The Vancouver Canucks came out flat against the Utah Hockey Club in the franchise’s first regular-season game in Salt Lake City, and they almost got away with it.
This upstart Utah side is legitimately impressive. It’s young, skilled and controls play ably at five-on-five.
On Wednesday night on home ice against a team it’s chasing for a playoff spot, Utah came out firing and dominated possession in the first period while regularly springing its calling-card rush attack against Vancouver’s defence.
If speed is the advantage of youth in the NHL, inexperience is the other side of that coin.
Even while Utah generated odd-man rushes and got into prime scoring areas seemingly at will in early stages of Wednesday’s game, it struggled to take its chances. There was a certain reticence, hesitance from Utah’s shooters. Time after time, Utah’s shooters squandered their looks in the first half of the game.
That’s never going to play against this cagey Canucks side, and it didn’t Wednesday. Until it did.
SERGY. IS. THAT. GUY. COOLS. IS. THAT. GUY. UTAH WINS!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Uog7IRxlKb
— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) December 19, 2024
Getting deeper into the game, Vancouver found its footing. Utah’s five-on-five game and rush speed still played, but you got the sense the Canucks were more comfortable in the game script than their younger, less battle-tested opponents.
In the second period, shortly after giving up a three-on-one with the man advantage, which Utah failed to turn into a high-quality look, Danton Heinen caught up to a bouncing puck off of the end boards off of a hard Quinn Hughes point blast. He torqued his body abruptly and powerfully, launching a perfect finish over Karel Vejmelka’s blocker and into the net to make it 1-0. Dakota Joshua then padded Vancouver’s lead with a counterpunching breakaway goal, a marvel of hustle and skill from the Canucks winger.
This Utah team, however, isn’t to be trifled with or written off. It battled hard and was willing to pay the price required to generate chances against Vancouver’s defence. It found a rebound goal to get on the board, then capitalized on the power play to force overtime.
That overtime period was electric. The crowd in Utah was fantastic and into it and seemed remarkably loud. The action, from the moment Utah levelled the contest to the moment Mikhail Sergachev scored the game winner, was completely captivating — despite the negative result from a Canucks perspective.
In a hard-fought 3-2 overtime win, Utah demonstrated why it’s a real threat in the Western Conference.
Here’s three takeaways from the Canucks’ overtime loss.
Thatcher Demko continues to look like himself
With the exception of the fourth goal Saturday against the Boston Bruins, in which Thatcher Demko looked to be chasing and it cost him when a bad bounce went against him, the Canucks’ starter has been excellent in his four starts since returning from his knee injury.
More importantly, everything has seemed normal around the Vancouver netminder.
Demko’s style of play is unchanged. He hasn’t had unexpected maintenance days, been unavailable or shown any signs of managing the load of his first week back. He’s started four of five contests since returning and has looked very much like his old self. On Wednesday, Demko made a point-saving desperation save late in the third period on Michael Carcone that was absolutely vintage, a reminder of his power and athleticism in the blue paint.
Demko was called on with a level of frequency and intensity that was absent from his near-shutout performance against the Colorado Avalanche earlier this week. In this one, Utah generated in bunches, and it took a high-skilled deke off a rebound, a changeup one-timer from Dylan Guenther and a rush chance in three-on-three overtime to beat him.
Despite the two third-period goals, Utah’s attack was worth well over three expected goals in this contest. With Vancouver’s defensive game in permissive mode, Demko’s efforts were essential in Vancouver building a lead at all and holding on to secure a point on the road.
It’s early in his return, but Demko looks like a star goaltender who, if he’s not all the way back to his previous level, seems awfully close to it. Which is a very good thing for the Canucks.
Dakota Joshua’s breakthrough
It wasn’t Joshua’s first goal since he returned to the Canucks lineup after missing six weeks to start the season, following surgery to address a testicular cancer diagnosis, but it was easily his best game.
With his size, unique profile and ability to disrupt the opposition’s breakout on the forecheck, Joshua is such an X-factor for the Canucks when he’s on. And after missing all of training camp and the first few weeks of the season, it’s understandably taken him time to retrieve the level that made him a productive, clutch, valuable top-six contributor in the postseason in the spring.
What was noticeable about Joshua, even before his finish on a third-period breakaway, was the way his forechecking played throughout this contest. Applying down-ice pressure, he forced Utah’s defenders into sketchy decisions with the puck on multiple occasions — including a sequence in which Joshua’s pressure drew Vejmelka out of his net and put Utah under considerable duress.
The return of Joshua’s impact as an “F1” forechecker seemed to feed his overall game, and he scored a goal after skating the length of the ice in what seemed like a heartbeat, beating every Utah defender down the ice and beating Vejmelka with a slick deke on the breakaway.
It was a goal that gave Vancouver a two-goal lead, which it would need to preserve a point.
Why we have to take Utah seriously
Narrowly beating the Canucks at home in overtime as the more rested side — Utah hadn’t played since Saturday — is meaningful given the stakes for Utah, but it’s not all that impressive.
What is more impressive, and evidence of why this team needs to be taken seriously as a potential playoff team this season, is that Utah is a bit of a wagon at even strength.
That was evident Wednesday night, as Utah outshot and out-chanced the Canucks at the top of the lineup. With J.T. Miller and Hughes on the ice, Utah outshot Vancouver 5-4 and controlled over two-thirds of the expected goals in those minutes.
Vancouver’s edge at the top of its lineup is one of the major reasons this team is so dangerous. Now, it was without Filip Hronek on Wednesday and will be for at least another month, so some qualifiers apply, but for Utah to win those minutes is a testament to its real quality as a team.
We very rarely see Vancouver lose the matchup at the top of the lineup. That it did Wednesday night is another sign that we need to be taking this Utah team very seriously.
(Photo of Dakota Joshua scoring on Karel Vejmelka: Chris Nicoll / Imagn Images)
