Canucks Push Game To Overtime But Fall 5-4 To The Ottawa Senators

Despite tying the game late, the Vancouver Canucks couldn't secure a win, falling 5-4 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators. Brock Boeser (2), Quinn Hughes and Jake DeBrusk scored the goals, while Kevin Lankinen stopped 17 of the 22 shots he faced. With the loss, the Canucks dropped to 16-10-7 on the season, with their home record sitting at 6-7-5.

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Unfortunately, Vancouver wasted what was an incredible performance by Hughes. The Canucks captain had three points and five shots in 26:42 of ice time. Without Hughes' performance, this game would not have gone to overtime, as he was on the ice for all four of Vancouver's goals.

The biggest storyline of the night was J.T. Miller's defensive play. He cost Vancouver multiple times, including in overtime, when he allowed Jake Sanderson to get around him and then glided back as the Senators' defenceman scored the game-winning goal. While Miller did have a strong first period, his play away from the puck and ability to track players had a significant negative impact on the final score.

Post-game, Rick Tocchet was asked about the shorthanded goal the Canucks gave up. Vancouver's coach replied by saying, "That's Milsey's (Miller) guy. That's his guy. If he just stays back, I don't know if he got surprised. I mean, I told Boeser before to go out, I said, make sure you tell the guys to reload, because they're going to take off. Boom, you know, so he's got to be focused at all times."

It was also another quiet night for Elias Pettersson, who had two shots in 19 minutes. Pettersson was also asked post-game about reports of a rift between him and Miller. The Canucks center said, "I don't know why people are still trying to make up s**t." Pettersson was then asked if the potential rift was a distraction, to which he said, "Oh my God, next question." The longer Pettersson and Miller continue to underperform, the more this storyline is going to grow. Unfortunately, they weren't able to quiet the noise, and neither were able to propel Vancouver to a win.

As for a positive from this game, the Canucks penalty kill went five for five on the night. While Lankinen did have to make six saves, the penalty killers did a good job for most of the night, clearing the zone and forcing Ottawa back down the ice. Once again, Teddy Blueger and Pius Suter stepped up shorthanded, with each playing over four minutes on the penalty kill.

While there were areas of the game Tocchet liked post-game, he highlighted some of the mistakes his team made. Tocchet said, "There's a lot of good things we liked, but there's some key; I think we gave about five odd-man rushes. To me, that made no sense. I just watched a couple. I'm not sure what a couple of guys are thinking. When there's danger, when there's a 50/50 puck, anywhere in the half wall, in their end, you got to reload. We can't gamble. We're not that type of team. We're hoping a guy's going to win the battle, you lose the battle, they get an odd-man rush. You can't play that way. And you know, we're going to have to do some digging on that because that's like river hockey. You can't play that way. We can't play that way."

While Vancouver managed to snag a point, this was not a strong performance from the group. Yes, some players stepped up, like Hughes, Boeser and Phil Di Giuseppe, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done. With yet another home loss this season, the Canucks will need to hope for a better performance on Monday before heading on their holiday break.

Facts and Stats:

- Quinn Hughes' 51st career goal ties him with Kevin McCarthy for the ninth most in franchise history by a defenceman

- Quinn Hughes' 74th career multi-assist game ties him with Markus Näslund for the fifth most in franchise history

- Quinn Hughes' 373 career points ties him with Petri Skriko for the 20th most in franchise history

- Dakota Joshua records at least five hits for the fourth time this season

1st Period:

1:45- OTT: Claude Giroux (8) from Thomas Chabot 
16:22- OTT: Shane Pinto (5) from Michael Amadio and Nick Cousins
18:04- VAN: Brock Boeser (9) from Quinn Hughes and Phillip Di Giuseppe
19:42- VAN: Quinn Hughes (8) from Conor Garland and J.T. Miller

2nd Period:

4:24- OTT: Shane Pinto (6) from Drake Batherson and Jake Sanderson
13:36- VAN: Jake DeBrusk (15) from Quinn Hughes and Tyler Myers
15:30- OTT: Josh Norris (13) from Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson (SHG)

3rd Period:

15:10- VAN: Brock Boeser (10) from Pius Suter

Overtime:

00:13- OTT: Jake Sanderson (2) from Tim Stützle and Shane Pinto

Up Next:

The Canucks play their final game before the holiday break on Monday when they welcome the San Jose Sharks. This will be the first time fans in Vancouver get to see Macklin Celebrini live in person as the 2024 first-overall pick makes his first visit to Rogers Arena. Game time is set for 6:00 pm PT and can be viewed on Amazon Prime.