Why the injury-plagued Canucks looked limited in New Year's Eve loss: 3 takeaways

The Vancouver Canucks ended the year fighting.

It wasnt an inspiring performance against the Calgary Flames in a 3-1 regulation loss, a result that dropped the Canucks below the Western Conference playoff bar for the time being, but it was a focused one.

A performance full of passion, pace, intensity and ill intention.

Advertisement Now that wasnt enough, of course, but it was something.

Its something that might have to suffice for the moment.

On the whole, on New Years Eve in Calgary, the Canucks looked limited in the absence of a trio of star players.

They looked hard-pressed to generate meaningful scoring chances five-on-five, or even generate extended, threatening offensive zone shifts.

They did, however, control play at the apex of their lineup, battle commendably and provide something of a blueprint for what survival might look like for this team over the next week or so as it awaits some sorely needed reinforcements.

Here are three takeaways from Vancouvers loss in Alberta on Tuesday night.

The first line holds Playing on New Years Eve without their only centre who has managed to win their five-on-five minutes away from Quinn Hughes , and without Hughes as well, we expected that Vancouvers ability to control play might be fundamentally compromised.

And it was on a team level, for the most part.

One exception, however, was the play of J.T.

Miller s line with Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk .

That trio didnt generate a ton of high-quality looks, but they were able to generate zone time reliability and solidly won their head-to-head matchup against Mikael Backlund an impressive showing, especially considering the difficulty of that assignment.

The other matchups were more problematic, but at the very least, Vancouver found a way to generate a bit and control play at the top-of-the-lineup against Calgary.

However, the top lines impact was somewhat limited because their usage was curbed.

When Miller fought Kevin Bahl in the second period, a sequence which contributed to the Canucks holding an amusing and impromptu New Years bash in the Saddledome penalty box, he missed a lengthy stretch of the contest.

As a result, by the end of the second period, Miller was only fifth among all Canucks forwards in five-on-five ice time logged in the game.

A Canucks New Years party pic.twitter.com/J6eETshcjN Lina Setaghian (@Linaset) January 1, 2025 You love the grumpiness and the fire that Miller brought to the game.

The Canucks are going to need that sort of edge if theyre going to dig deep and stay afloat here.

Its a double-edged sword, though.

Miller is simply too indispensable right now, especially when hes going the way he was at even strength, to miss extended stretches of the game, as Tuesday nights results illustrated.

Advertisement The recipe comes into focus Despite the solid effort from Vancouvers top line, the Flames were the more dangerous team at five-on-five.

MacKenzie Weegar was able to dictate the pace of the contest and Calgarys second and third lines were buzzing.

If Yegor Sherangovich had his finishing touch, this mightve been a very different game at an earlier juncture.

After the Canucks took the lead in the third period, the Flames turned up the pressure and threw a fastball that Vancouver had zero ability to catch up to.

All that the Canucks were capable of producing, really, in the stretch that decided this contest was a run of icings.

If it wasnt beforehand, it became apparent the moment the Canucks levelled the score that Vancouver was merely holding on.

As difficult as it might be to imagine the Canucks as a contender when theyre struggling to match Calgarys gear at even strength, this isnt the team that were going to be watching down the stretch.

Or into the playoffs.

With Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek in the lineup, this is a very different team.

And in the interim, the Canucks clawed back on Tuesday night and produced something of a recipe that might permit them to limit the damage, somewhat, short-term in the absence of a trio of star-level performers.

They got an incredible goaltending performance from Kevin Lankinen , who turned away high-quality Flames looks in bunches throughout the game.

They won the special teams battle Boesers goal came on the power play, and Vancouvers penalty killers produced a spotless bit of work snuffing out an extended Flames opportunity five-on-three in the first period.

Their top line at least controlled play, and though the Flames had the preponderance of looks and were the far more dangerous team at even strength, the Canucks were able to impose a low event flow on the game itself.

Advertisement Those ingredients arent going to be enough for the club to sustain the sort of win rate its managed for most of the 2024 calendar year, but it might be enough to stay afloat over a couple of weeks timeline.

It doesnt feel great to lower the bar to this extent, but this is the reality the Canucks are facing.

In a losing effort to a mid-table side on Tuesday night they at least put in the sort of effort that will give them a shot to grind out a few points over the next week or so.

Auld Lang Syne Vancouvers loss on New Years Eve concluded the 2024 calendar year.

Over the past 12 months, the Canucks played exactly 82 games, which is convenient, amassing an impressive 102 points.

Their .621 point percentage over the past year ranks in the top 10 in the NHL , narrowly behind the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights .

While the 2024 calendar year will conclude amid the persistence of off-ice drama, a run of disappointing, inconsistent showings, and a limited, injury-battered side looking overmatched against a mediocre Flames team, we should be able to zoom out and look at this year in context.

And over the past 12 months, its fair to conclude, that the Canucks cemented themselves as a fringe contender.

2024 was the year of Hughes, who won the first Norris Trophy in franchise history and established himself as one of the two best defenders in the league and one of the seven or so most impactful skaters on the planet.

Now without Hughes in the lineup, yes, things look a bit dire for the Canucks at the moment.

The club clearly needs more from its other core players, all of whom Hughes star began to eclipse over the past 12 months for various reasons.

So long as Hughes is in the lineup and playing at this level, however, the Canucks will matter in a leaguewide context.

A team with a shot, perhaps, to do something special if a few things injury luck included break its way down the stretch and heading into the playoffs.

Thats a notion worth remembering as we raise our glasses to toast the new year, reflect on what weve seen over the past 12 months and imagine what might be in 2025.

(Photo: Sergei Belski / Imagn Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.