The Vancouver Canucks played a perfect road game on the second leg of a back-to-back, outworking the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights and building the sort of early lead that teams typically need when they're at a rest disadvantage.
It was a lead Vancouver was unable to hold as Vegas staged a comeback in the second and third periods, emerging with a 3-1 victory Thursday in a slow-moving contest.
This was a very tough spot against a big, cagey Vegas team that's been constructed like something of a reverse image of the Canucks.
Where Vancouver permitted a key centreman (Elias Lindholm) to walk in free agency this summer and reallocated cap space from the defense and centre position onto the wings, for example, Vegas took the opposite route, permitting a couple of key wingers to walk (Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault) in part because of what the Golden Knights had invested at the trade deadline in a key defender and centreman (Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin).
Where the Canucks worked from the outside in, attempting to bolster their scoring punch this summer, Vegas stayed committed to working from the inside out.
At this point in the season, in truth, both teams feel unfinished. They're both probable playoff teams, and there's a ton of familiarity with what they want to accomplish and how. Adding an uncommon layer to the familiarity is that head coaches Rick Tocchet and Bruce Cassidy -- two of the best defensive tacticians in the league -- are working together on Team Canada's coaching staff, swapping notes and ideas on defensive schemes and hockey strategy.
Vegas, however, clearly lacks some scoring punch on the wings. That was especially apparent Thursday night, as it played without Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy. While the Golden Knights (21-8-3) have compiled a sterling record through the first 32 games this season, their ability to control games at five-on-five isn't quite at the level that it's typically been, regardless of the results.
Vancouver, meanwhile, is clearly shy a top-four-calibre, puck-moving defender. And arguably another top-six forward, as well, given how sparingly the Canucks are producing quality looks at five-on-five over the past month.
The final two times we see these teams face off (April 6 and April 16), or if they meet in the Stanley Cup playoffs, both teams will likely look very different than they did Thursday. One final commonality between these clubs is that their front-office staffs are among the most aggressive on the trade market in the league. Both teams are as likely as anyone, and perhaps more likely than anyone, to take a big swing and upgrade their rosters between now and the trade deadline.
Here's three takeaways from Vancouver's regulation loss.
The Canucks were probably unfortunate that they emerged from the first period with only a one-goal lead.
Shortly after Teddy Blueger capitalized on a net-front scramble to spot Vancouver the lead, Pius Suter had a brilliant opportunity at the side of the net and forced Adin Hill to make a stunning save off of a five-alarm scoring chance. It was grand larceny from the Vegas netminder, and you figured it might prove costly for Vancouver, given the inevitability of its energy level flagging down the stretch.
It was still a good sign for Vancouver that it was able to control the game in the early stages. In its first back-to-back set of the season in late November, Vancouver fell behind severely to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-4 loss and was chasing the game with tired legs. On Thursday night, Vancouver's performance was far more polished, and though its effort fell short, it was the start that gave it a shot to win.
While Vegas came on in the second period, as you'd expect, and controlled the proceedings handily after the first frame, the Canucks continued to play lockdown defense and Vegas struggled mightily to generate scoring chances of note while trailing until the 37th minute. From there on out, however, Vegas truly took this one over.
One adjustment that paid dividends for the Canucks was the reunion of the forward line of Kiefer Sherwood, Blueger and Danton Heinen -- a trio that played together successfully in the first month of the season.
That trio was dynamic throughout Thursday night and continued to play in the offensive end even as Vegas took over the game and began to take it to Vancouver. In nearly nine minutes of work for the new/old Blueger line, the Canucks outshot the Golden Knights 8-0.
While some of the club's other lineup tweaks didn't work -- Vancouver's effort to get fresh legs by inserting Linus Karlsson and Phil Di Giuseppe, with Max Sasson and Nils Höglander drawing out, was far less successful than the tweaks to the bottom six -- there's something about the fit of Blueger centreing Heinen and Sherwood that just seems to work. That line was a handful for Vegas' adroit defenders down low and on the forecheck, and it played with the sort of energy and two-way juice that the Canucks, frankly, need a lot more of on a nightly basis.
Kevin Lankinen has been nothing short of a godsend for the Canucks this season.
Given that Artūrs Šilovs has struggled enormously at the NHL level across his limited starts, without Lankinen's services in Thatcher Demko's prolonged absence, it's likely the Canucks wouldn't be holding onto a wild-card spot.
Over the past week, Lankinen's starts have been limited by a bout of the flu, which has pressed Demko into heavier action than expected during his first week back from a lengthy stint rehabilitating his knee. In his return to action Thursday, Lankinen was mostly solid, including a save on Mark Stone that will stand up as a strong save-of-the-year candidate. However, this game turned on an unscreened Alex Pietrangelo point shot that beat Lankinen cleanly.
Though Lankinen has performed above expectations, the Pietrangelo shot was a tough moment for the goaltender and a costly one for the Canucks. If there's been a dent in Lankinen's armour all season, too, it's been his save rate off of relatively low-danger chances, something the Pietrangelo goal served to highlight.
The result, the Pietrangelo goal and some apparent confusion around how the club handled the end-of-game situation in pulling Lankinen in the final minute -- apparent indecision from the bench visibly frustrated the Canucks skaters on the ice, with J.T. Miller holding his palms to the sky -- served to put something of a sour spin on what was mostly a solid, workmanlike effort from the Canucks in a hard-fought road loss in Vegas.