Kevin Lankinen is the player of the year so far for the Vancouver Canucks. Except for injured defenceman Quinn Hughes, Lankinen is also the National Hockey League team’s player of the season.
Forced to come in cold Thursday for re-injured starting goalie Thatcher Demko, Lankinen immediately made a couple of five-star saves in the second period, stopped a breakaway in overtime and then stared down all three Seattle Kraken shooters as the Canucks survived another erratic night to win 4-3 in a shootout at Climate Pledge Arena.
Five days after collapsing in the final five minutes and blowing a three-goal lead in an overtime loss to the Kraken, the Canucks blew a 3-1 advantage over the final 11 minutes on Thursday.
But they slightly improved the narrative — and monumentally improved the atmosphere around the team — by collecting their first shootout win of the season when J.T. Miller dragged the puck across the slot and shot over the left pad of Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer for the only goal of the tie-breaker.
Miller’s last actual goal was Nov. 16, two days before he began his 10-game personal leave of absence.
In the shootout, Lankinen outwaited Kraken shooters Kaapo Kakko and Oliver Bjorkstrand, who was also stuffed on an overtime breakaway, and then got his left glove and pad on Matty Beniers’ shot to give Vancouver just its fourth win in 12 post-regulation games.
It’s hard to know how much salvaging a win and avoiding another disaster to open 2025 might lift Canuck spirits after the blown lead and losses in their last four overtime or shootout games. We may get an idea Friday when the Canucks play the Nashville Predators at home in the second of back-to-back games to start the year.
But it sure felt like there was more than one bonus point riding on Thursday’s outcome.
The Canucks’ “process” in the third period was actually pretty good.
After Tyler Myers beat Grubauer from Miller’s pass to the high slot to make it 3-1 at 5:35 of the third period, Beniers scored on a five-on-four power play at 9:05 before Vince Dunn tied it with 52.5 seconds remaining on a hopeful wrist shot through a jungle of traffic as Seattle skated six-on-five.
The Canucks surrendered only eight shots in the final 25 minutes, and five-on-five scoring chances in the third period were 7-1 for Vancouver, according to naturalstattrick.com.
After another leaden start to the game by the Canucks, who fell behind 1-0 when Chandler Stephenson’s unscreened shot from the left-wing boards rattled through Demko at 1:52, the Canucks gradually took over the game at even strength.
Max Sasson tied it 1-1 at 13:17 when Nils Hoglander’s deflected shot bounced to him at the top of the crease from teammate Danton Heinen’s skate. And Conor Garland beautifully beat Grubauer on a breakaway at 7:49 of the second period after Phil DiGiuseppe’s pass caught the Kraken as the Canucks countered through the neutral zone.
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said Demko left the game due to back spasms and hoped the injury was not serious. The goalie’s mid-game departure is the scenario everyone in the organization feared after last season’s Vezina Trophy runner-up finally made his season debut on Dec. 10 after missing nearly eight months with a torn popliteus muscle in his knee.
Demko practised with the team for nearly a month before playing, and talked about the need to put his knee “through hell” so it could withstand the rigors of the NHL season and goalie’s return from injury would be one-way transit.
But after seven starts, the 29-year-old skated off the ice in the stoppage that followed Garland’s go-ahead goal.
Demko was tripped and fell heavily backwards shortly before the goal when the Kraken’s Brandon Tanev skated into the crease with Canucks defenceman Noah Juulsen.
Even if the injury proves to be minor, it is the continuation of a season-long series of challenges to Vancouver’s core players. Hughes and Elias Pettersson missed their third straight games on Thursday, and No. 2 defenceman Filip Hronek has been out since Nov. 27 and could miss another month.
Third-string goalie Arturs Silovs, projected to be the starter during Demko’s initial absence, has struggled mightily this season, posting an .847 save rate at the NHL, and is trying to rebuild his form in the American Hockey League.
Lankinen — and the schedule — could buy the Canucks some time. After Friday’s game against Nashville at Rogers Arena, the Canucks embark on a five-game eastern road trip. As difficult as it is, the trip is not overly compacted. There is one set of back-to-back games, next weekend in Carolina and Toronto, but also extra rest days before the journey opens Monday in Montreal and closes Jan. 14 in Winnipeg.
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We wrote in this space after Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Calgary Flames that Garland was one of the worst Canucks. In Seattle, he was probably the best.
Garland and linemates DiGiuseppe and Pius Suter pulled the Canucks into the game and drove possession all night. Shot attempts were 16-6 for the Canucks when the trio was on the ice at five-on-five. Garland had four shots on goal and posted expected-goals-for of 86 per cent.
Canuck winger Dakota Joshua also had one of his best games of the season on a highly-effective line with Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood as Vancouver was driven by its middle-six forwards.
The top line of Miller, DeBrusk and Brock Boeser generated Myers’ goal in the third period, but combined for just two shots on target and logged less than 16 minutes of ice time.
It’s easy to overlook the significance of the return of defenceman Guillaume Brisebois, who made his season debut for the Canucks after 23 games (and one point) this season in the AHL and finished Thursday with a blue-line low of 15:31 of ice time.
But don’t forget that the 27-year-old thought his career might be over when he missed nearly all of last season with a concussion and its after-effects. Brisebois’ entire professional career has been spent with the Canucks organization, and he was projected to finally make the opening-night NHL roster before he was injured on a dangerous hit by the Kraken’s Tanev during the pre-season.
Thursday was Brisebois’ first NHL game since March 31, 2023. It was one more NHL game than a lot of people thought he would get after last season’s struggle for health.
Shots were 6-5 for Seattle when Brisebois was on the ice, but the left-side defenceman from Montreal posted expected-goals-for of 59 per cent at five-on-five, blocked one shot and looked composed with the puck while finishing plus-one.
It was a very good day for him.
