Under general manager Patrik Allvin and head coach Rick Tocchet, the Vancouver Canucks have a clear philosophy when getting their prospects into NHL games: put them in a position to succeed.
With Brock Boeser out indefinitely, the Canucks could have relied on their veterans to fill the void in the top six and eased Jonathan Lekkerimäki into NHL action in a depth role with minimal minutes and maybe a few shifts on the second power play unit.
Instead, Lekkerimäki was immediately placed into Boeser’s spot on the top line alongside J.T. Miller and Pius Suter, as well as on the first power play unit in the bumper. He didn’t play massive minutes, by any means, but he played a regular shift all night long and was even on the ice to defend the lead late in the third period when the Calgary Flames pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker.
It’s the same philosophy that the Canucks have used with other call-ups like Arshdeep Bains and Linus Karlsson, giving them legitimate opportunities to prove themselves with the Canucks’ best players.
It’s just that Lekkerimäki is better than those other prospects.
Lekkerimäki did not look the least bit out of place in a top-six role. Apart from a couple instances where the speed of the game seemed to catch him a bit off-guard, Lekkerimäki looked calm and in-control throughout the game, even as he was primarily matched up against the Flames’ top defence pairing and second line.
Most importantly, he had a legitimate impact in his minutes. While he didn’t record a point, Lekkerimäki played a role in two of the Canucks’ three goals.
Lekkerimäki helped retrieve the puck on the power play prior to the first Canucks goal with a hit on the forecheck. Then he was part of a dominant shift in the offensive zone with his linemates, getting a scoring chance on a rebound and keeping the play alive with some smart passes, all leading to the Canucks’ second goal of the game.
The only reason Lekkerimäki didn’t end up a plus-1 on the night is that he went for a line change four seconds before the Canucks scored.
Lekkerimäki’s solid debut performance shows up in the underlying numbers. Shots on goal were 9-to-4 for the Canucks when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 and, according to Natural Stat Trick, he had a 76.2% expected goals percentage, which means the Canucks thoroughly out-chanced the Flames in Lekkerimäki’s minutes.
“There’s definitely a lot there to like. Smart player,” said Tocchet. “When he has the puck, there’s not a lot of panic and he’s just going to get better. He goes to the right spots. I thought he did a really nice job tonight for his first game. There’s a lot to build off — there’s a lot of stuff to work with. You can tell he’s got some good poise in his game.”
Of course, it’s one thing to look good in your first NHL game as you ride the adrenaline and excitement — and it doesn’t hurt that it was against a team projected to miss the playoffs who were playing on the second half of back-to-back nights; it’s quite another thing to sustain that kind of performance over several games.
But Lekkerimäki passed this first test. He looked like a legitimate NHLer when I watched this game.
- After the debacle against the Oilers, Tocchet said, “We’re not getting to our game early enough” and that was again the case in the first period against the Flames. It took a few desperation plays to prevent what could have been tap-in goals in the first five or six minutes. The Canucks should do what I do: set their alarm clocks 15 minutes earlier and then hit snooze so many times that you wake up later than before you changed your alarm clock. Or maybe they shouldn’t do that at all.
- It was clear early on how comfortable and confident Lekkerimäki was. On his very first shift and second touch of the puck, he made a shifty move through the neutral zone to deke past Jonathan Huberdeau and gain the offensive zone with possession, then drove to the net to look for a scoring chance. It looked like he’d been playing in the NHL for years.
- “We walked together to the rink today,” said fellow 15th pick Erik Brännström of Lekkerimäki. “I just told him to have fun. It’s only hockey — he’s played so many games in his life.”
- Quinn Hughes clearly spent the offseason working on his shot, increasing its velocity significantly since last season. All that work culminated in Hughes appearing to hit J.T. Miller in the unmentionables — aka. the Sami Salos — with his shot midway through the first period. Miller struggled to the bench where he had to take a knee to breathe through the pain, while probably thinking, “Damn Quinn’s inexhaustible desire to improve as a player.”
- Despite giving up 7 goals to the Oilers on Saturday, Kevin Lankinen was right back in net on Tuesday and had a fantastic game. You’ve probably heard of the Stanky Legg, but Lankinen showed Andrei Kuzmenko the Lanky leg on a 3-on-2 to rob the former Canuck, who is still stuck on just one goal this season.
- “I don’t care if he let 10 goals in that game against Edmonton, he deserved to play tonight,” said Tocchet. “He’s a battler — he battles hard. He played another good game. That’s all he does is play good games for us. It’s a credit to him. I’m really a fan of him because he stays in the moment.”
- The Flames opened the scoring in the final minute of the first when Filip Hronek gave Kevin Rooney a little too much roomey down the left wing. Rooney’s shot was stopped and Hughes was first to the rebound but he whiffed on clearing it so the puck only went about two feet — just enough to completely deke out Lankinen and give Justin Kirkland a Costco-sized net into which to shoot.
- That’s eight straight games in which the Canucks have given up the opening goal. Last season, the Canucks gave up the opening goal in 29 of their 82 games — the lowest in the league by four games. This season, they’ve scored the opening goal in just five of their 14 games. Only the Seattle Kraken have scored the opening goal fewer times.
- The Canucks dominated the second period, though it certainly helped that they started the period on the power play. Like an efficient composer, they wasted no time scoring. Pettersson tipped the puck deep, then he and Lekkerimäki crashed in on the forecheck to force a turnover to Conor Garland. He relayed the puck to Hughes, who sent the puck to Miller’s twig rather than his twig and berries, which I’m sure he appreciated, and then Miller gave Pettersson a backdoor tap-in to tie the game.
- Two minutes later, a dominant shift by Miller’s line led to the go-ahead goal. They created multiple chances, then started to go for a line change with Miller holding the puck in the offensive zone. Apparently every Flames skater thought Pius Suter was also going to change because no one saw him jumping up into the slot except Miller, who set him up for a grade-A chance that Suter gave a grade-A finish to make it 2-1.
- Don’t look now but with 6 goals in 13 games, Pius Suter is on pace for 37 goals. Actually, do look now, because Suter has a 23.1% shooting percentage and his career average is 12.2%, so it’s best to enjoy it now.
- Midway through the second, it looked like Vincent Desharnais had extended the lead with his first goal as a Canuck and second goal of his NHL career. Desharnais sent an admittedly pretty bad pass into Teddy Blueger’s skates but it worked out as the puck banked off Blueger’s skate right back to Desharnais for a quick shot past Dan Vladar. The issue is, Desharnais only had the room to shoot because Danton Heinen had broken Brayden Pachal’s stick with a slash so he couldn’t check him. The goal was erased by the penalty like it never existed but it was real to me, Vincent. I saw you put the puck in the net. You did it. I’m proud of you.
- On the subsequent Flames power play, Conor Garland and Kiefer Sherwood had a phenomenal penalty killing shift. First Sherwood broke up the Flames zone entry, then Garland carried the puck deep in the Flames’ zone and held it there to the Flames’ frustration. When they thought they had broken up Garland’s possession, Sherwood was there to steal the puck back and give it back to Garland. The Flames only escaped because they ran a pick play on Garland to keep him from chasing down the puck yet again.
- Lekkerimäki’s best chance of the game came off a quick shot from the bumper on the power play from a J.T. Miller feed. It looked for sure like he would be checked before he could get the shot off but he still got a lot of power on his shot, much to the excitement of his parents, who flew in from Sweden to see him play. Unfortunately, Vladar made the save because, as a Sith Lord, Darth Vladar hates feel-good stories.
- The Canucks took a 3-1 lead in the third when Pettersson picked off a pass in the Flames’ zone and slowed the game down like only elite players can. He held the puck, then sent a saucer pass to Jake DeBrusk before taking the return feed and setting up Erik Brännström at the point. His wrist shot sailed past a Sherwood screen into the top corner for his first as a Canuck.
- “We play really fun hockey. I think it fits me very well,” said Brännström. “We want to have the puck and play offence. I think it’s been great so far.”
- That was basically the game, as the Canucks capably defended the two-goal lead the rest of the way. But there were still some fun moments, like this absolutely brilliant keep-in by Hughes at the blue line on the power play. He knocked a hard, three-foot-high clearing attempt down on his backhand and kept possession, leading to Lekkerimäki setting up a Miller one-timer that went wide and actually cleared the zone.
- Sherwood’s confidence level right now is apparently, like Bill Hader as Al Pacino as Charlie Brown, sky-high. He deked Kirkland out of his reasonably-priced store-brand pants with a slick drag move, then on his next shift tried to juggle the puck past Daniil Miromanov, who unfortunately managed to get one of the I’s in his first name on the puck to break it up. Otherwise, that’s highlight-of-the-year material.
- “[Sherwood] is a guy that will take the body all the time but he’s got some offensive capabilities too,” said Tocchet. “He’s got some points this year, he had a chance on a 2-on-1 — that’s what I like. He’s not just a guy that just hits all night; he can make plays.”
- After Miller’s lousy game against the Oilers, he was outstanding against the Flames, as was Pettersson, giving the Canucks a fantastic one-two punch in the top-six for which the Flames had no answer. Add in Blueger going 11-for-14 on faceoffs on the third line and it’s a wonder the Flames ever had the puck at all.
- “I thought Millsy and Petey and Teddy — I thought the centremen were all good tonight,” said Tocchet. “That’s a big part of your team when you can have centres play a good game. When [Miller] and Petey both have really good games, it really makes a difference for us.”
- There was a fun moment in the postgame media scrums when The Athletic’s Thomas Drance asked Brännström whether he’s ever had a defence partner who’s too talkative. Brännström quipped, “Yeah, Vinnie probably,” just as Vinnie himself, Desharnais, walked past the scrum. “What are you saying about me?” asked Desharnais and Brännström just laughed and said, “You’re talking too much!”
- The Canucks bounced back from a bad loss with a thorough win, the players are throwing good-natured verbal jabs at each other in the room, the team is first in the Pacific by points percentage, and Elias Pettersson has four points in his last two games. Not bad.
