Canucks Takeaways: Gutsy effort clouded by another messy overtime
Posted March 21, 2025 6:54 am.
Last Updated March 21, 2025 11:18 am.
The basic plot outline of the Vancouver Canucks’ critical 4-3 overtime loss Thursday in St. Louis reads like a summary of their season: they were down, they were up, down again, tied, and they lost.
After all this — on Thursday and in the season — the Canucks are still very much in the National Hockey League playoff race. But they are no longer in an actual playoff spot after Philip Broberg’s goal at 3:41 of overtime nudged the Blues one point ahead of Vancouver in the Western Conference wild-card race.
The Canucks have one game in hand, and stay on the road for the next five of their remaining 13 contests.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!It wasn’t great hockey by Vancouver on Thursday, but it was a gutsy effort.
The Canucks essentially turned a four-point game into a two-point swing by rallying twice in the third period and forcing overtime on Brock Boeser’s dramatic buzzer-beating slapshot with 3.7 seconds remaining.
Boeser’s second goal of the period — and fourth in two games after going 12 without scoring — was stunning not only for its timing and significance but also because it seemed to have come after the Canucks were out of time.
The Blues cleared the puck from their zone and out to centre with only 10 seconds remaining. Without enough time to regroup, Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes had to dangle the puck past Pavel Buchnevich at the red line to find enough room to pass to Elias Pettersson, standing still at the left side of the blue line.
Pettersson held the puck a split second as Boeser looped after tagging up at the opposite side of the blue line and slid a pass cross-ice and into space for the winger. With only a shooting option as he lined up one-on-one with St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington, Boeser loaded up for a slapshot from the right-wing circle and blew the puck past the Team Canada hero’s glove for a short-side equalizer.
It saved the Canucks a point, but they could not get two.
Just as it took a series of deft plays to generate the tying goal, a series of Vancouver mistakes led to St. Louis’ winner.
Unpressured, Pettersson bobbled the puck and lost it at the offensive blue line. Canuck Jake DeBrusk went for a change, but not soon enough for Boeser to get into position as the Blues attacked two-on-one. Hughes, at the end of a 137-second shift, then completely sold out turning towards puck carrier Brayden Schenn, who slipped a pass to Broberg as the defenceman cut across goalie Kevin Lankinen to score.
For the Canucks, it was a messy end to a magnificent game. But they were outshot 29-18 and trailed 1-0 and 3-2 in the third period on the road against a red-hot Blues team. The final standings will tell whether it was a point stolen or an opportunity missed for Vancouver. Maybe it was both.
FOUR-POINT SWING
With the peculiar way the NHL allots points, you can never be sure if a “four-point game” will actually be so. But it looked like a four-point half-minute midway through the third period when St. Louis turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead with goals 24 seconds apart by Tyler Tucker and Dylan Holloway.
The tying goal at 9:28 looked like bad luck, as Tucker’s shot from distance appeared to tick DeBrusk on its way past Lankinen’s glove. But Holloway’s go-ahead goal was just bad judgement by Canuck defenceman Tyler Myers.
Concerned that Hughes was going to be beaten wide by Jordan Kyrou on a two-on-two rush, Myers veered away from Holloway to help his defence partner and was checking no one when the pass came across for Holloway to convert. Kyrou had a half-step on Hughes, but was deep down right wing and did not appear to have a route to the net when Myers left his check.
Earlier in the period, Myers had saved a goal when he got his stick on Robert Thomas’ point-blank rebound attempt with Lankinen out of position.
Lucky to be down only 1-0 — if you consider another pile of big saves by Lankinen to be lucky — the Canucks roared back early in the third period. Kiefer Sherwood zipped a near-post shot past Binnington from the top of the right-wing circle to tie at 1:11 before Boeser scored to the far post from a similar spot at 6:35.
It was Boeser’s 200th goal for the Canucks. With unrestricted free agency looming, the 28-year-old Minnesotan has 201 in 541 games for the franchise.
OH-NO OT
If the Canucks succumb to playoff odds and all the setbacks they’ve had this season and miss the Stanley Cup tournament, their dismal overtime record will be something they can cite.
Despite possessing one of the most agile stickhandlers and play makers in the NHL in Hughes, the team is now 5-11 in games decided at three-on-three (or four on three). Vancouver lost eight straight overtime decisions between Dec. 1 and Feb. 2.
As they did in last week’s shootout win in Calgary, Vancouver appeared to be trying to work the clock in OT on Thursday before Pettersson lost it.
DEMKO UPDATE
Goalie Thatcher Demko, out since Feb. 8 with his third injury this season, is on the trip for the Canucks and could play in the New York area as Vancouver visits the Rangers, New Jersey Devils and Islanders over a span of five days starting Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
Demko’s return, at least to take some of the burden off Lankinen, feels crucial because third-stringer Arturs Silovs is just 2-6-1 this season and has beaten only the Chicago Blackhawks. Harvesting only five of 18 points in Silovs’ starts will be another factor the Canucks regret if they miss the playoffs.
Lankinen has started eight of the last nine games and is expected to face the Rangers in Saturday’s matinee against J.T. Miller’s team.
QUOTEBOOK
Kiefer Sherwood to reporters in St. Louis: “Hell of a resiliency and character to come back. We’ve still got to figure out our overtimes, obviously. Still looking for 60 minutes. I think when we put our foot on the gas, we showed what we can do the other night against Winnipeg (winning 6-2). But just not enough of it tonight. Like I said, good character and grit to come back and tie it up, but. . . we’ve got to be better for a full 60.”
