Kicking off the highest-stakes week of this sordid campaign Tuesday, the Vancouver Canucks put in a mostly lifeless performance against the Montreal Canadiens in a 4-2 loss.
Mostly lifeless isn’t going to get it done. Not at this time of year, against another striver-class team chasing a playoff berth. Not with a team’s realistic odds of earning a playoff berth on the line.
It won’t get easier from here. Following Tuesday night’s disengaged showing, the Canucks will head to the airport and fly out late to Calgary. On Wednesday night, on national television, Vancouver will visit the Calgary Flames for a critical 4-point game.
It’s a game that could go a long way toward deciding which team qualifies for the second wild-card spot in the West. A game that the Canucks cannot afford to lose in regulation, against a more rested opponent.
The Canucks will have to bring significantly more fire and competitiveness to the rink Wednesday than they managed against les Habitants.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
Top-six woes continue
The Canucks were, once again, outscored at the top of the lineup.
The Canadiens took a quick 1-0 lead on a Nick Suzuki breakaway opportunity that he finished expertly. The game was 66 seconds old, and Vancouver found itself in a hole.
Importantly, that goal came in head-to-head minutes, pitting Suzuki against Elias Pettersson. It was the only shot against that the Canucks surrendered at five-on-five through the first 40 minutes with Pettersson on the ice. Of course, given how things have gone lately for Vancouver’s highest-paid forward, it resulted in a goal against.
Midway through the first period, Montreal extended its lead on a Juraj Slafkovsky wrist shot that Kevin Lankinen would surely want back. It was a goal scored with Filip Chytil on the ice at five-on-five.
From there, the Canucks’ fate seemed largely sealed, and the Canadiens added to their lead in the second period with a third rush goal from Cole Caufield.
Vancouver battled back in the third. Pettersson was on the ice for Filip Hronek’s 3-1 goal on a point shot and scored from the right flank on the power play to add drama late in the game. Still, on this night, Montreal’s best forwards were better than Vancouver’s best forwards. That was the difference as the Canucks dropped 2 critical points.
Power play precision from Elias Pettersson❗️ pic.twitter.com/Y46ZoKRXRA
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) March 12, 2025
If Vancouver continues to get outscored with its top forward lines on the ice at five-on-five — as it did again by a 2-1 margin Tuesday — the path to victory becomes too narrow. You can win the special teams battle, control play at five-on-five and goaltend decently, and it still won’t be enough.
It certainly wasn’t Tuesday against the Canadiens.
A couple of review swings
About four minutes into the first period, Dakota Joshua appeared to beat Samuel Montembeault to level the score. It would’ve been a big moment in the game, but the goal was called off on review. The NHL’s situation room determined that the puck “did not completely cross the Canadiens’ goal line.”
Joshua, who has been finding his game but hasn’t been able to find a bottom line, could’ve used the bounce. Instead, it was another tough break for the Canucks and their snakebit power forward.
On Hronek’s goal in the third period, Pius Suter was nudged into the crease and ended up relatively deep in the blue paint. Although the extent to which Montembeault was interfered with was something Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis weighed heavily in deciding not to challenge the goal, it was a goal that likely would’ve come off the board if the Canadiens had been willing to risk it.
It was a huge swing that nearly cost the Canadiens after Pettersson made it a one-goal difference with about nine minutes to go.
At two key moments, video review, or the decision not to utilize it, had a massive impact on determining the outcome.
Third-period push
The Canucks scored twice in the third period, setting up an opportunity to level the score with one shot late in the game. But, let’s be honest. That wasn’t much of a push. Vancouver might’ve scored on two long-range, seeing-eye shots, but it went long stretches of the third period without really threatening and managed only three five-on-five shots (while the Canadiens, up for the entire period, had nine) and generated just four total scoring chances in the frame.
Chasing the game, however, came with a cost. Hronek was 10 seconds shy of logging 28 minutes on the first leg of a back-to-back with the biggest game of the Canucks’ season Wednesday. Pettersson flirted with 20 minutes played.
The energy the Canucks had to expend late could put them further behind the eight ball when they face a Flames team Wednesday that hasn’t played since Saturday and has waited three days for Vancouver to arrive.
(Photo: Derek Cain / Getty Images)
