What if the answer to the great conundrum of who to play with Elias Pettersson was right in front of the Vancouver Canucks all along?
Finding a new winger or two for Elias Pettersson was the prime mission for general manager Patrik Allvin this offseason and he seemingly delivered with some key free-agent signings. He added Jake DeBrusk on a long-term contract, nabbed Daniel Sprong off the scrap heap for cheap, and added a couple of other wingers in Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood with an outside shot of playing top-six minutes.
By the end of the team’s tenth game of the 2024-25 season, however, Pettersson was playing with two players already on the team last season: Conor Garland and Pius Suter.
That line was dominant in their few minutes together, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Suter kept finding his way into the top-six last season, typically with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, and was a puck possession wizard with his detailed two-way game. Meanwhile, Garland has been the Canucks’ best forward this season, bringing a consistent feistiness and creativity to every shift.
There’s a certain irony, then, that Rick Tocchet seemingly rediscovered Suter’s Swiss army knife ability to slot into a top-six line as a winger on the same day that the Canucks put Nils Åman on waivers.
Honestly, Suter, Pettersson, and Garland were so good as a line that they really deserve a longer look next game. The trouble is, the Canucks don’t have another centre on hand for the fourth line with Åman sent down to the AHL — or worse, claimed off waivers. The Canucks need Suter to centre the fourth line.
Perhaps it’s all a moot point anyway. Dakota Joshua will return to the Canucks’ lineup soon. He could even reunite with Garland alongside Pettersson and it will turn out that he was the missing winger for Pettersson all along.
It’s just kind of funny that none of the Canucks’ new wingers have really clicked with Pettersson so far. It’s so easy to get enamoured with something shiny and new and lose sight of the tried and true.
In any case, Suter was excellent in this game, scoring two clutch goals to eke out a one-goal win for the Canucks. It was a nice little reminder that he’s still there, ready to step into the top-six whenever they need him.
Maybe it’s not great that they needed him so badly in a game against the San Jose Sharks but hey, you light the Swiss Man signal when the situation calls for it, which it did when I watched this game.
- While I thought the Canucks didn’t do enough to get to the inside in the offensive zone to create dangerous chances and gave up far too many high-danger chances against, Tocchet had a more positive view of the team’s overall game even if he wasn’t fully satisfied.
- “I thought we did some good things,” said Tocchet. “Our forecheck, it was probably one of the best forechecks of the year. We had a video on that yesterday because I don’t think we were forechecking properly. Still, we’ve got to worry about too many odd-man rushes still. That’s something we’ve got to make [ourselves] accountable — that’s my only bone to pick, we were losing the F3 there and diving in too much. Not as much as the game before but not to the level that we want.”
- The Canucks carried possession in the first period but most of their shots came from the outside, with only Suter able to get to the net for a truly dangerous chance. The most frustrating missed opportunity came late in the first period after defenceman Jake Walman was taken out of the play with a stiff check by Brock Boeser. J.T. Miller called for the puck and was in the open but waited so long to shoot that he ended up just jamming it into Walman’s shinpads as he scrambled into the shooting lane.
- Erik Brännström got his first chance to play on his off-side, which could be key to him staying in the lineup with Derek Forbort returning. His rust on the right side proved costly, however. On the Sharks’ opening goal, Brännström played it like a left-side defenceman, following a pass to his left as if he had a right-side defenceman covering behind him. Instead, Forbort, the actual left-side defenceman was already on the recipient of the pass. Brännström could only watch in horror as Nico Sturm fired home the rebound from exactly where he was supposed to be.
- Kevin “Book Man” Lankinen was once again fantastic and was the primary reason the Canucks won this game. His most crucial save came with about five minutes remaining in the second period against a William Eklund breakaway. He slammed the five-hole shut like it was a disappointing hardcover.
- That save led directly to a goal at the other end of the ice. Pettersson swung the puck up the boards to Arshdeep Bains, who dumped the puck in for Conor Garland to chase. Like a dog after a tennis ball, Garland chased away, forcing a turnover into the middle of the ice. Nils Höglander wound up for a fake shot, then neatly dropped the puck to Suter behind him, who ripped it past Blackwood’s blocker to make the score all tied up like water at its highest point on a beach.
- This was an oddly officiated game, with the referees turning a blind eye to all sorts of infractions both ways. Perhaps the most egregious non-call was when Walman sucker punched Garland, giving him a quick left hook to the mouth as the two were tangled up in the Canucks’ zone. Look, Walman, I know that NHL players voted Garland as having one of the most punchable faces in the league but that doesn’t mean you’re actually allowed to punch his face.
- Or, since the refs ignored it, maybe you are allowed to punch Garland’s face? Is that in the rulebook somewhere?
- When the Canucks finally did get on the power play, they didn’t score, which is nothing new. The difference was, they kind of looked like they wanted to score and might be capable of doing so, which is new. The first unit was moving the puck crispy and, like Nils Åman’s parents, created some good looks.
- The Canucks took advantage of two terrible changes by the Sharks to take a late third-period lead. First, both defencemen left the ice with the puck in the neutral zone, allowing Miller to send Boeser in on a breakaway. Unfortunately, Boeser made like Hannah Waddingham and rang the shame bell, which is my new name for goalposts.
- Luckily for the Canucks, the Sharks weren’t done changing. With the puck again only out to the neutral zone, two more Sharks bolted to the bench. A quick regroup had Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek leading the attack against only three Sharks. Hronek drove the middle lane, while Hughes swung the puck to Jake DeBrusk in his wake. DeBrusk made like Tillamook and went top cheese for his first goal as a Canuck.
- “Hell of a shot. That was dialed,” said Tocchet. “That’s probably the only place he could have scored; that’s a goal-scorer’s goal.”
- That’s two seasons in a row where DeBrusk has scored his first goal of the season on November 2. Like Jimbo, it’s his special day.
- “Well, it’s Fil Hronek’s birthday!” said DeBrusk with a grin. “I saw that before the game, actually, that it was the same day and I thought, ‘Well, let’s see if it’s today.’ It’s nice that it worked out that way. Hopefully, I can get a couple more earlier next year so I know I have an automatic [goal] on the second.”
- That should have been game over but the Canucks couldn’t hold down the lead in the final minutes. With the Sharks’ net empty, Miller’s line got a clear, with Boeser doing solid work holding the puck on the end boards. The only trouble is, his linemates didn’t change and neither did he when the puck went the other way. By the time Mikael Granlund walked into the left faceoff circle and sniped a wristshot past a screened Lankinen, that line had been on the ice for over a minute and looked gassed.
- Fortunately, Suter, Pettersson, and Garland came up with a monster shift in the final minute. There wasn’t any fancy playmaking by Pettersson but he kept the play alive in the offensive zone with a couple of smart plays. Then Garland retrieved a rebound in the corner and immediately swung the puck to Suter, who slapped the puck hard enough to cook chicken, sending it past Blackwood’s glove in an instant.
- Again, with fewer than 30 seconds remaining, that should have been game over. But the Canucks had to make it interesting, leaving Fabian Zetterlund all alone in front as the seconds ticked down, only for Zetterlund to whiff on the centering pass. This is a mess. Obviously, Tyler Myers shouldn’t have chased behind the net but Danton Heinen (circled in the below video) is the most baffling. He had a clear path to Zetterlund but peeled off to chase the puck.
- Look, what on earth was that? Why is every Canuck on the ice turning away from the guy in the slot, the most dangerous player on the ice? Why would you chase the puck with two seconds left? What is happening? Anyway, Canucks win.
