If the Vancouver Canucks or their fans were expecting their game against the San Jose Sharks to be something like a sunny walk in a shady Northern California vineyard, their expectations were foiled on Saturday night.
The Canucks were flat offensively through most of the contest against the Sharks. They were relatively stout defensively against an overmatched Sharks squad, but San Jose successfully applied pressure on Vancouver’s defenders off of the rush.
In the first period, the Sharks were able to seize on a defensive zone turnover to open the scoring. And even when Vancouver answered, Pius Suter’s key goal tied the game in the second period, followed by a key Kevin Lankinen breakaway stop on William Eklund that kept the game tied.
It took almost the full 60 minutes for Vancouver to finally break San Jose. Even after the club took a late third-period lead off of Jake DeBrusk’s first goal of the season, Vancouver couldn’t quite put the Sharks away, surrendering what seemed like a backbreaking empty net goal late in the contest.
Then the game turned again. Suter, elevated to the Elias Pettersson line, led an excellent response shift. He received a feed from Conor Garland and punched Vancouver’s ticket for their fourth regulation victory of this young NHL season. Vancouver started their California road trip on a winning note — albeit by the skin of their teeth.
Here are three takeaways from a wild one in San Jose.
Kevin Lankinen stands tall again
The Sharks didn’t generate much on Saturday night. Although they didn’t exactly show up in San Jose with that shot-out-of-a-cannon urgency one might’ve hoped for following a lopsided 6-0 shellacking at the hands of the New Jersey Devils at Rogers Arena this week, Vancouver’s superior play stood out in the opening phases on Saturday.
San Jose struggled mightily to get set up in Vancouver’s end of the rink in the first period, and when they did, they struggled even more significantly to break through Vancouver’s defensive structure. If the Canucks’ priority was getting back to “protecting the guts of the ice,” as Rick Tocchet often describes it, they aced that particular task.
Where Vancouver looked somewhat shakier against San Jose was off of the rush.
Getting out in numbers and with pace through the neutral zone, the Sharks generated a handful of high-quality scoring chances and some other chances-at-chances, which died right before the key pass.
On these plays, in particular, Lankinen had to be sharp. And as Vancouver’s increasingly solidified No. 1 goaltender has been so often this season, he was up to the task.
A key stop in tight on Mikael Granlund, and an excellent save to close his five-hole on a breakaway chance from Eklund were punctuation marks on another excellent outing for Lankinen. You’d prefer the Canucks to not need their goaltender to be excellent to grind out a victory against a team like the lowly Sharks, but that wasn’t how Saturday night played out.
Thankfully for Vancouver, as he’s been in every start he’s made this season, Lankinen’s sturdy puck stopping made the result look better than the club’s effort might’ve warranted.
Signs of progress for the Canucks power play?
Give this Sharks team credit. Overmatched on a nightly basis and without their exceptional top overall pick, North Vancouver’s Macklin Celebrini, in the lineup at the moment, the Sharks at least play organized hockey. And with the likes of Tyler Toffoli, Jake Walman, Alex Wennberg and Cody Ceci in the lineup this season, they’re icing a lineup with a far more credible NHL-level feel than what we saw from this franchise last season.
One area where San Jose’s subtle improvements have manifested itself is on special teams. The Sharks power play is passable — solidly average. It’s the same story on the penalty kill. Despite their recent win streak, San Jose doesn’t have the horses necessary to win games in bunches, but they’re solid enough that they’re not offering up a “points night” to their opponents every time out.
This matters because the Canucks power play, though it didn’t score, took a meaningful step forward by both the eye test and the underlying data. With two opportunities, the Canucks at least managed to generate meaningful shots and scoring chances, while getting set up cleanly and peppering the Sharks with actual shot attempts. It might be baby steps, but it’s something, especially given how little pressure Vancouver has generated with the man advantage for most of this season.
Two adjustments stood out from Vancouver’s top power-play unit, despite the consistency of personnel. First, in snapping the puck around, Vancouver’s power-play personnel looked to be making a point of moving the puck more quickly and directly than they had in previous games. It was a welcome change.
Secondly, through the neutral zone, it looked like Quinn Hughes had more of a green light to just lead the breakout outright, and look off of the drop pass if he thought he could engineer the entry on his own as the puck carrier. On Vancouver’s second power-play opportunity he engineered two clean Canucks entries crossing the blue line with control.
Hey, it’s a start.
PEW PEW PIUS FOR THE WIN 🎯 pic.twitter.com/1b6h9O37tu
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 3, 2024
Pius Suter’s big night
Relegated to playing fourth-line centre for the Canucks for much of this season, Suter has remained his usual, consistent, steady, hard-working self throughout this season.
He hasn’t often had nights like he did against San Jose, however. He scored the key goal to tie the game and then added the dramatic game winner in the closing seconds.
As the game went on Suter found himself elevated to the top six, where he played regularly with Pettersson and Garland. Those second-line shifts with Suter on the wing had a sense of purpose, and of course, none more so than their final shift of the game — which ended with Suter firing a laser past Mackenzie Blackwood off of a lovely spinning setup from Garland to secure the regulation victory.
Suter is capable of holding down that fourth-line pivot spot. In fact, the club may need him to stay there given that Nils Åman was placed on waivers on Saturday. There’s an argument to be made though that he might be a better fit for a wing spot somewhat higher up the lineup. Suter made that argument himself down the stretch and in the playoffs last season and restated it with his performance Saturday night.
(Top photo of Pius Suter celebrating with teammates after scoring the game-winning goal: Robert Edwards / Imagn Images)
