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Canucks waste brilliant Lankinen performance in loss to Flyers

Trevor Beggs
Trevor Beggs
|
Oct 12 2024, 5:37 am
Canucks waste brilliant Lankinen performance in loss to Flyers
Bob Frid-Imagn Images

Kevin Lankinen deserved better.

The Vancouver Canucks netminder was stellar in his debut, but the Canucks still remain winless on the season after losing 3-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers in a shootout.

Lankinen made a number of strong saves throughout the contest, but none were better than the stick paddle save he made off of Flyers’ rookie Jett Luchenko.

Philadelphia started to crank up the pressure in third period, against a Canucks team that was playing shorthanded.

Tyler Myers suffering a scary-looking knee injury early in the first period. He played just 36 seconds before he was forced to leave the game.

He didn’t return, and head coach Rick Tocchet didn’t have much of an update postgame.

“Myers, I don’t know,” Tocchet told reporters. “Hopefully we dodged a bullet, but I’m not sure.”

Canucks’ Sprong & Pettersson have minutes slashed

Welcome to the Daniel Sprong experience.

Sprong entered Vancouver as one of the most interesting players in the NHL. He has a wicked shot and some lethal offensive instincts. Those have been on display since he arrived, both in the preseason and in the home opener.

The flipside of the Sprong experience, is his frustrating play defensively.

On the game-tying goal, Sprong got caught cheating towards the puck. That left Flyers defenceman Cam York with too much space to work with, and he eventually sniped home a goal to tie the game 2-2.

“Sprong overplayed his guy,” Tocchet said. “Even if he just stays back, that’s where the puck went. He just overplayed that side.”

After that goal, Sprong had one shift the rest of the game, and was replaced by Conor Garland for a couple of shifts before the end of regulation.

In fairness, the entire line of Sprong, Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk had a tough night. At even-strength, they were the three lowest Canucks in terms of ice time (aside from Myers).

Canucks Pettersson even-strength minutes October 11, 2024

NaturalStatTrick.com

When asked about the lack of minutes for Pettersson’s line, Tocchet chose to gas up some of the other Canucks forwards.

“Teddy Blueger’s line deserved to play more, and Garland was going like he always does.”

Garland and Nils Hƶglander were the two best Canucks forwards in this game, with both receiving top-six promotions in the third period.

Hƶglander, who scored 24 even-strength goals last season, opened the scoring with his first of the year.

At least those two were going, because the Canucks stars are seemingly still shaking off some rust.

Tocchet applauds D in loss

Although the Canucks started to bend in the third period, Tocchet was complimentary of his defence after the loss.

“The defence handled it well,” Tocchet said. “I mean, especially for the second game of the year, it’s tough on the D in that type of game. I thought they did a nice job of hanging in there for us.”

Unsurprisingly, Quinn Hughes took on a lot of minutes with Myers absent. He logged 31:25 in the loss.

Hronek was over 25 minutes, Soucy got up over the 21-minute mark.

Bottom-pairing defencemen, Derek Forbort and Noah Juulsen, also had some noteworthy moments.

Juulsen was his usual, steady defensive self. He even laid a thunderous hit on Flyers forward Tyson Foerster while the Canucks were shorthanded. The Abbotsford native could be asked to play a larger, everyday role for this team if Myers is out long-term, especially since he plays the right side.

Forbort also had an eventful night, with his most memorable moment coming from a camera clip that caught him chugging some Tim Hortons on the bench.

Minutes later, he set up Teddy Blueger for his first goal of the season.

When asked if he’d be drinking some more Timmies on the bench, Forbort unfortunately had a different rationale for his mid-game drink.

“It was some Pepto-Bismol in that Timmies cup,” Forbot told Daily Hive. “I had a little stomach thing.”

So, no Timmies sponsorship upcoming for Forbort, and still no wins for the Canucks yet in this young season.

The Canucks now embark on a four-game road trip, beginning on Tuesday, October 15th against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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