VANCOUVER — It was, without question, the most complete Vancouver Canucks performance this season.
While the Canucks have racked up points and kept pace with the top teams in the Pacific Division, they’ve rarely managed the sort of 60-minute effort they put in Thursday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in a 4-0 victory that was every bit as lopsided on the ice as the scoreboard would indicate. This was materially different.
Right from the drop of the puck, the Canucks were on top of the Panthers. Their much-maligned defence corps moved the puck smoothly and sharply, with an especially immense performance from Carson Soucy — who was rewarded with the opening goal in the first period.
Vancouver’s depth overwhelmed the Panthers, led by the likes of Mark Friedman and the Canucks’ new-look fourth line, which manufactured two first-period goals, putting the Panthers well behind the eight ball early.
By the time Vancouver’s star players salted the game away — with a 3-0 goal scored by Brock Boeser off a second-period rush, with J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes picking up assists on the tally — the Panthers had already been deprived of any hope or oxygen in the contest. Even when Florida, one of the NHL’s great high-pressure teams, turned up and began to press in the latter stages of the second, it struggled to manufacture clean, high-quality looks against the Canucks’ smothering defence.
You know Brock had to score in game 5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣! pic.twitter.com/RdmdyoM8gV
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 13, 2024
Yes, Thursday night felt different. With Miller back up in the lineup for the first time in three-and-a-half weeks, the Canucks stepped up. To a man, they played with a level of focus and intensity that, frankly, has flickered in and out at times this season.
Against the Panthers, the Canucks left no doubt and put in the sort of identity performance against a quality opponent that might reasonably convince an observer that the Canucks could be a sleeping giant in the Western Conference.
J.T. Miller’s return
Away from the club for a 10-game stretch due to an undisclosed personal leave, Miller rejoined the club Thursday night after taking part in a pair of team skates this week.
Meeting with the media ahead of the game, Miller opened with a statement in which he declined to share any colour or vague details that would explain his absence — and fair enough.
Head coach Rick Tocchet made it crystal clear, however, that the club was thrilled to have its emotional leader and most heavily utilized forward back in the lineup. He committed as well to managing Miller’s ice time diligently, given the expected rust that Miller will look to shake off in the days ahead.
Tonight’s first star…
🗣️J.T. MILLER 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/du68UkccKA
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 13, 2024
If there was any rust, it didn’t really show. Though his ice time was somewhat limited relative to the normal workhorse burden that Miller holds down, he was imposing in the circle, effective at five-on-five and sound defensively throughout Thursday night’s contest.
He played with his usual edge and looked like his usual self. One key third-period sequence in which he felled Matthew Tkachuk with a sneaky, undetected slash on his way off the ice felt like a signature. A punctuation mark on a solid return to active duty in the Vancouver lineup.
Turn the dial to Max Sasson
Sasson’s speed and hockey IQ served to earn him a look in the Canucks lineup as the club went into hold-the-fort mode over the past several weeks.
If that speed and hockey IQ can be utilized in the service of producing points, however, that could keep Sasson around as Vancouver gets key bodies back into the lineup.
Thursday night’s game was the finest showing in Sasson’s nine-game NHL career. He picked up a key assist on Soucy’s score-opening first-period goal, created another quality scoring chance off the rush when he caught Dmitry Kulikov out of gas and beat him to a puck and then helped give Vancouver a lead it wouldn’t relinquish by setting up a backbreaking Danton Heinen goal late in the first period. All of the offence that he helped contribute was the result of speed, smarts and hustle. Simple, sound counter-punching hockey.
Sasson was the face, really, of how Vancouver won and controlled proceedings so ably Thursday evening. Truly this was a game in which Vancouver’s bottom-six forward group made the difference, outclassing Florida’s depth by a wide margin. And it was the rookie centre, playing his ninth game of the season, who made sure that control counted on the scoreboard with a pair of primary assists that broke the game wide open.
The blue line
For a second consecutive game, the Canucks scratched defender Erik Brännström.
With Derek Forbort returning to the lineup, Tocchet and assistant coach Adam Foote opted to dress Friedman for a second consecutive game, rolling out a blue-line group in which every defender was able to play on their strong side.
It was a bold call. While they didn’t look it Thursday evening, this Panthers side is an elite forechecking team. When the Panthers are on their game and turn up the pressure, they’re able to force turnovers and make life very uncomfortable for defenders over 200 feet of ice.
Given that the Canucks have struggled critically in this area throughout the season, and that Brännström has been one of their sharpest puck movers, the club’s blue-line deployment Thursday night seemed like a risky, low-probability gamble.
There’s no question, however, that it worked. Soucy put in probably his best performance of the season, and his pair with Noah Juulsen was regularly able to beat the Panthers’ forecheck and get the puck moving cleanly up ice. The Forbort and Friedman pair, meanwhile, was nothing short of a revelation. It controlled play, avoided mistakes and Friedman was even able to land a couple of big hits and get meaningfully under the Panthers’ skin — in part by targeting some of Florida’s star players, like Aleksander Barkov.
It was the best collective effort that Vancouver’s blue line group has put in in a single game all season. As improbable as that seems.
(Photo of Sergei Bobrovsky (72) and Aleksander Barkov (16) of the Panthers defending against Nils Hoglander (21) and J.T. Miller (9) of the Canucks: Derek Cain / Getty Images)
