{"id":547001,"date":"2026-04-08T07:56:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547001\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:56:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:56:35","slug":"overmatched-canucks-stifled-by-golden-knights-they-play-a-heavy-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547001\/","title":{"rendered":"Overmatched Canucks stifled by Golden Knights: ‘They play a heavy game’"},"content":{"rendered":"

VANCOUVER \u2014 If John Tortorella\u2019s team was always this good in Vancouver, he\u2019d still be coaching the Canucks.<\/p>\n

The Vegas Golden Knights improved to 4-0 since Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as their coach, dominating the Canucks in a 2-1 win Tuesday that was a blowout everywhere but on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

It was a happier experience \u2014 and much better team \u2014 for Tortorella than his forgettable one-and-done season as the Canucks coach in 2013-14.<\/p>\n

The win moved Vegas into a tie with the Edmonton Oilers for first place in the Pacific Division, one point ahead of the Anaheim Ducks, with four games to go.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights have everything to play for and the Canucks, who\u2019ve padlocked themselves into last place in the National Hockey League, have nothing to play for as a team.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how the game looked.<\/p>\n

Thirty-six points behind the Knights in the National Hockey League standings, the overmatched Canucks tried to compete. But only Vancouver goalie Nikita Tolopilo<\/a> kept his team in it as large swaths of the game were played in the Canucks\u2019 end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just a big, heavy team,\u201d Canucks coach Adam Foote said admiringly. \u201cThat\u2019s what we ran into: a big, heavy playoff team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knights outshot the Canucks 7-0 through 13 minutes, 17-4 in the first half, and 28-11 for the game. Halfway through the third period, it looked like Vancouver could match the franchise\u2019s all-time futility mark for fewest shots: eight in a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

Jacques Lemaire\u2019s Devils neutral-zone trapped the Canucks into a coma that night, but Tortorella\u2019s Knights crushed them with pressure.<\/p>\n

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On the winning goal generated by Vegas\u2019 fourth line, Cole Smith ran Canuck rookie Liam Ohgren off the puck along the boards, creating a turnover and three-on-two rush that Smith then finished from Nic Dowd\u2019s pass at 12:13 of the third period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw him last second,\u201d Ohgren said. \u201cI just tried to get the puck up, but it’s bad by me. I can’t turn it over there, and then they score the game-winning goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a good job keeping us on the outside. It was tough to get on the inside and create any high-danger chances. I don’t know, it was just a tough game. They were on us right when we got the puck. They play a heavy game. They\u2019re big and strong and pretty fast, a tough team to play against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until a late, sketchy interference call against Vegas defenceman Rasmus Andersson allowed Vancouver to play six-against-four for the final 1:41, the Canucks had nine shots on Knights goalie Carter Hart. Their two shots in the first 18 minutes of the final period were from 43 and 57 feet. And their final sum of 11 shots was the second-lowest for a home game in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Mitch Marner\u2019s six shots for the Knights were more than half of the Canucks\u2019 team total. Vegas skaters blocked 20 shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we had a lot of looks where we didn’t get shots on net,\u201d Canuck centre Teddy Blueger said. \u201cYou know, (Aatu) Raty hits the post at the back door in the first period, first shift of the second Jake (DeBrusk) has a great scoring chance, a Grade A.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there’s probably a couple more where we didn’t get a shot on a decent scoring chance. They’re obviously a good team, and sometimes, you know, we probably didn’t put pucks on net enough, just trying to pass it around too much, looking for the perfect play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleven shots on goal constitute an extreme event, but Vancouver has averaged only 24 shots per game since February, which ranks 31st\u00a0in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In March, they had 14 shots in a game against Dallas, 15 against St. Louis, 16 against Ottawa and 19 versus Los Angeles. The Canucks lost all of those games, too, scoring just two goals in total.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it’s kind of going like that, and we’re struggling to generate a little bit, I think, yeah, we need to simplify,\u201d Blueger said. \u201cBut I mean, I thought some of the other stuff was good (against Vegas). Like the battles and compete, we were good. You know, these are the type of games we want to be playing in and learning from and getting this type of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a handful of five-star saves by Tolopilo, the Canucks actually opened scoring at 12:50 of the second period when Max Sasson<\/a> looked to make a pass on an outnumbered rush and instead hooked a shot that fooled Hart on the goalie\u2019s blocker side.<\/p>\n

But the lead lasted less than three minutes when yet another offensive-zone shift for Vegas ended with a tying goal for Brayden McNabb at 15:46 on a short-side shot that appeared to ramp off Raty\u2019s stick after the Canuck puck-watched momentarily and was a step late closing down the Knights\u2019 defenceman.<\/p>\n

Lightning nearly struck twice, as Vancouver could have led again going into the third period, but Elias Pettersson was unable to chip a point-blank rebound over Hart\u2019s right pad after Drew O\u2019Connor\u2019s shot was stopped on a three-on-one rush. The two shots on that one play increased the Canucks\u2019 game total by 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

Tolopilo continued to make big saves in the third period, thwarting Pavel Dorofeyev and Brandon Saad on glorious chances to give the Canucks a hope.<\/p>\n

But Vancouver\u2019s late power play (and two skater advantage) fizzled, as the Canucks failed to beat the Knights\u2019 perimeter pressure by moving the puck to the net front. Hart had to deal only with a Filip Hronek one-timer as the Canucks lost for the 32nd\u00a0time in 40 home games, which was no longer thought possible in this NHL era.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to figure that out going into next year,\u201d Sasson said. \u201cIt feels, you know, everyone’s a little more tense at home. I have no clue why or what it is. I’m sure that’ll be talked about \u2014 you know, summer meetings and stuff and going into training camp. It feels, even in the locker room, it feels looser on the road for whatever reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canucks leave Wednesday for a three-game California trip in which all of their opponents are frantically trying to secure playoff spots.<\/p>\n

Vancouver\u2019s final home game is next Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings. The Canucks\u2019 disastrous season ends two nights later in Edmonton against the Oilers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 If John Tortorella\u2019s team was always this good in Vancouver, he\u2019d still be coaching the Canucks.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-547001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-canucks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-vancouver","12":"tag-vancouver-canucks","13":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116368024571879989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}