The Canucks’ penalty kill has become the story of the season, and it was front and center again in a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Vancouver gave up power-play goals on three of its four penalty kills against New Jersey, and the damage piled up fast. By the end of the night, the Canucks’ season PK number had slipped below 50%, a grim marker for a unit that just couldn’t get enough stops.
Linus Karlsson provided Vancouver’s only goal, scoring on the power play, while Leevi Meriläinen stopped 31 of 34 shots in his first career game against the Devils. Even with the solid shot total, the Canucks spent too much of the game chasing the puck and defending in their own end.
Before puck drop, Vancouver shuffled the lineup after Thursday’s loss. Aatu Räty and Victor Mancini came out, with Brendan Gallagher and Luke Schenn going in. With Räty scratched, the Canucks were left with just three natural centres, so Drew O’Connor slid to the middle on the third line.
The first period set the tone. Vancouver opened the scoring at 5:27 when Karlsson buried a power-play chance off feeds from Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk.
But New Jersey answered quickly. Nico Hischier tied it at 8:03, and Jesper Boqvist made it 2-1 at 16:24 after Filip Hronek coughed up the puck while trying to reset.
The Devils kept leaning on Vancouver’s penalty kill after that. Jesper Bratt scored at 4:36 of the second period on a hooking penalty drawn by Boeser, and Nico Hischier added another late in the period at 19:50. That was enough to put the game out of reach.
One strange wrinkle came in net. Meriläinen started, but with about five minutes left in the first period, a shot from Luke Hughes hit his skate and knocked the blade out.
After a TV timeout, Kevin Lankinen entered the game. Meriläinen later returned for the second period and finished the night, even though the skate blade issue popped up again.
The lone even-strength goal for New Jersey came late in the first. Jesper Boqvist jumped on a rebound after Lankinen made the initial save, and the Devils never gave the lead back.
Because Lankinen was the goalie on the game-winning goal, the loss was charged to him even though Meriläinen started and played almost the entire game. Lankinen logged 5:27 in total.
Vancouver did get a brief reprieve late in the second when Marco Rossi shoved Evan Rodrigues out of the faceoff dot, and Rodrigues responded by spearing him in the throat. That gave the Canucks a four-minute power play.
They carried a little more than two minutes of it into the third, but another hooking call on Boeser wiped it out. The overlap at the end of Rodrigues’ double-minor left Vancouver on the penalty kill for nine seconds, which technically counted as its first successful kill of the game.
Still, that was a tiny bright spot in a night where the Canucks never found a real rhythm. New Jersey jumped on chances, controlled stretches with the puck, and made Vancouver pay for giveaways and turnovers.
A few other notes stood out from the game. Vancouver has now allowed a power-play goal in six straight penalty kills.
None of the Canucks’ four centres finished with a faceoff win rate above 50%. And Brock Boeser tied Andre Boudrias for 16th all-time in Canucks history with 89 power-play assists.
The scoring sheet told the story cleanly:
Linus Karlsson scored for Vancouver at 5:27 of the first period. Nico Hischier replied at 8:03, Jesper Boqvist scored at 16:24, Jesper Bratt added a power-play goal at 4:36 of the second, and Hischier finished the scoring at 19:50 of the second.
Vancouver now heads to New York to face the Rangers on October 11 at 3:30 pm PT.
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