Canucks Takeaways: Power play finally breaks through in win over Stars

After two straight games chasing their opponents, trying and failing to mount comebacks, what the Vancouver Canucks desperately needed in their fourth game of 82 was a swing in momentum — a lucky bounce, a strong shift, anything that could inject and sustain life into this lineup. 

On Thursday night against the Dallas Stars, however, it seemed to be getting late early.

An unfortunate own-goal tip from Elias Pettersson got the Stars on the board, a Mikko Rantanen power-play snipe doubled their lead and it looked like the Canucks were headed towards another too-little-too-late effort after barely surviving the first period.

Then, the momentum swing came, and it came in the form of a penalty kill.

The Canucks just had their best scoring chance after being thoroughly hemmed in their own zone when Conor Garland took a slashing penalty against Sam Steel in the early minutes of the middle frame. It could have been a nail in the coffin for Vancouver, could have made the hill to climb that much steeper. Instead, the penalty killers dug in and prevented the Stars from producing any dangerous chances.

Suddenly, it was an entirely different game.

Evander Kane sprung Filip Chytil just after Garland’s penalty came to an end, who tucked one in blocker-side on former Canuck goalie Casey DeSmith for his third of the season. Then, Brock Boeser tipped home a Quinn Hughes shot on the power play for his third marker this year just over two minutes later, followed quickly by Max Sasson’s first in his season debut. In the span of 3:26, the Canucks turned a 0-2 deficit into a 3-2 lead — a lead they would not surrender en route to a gusty 5-3 win.

“The guys stuck with it. The start of the game didn’t go how we wanted,” Adam Foote told reporters in Dallas after the game. “But I give the guys a lot of credit. They hung in there at intermission and stayed with their game.”

In a market so accustomed to gloom, doom and endless disappointment, it’s easy to catastrophize after two straight losses. But it’s only Game 4, and this win returned the team to .500. More importantly, the Canucks put together their most dominant period of the season in the second and held strong in the final frame in the face of pressure, and a goal, from the Stars.

“We just fought our way back,” said Conor Garland, who scored the game-winner to close out the dominant second period. “That Sasson line kind of carried the pace for us, let us get our legs under us, and we had a really good game. Really good finish to it as well.”

That this performance came against a Western Conference juggernaut like the Stars should do loads to boost the Canucks’ confidence as they continue along their five-game road trip, with upcoming stops in Chicago, Washington, Pittsburgh and Nashville.

Is this the type of performance we should expect from the Canucks going forward? We’ll find out on Friday night, when they take on the Blackhawks.

“We’re 2-2 now,” said Garland. “We had no panic. It’s early. We’re trying to find our game. A lot of young guys in the lineup just getting used to the league. To hang in there tonight against one of the best teams in the Western Conference was a good statement by us.”

It took four games, but the Canucks power play finally got on the board.

The Canucks have suffered from a lack of production from their top players, and the same can be said about their power play, which went 0-for-7 prior to Thursday night.

While going 2-for-3 on the man-advantage against the Stars won’t magically fix the power-play woes, which date back to the latter half of last season, it’s encouraging to see them finally find success and string together high-danger chances on each chance.

“I thought they were moving the puck pretty good tonight,” Foote said.

The Canucks scored on their first opportunity, with Boeser, Hughes and Elias Pettersson combining to finally score for the snake-bitten unit.

They were stymied on their second chance, but looked dangerous throughout, forcing DeSmith to stay on his toes and make some tough saves, and on their third try, with the Stars’ goalie pulled to pull to five-on-five, Hughes sent one into the empty net for his first of the year.

The power play still sits at a dismal 20 per cent, but for the first time this season, there is a glimmer of hope that they can find this success consistently.

With just one assist through three games — albeit a record-breaking assist — the Canucks captain was off to an uncharacteristically slow start to the season.

Of course, ‘slow’ for the 2024 Norris Trophy winner is a relative term, and he still led the team in ice time prior to Thursday, smooth skating even if the points weren’t coming with it — very much the case for the entire top-end of the lineup.

Nobody who watches Hughes play regularly thought this mini-slump would at all extend to the point of concern, but it was still a relief to see the defenceman impact the scorecard in the way we’ve grown accustomed.

Hughes finished the night with a goal and an assist, bringing his point total up to three in four games this year, while launching a team-high four shots in over 25 minutes on ice.

If there were any questions surrounding Thatcher Demko’s ability to man the crease after an injury-plagued 2024-25, he has very quickly provided answers.

The 29-year-old has far and away been the Canucks’ MVP through his three games played this season, looking much like the Vezina Trophy runner-up of two years ago, and on Thursday night, he provided yet another first-star performance.

His .903 save percentage is a little misleading, as he kept the Canucks competitive even as the Stars were throwing everything at him. He had to be sharp early, too, with Dallas outshooting his squad 8-1 before the halfway point of the first period, including a Grade-A chance from Adam Erne less than three minutes into the game.

“I think he’s the best in the world. So big, so mobile, tracks every puck,” Garland said of his goaltender. “We feel very confident any time he’s in the net and we’re fortunate to have (Lankinen) tomorrow night, so we feel great about our goalies.”

“He’s unbelievable,” Sasson added. “The saves he makes just look… They’re really hard saves, and he makes them look routine. It’s just a testament to his professionalism.”

In his past two games combined, against the Stars and the Oilers on Sunday, he’s been tested 67 times and made 62 saves.

It’s early, but Demko is already in mid-season form.

Compliments to the Calder Cup line

Foote, on the Arshdeep Bains-Sasson-Linus Karlsson line: “I thought they had some jump. You saw it in pre-season and then you saw it tonight. That speed on the goal —(Sasson) almost had another chance — with that speed, defencemen will back off when he’s out there. He spread the D out, they weren’t playing up when that line was out there. They had to be cautious of that speed.”

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