a horror show start to their game on Monday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
After a disastrous first minute in which the club gave up a heavy shift to the Canadiens’ fourth line, didn’t respond after a heavy hit and surrendered the opening goal, the Canucks built a 3-1 lead in the second period. Yet ultimately that shift still set the tone for a Canadiens team that — on Monday evening, anyway — seemed faster and occasionally tougher in the Canucks’ 5-4 overtime loss.
Compounding the pain of a point that slipped away, the Canucks coughed up a third-period lead against a tired team that largely outchanced and outplayed them throughout the evening.
This version of the Canadiens isn’t the doormat side we saw stumble out of the gate in October and November. They’re a dynamic team now, one that’s fleshed out their defense corps, tends to get sturdy goaltending and has a fair bit of speed and finishing talent. They’d won seven of their most recent nine games going into Monday night and looked full value for a plucky, young Eastern Conference team on the rise.
There is no shame in losing to this Canadiens team at the moment, but it was still a costly missed opportunity for a still-shorthanded Canucks side at the start of a difficult road trip.
A who’s-who of the best teams in hockey awaits the club over the rest of this week (and month), and while the Canucks were able to pick up a hard-fought road point and manage their losses on Monday, this was a game they could’ve had.
Here’s three takeaways from a fun game at Le Centre Bell in Montreal on Monday night.
After a four-game absence, Quinn Hughes returned to the Canucks lineup on Monday sporting a gnarly-looking brace on his left hand.
So Quinn Hughes, obviously still injured is being rushed back #Canucks pic.twitter.com/Ildq0vN6XQ
— Liam (@millerthegoat9) January 7, 2025
Vancouver’s captain was severely missed, but truthfully, he wasn’t at his best on Monday. At times, frankly, he didn’t look entirely comfortable.
At one point late in the first period, Hughes’ stick was slashed and the vibration appeared to significantly bother him. On another power-play sequence late in the second period, some piece of Hughes’ equipment was clearly bothering him but after struggling to fix it with his right hand, he attempted to fix it with his left. When neither worked, he skated to the bench and quickly enlisted Teddy Blueger’s help as the stoppage concluded before taking his position at the point.
His return was still a tremendous boost. Hughes’ injury isn’t a lower-body injury, and his skating is still stupendous, and that rare ability to flip the play at will, so sorely needed in this Canucks lineup — Rick Tocchet referred to Hughes on Monday as a “one-man breakout” — was still evident.
It’s just that Hughes looked like a player working his way back, relative to his preposterously high standard, and the Canucks didn’t quite dominate play five-on-five in his minutes the way they typically do. He didn’t look quite like himself.
What he did still look like: One of the most impactful players on the sheet at the Bell Centre on Monday night, and an indispensable player for the Canucks.
J.T. Miller’s big offensive bounce-back
It had been a long time — over 20 games, excluding the 10 games he missed on his personal leave, and over 10 weeks — since Miller had scored a goal on a goaltender. During that lengthy dry spell, Miller had only scored twice, with both goals being deposited into empty nets.
Miller’s two-way game has been trending in the right direction for a while, especially over the past week or so, and he’s found ways to produce despite the goalless drought, including a shootout winner in Seattle and a lengthy run of assists. But the goals haven’t been coming with the same frequency Miller has typically managed.
That is, until Monday night.
When the streak ended, it ended with a burst. Miller took a gorgeous feed from Nils Höglander and uncorked a one-time shot that absolutely torched Samuel Montembeault. Then later that period, he put home a Jonathan Lekkerimäki rebound.
That’s a Miller missile you LOVE to see. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/bBfmUugUvf
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 7, 2025
Even beyond that, this was probably Miller’s best game of the year. In a game in which the Canadiens generally controlled the tempo and run of play, the Canucks handily won Miller’s minutes both on the scoreboard and territorially. He set up or personally scored all four of Vancouver’s goals, delivered some intimidating hits — including a bit of a late one on Lane Hutson that seemed like payback for an early first-period hit Kaiden Guhle threw at Lekkerimäki — and performed like he was in control of the entire proceedings, even if his team was not.
A run of finishing luck in Vancouver’s favour
In Hughes’ absence, and really since Christmas, the Canucks have managed to keep their head above water impressively at five-on-five. Truthfully though, while the club has competed hard and played well structurally, they’ve been pretty fortunate in a key area of the game.
Over the course of their past five games, Vancouver has managed one of the top save percentages in hockey. And while their goaltenders have been good, a lot of that has felt like poor finishing from their opponents rather than the result of Vancouver’s defensive solidity or the play of their netminders.
First there was the Yegor Sharangovich game against Calgary, then Oliver Bjorkstrand duffed a trio of breakaway attempts in Seattle, then Gustav Nyquist missed several tap-ins for Nashville, and tonight it was Josh Andersson missing wide on multiple backdoor feeds with the entire net yawning in his direction.
On Monday, Vancouver’s game against the Canadiens looked and felt closer on the scoreboard than it really was in terms of both teams’ form. The Canucks, however, took nearly all of their high-quality chances while the Canadiens squandered theirs in bunches.
As hard as Canucks players are competing, if the club continues to surrender this many glorious scoring chances — especially against the run of top NHL teams like they’ll be facing over this month — their luck isn’t likely to persist.
(Photo of J.T. Miller and Lane Hutson: Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
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