Canucks 4, Penguins 3: A bigger night for Elias Pettersson or ...

Talk about a battle of the narratives.

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You have the hometown rookie driving the net and banging home a hard-working goal for his first in the NHL.

You have the struggling superstar, who’s been showing signs of life, finally bag his first goal of the season.

Which is the biggest story tonight? Can we call it a tie?

Either way, it was a big night at Rogers Arena Saturday for the Vancouver Canucks as they eclipsed the plodding Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3.

Flat start, dominant second

The Canucks’ first period wasn’t great. Playing against a team that had played the night before, you’d have hoped they’d look to come out blasting.

But it was a little flat.

The second period, though, was a turnaround. Head coach Rick Tocchet gave the players credit for sorting themselves out, even after they fell behind 2-0 early in the second.

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“I thought the first period, we were doing a lot of circling, you know, I think we weren’t playing straight lines. Pittsburgh came to play,” he said. “I think the guys did a good job of adjusting themselves.”

That showed up in their dominant second period, where they scored four goals in less than six minutes to seize control of the game.

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The look of relief

Elias Pettersson’s face said it all. Finally, maybe, people would start saying only good things about him. His face “oh yeah, that’s right.” It was calm, deliberate, collected.

He’s scored plenty of goals before. This one was no different.

He took a fabulous pass off, who else, Conor Garland, and made no mistake on his release, picking the top corner over Alex Nedeljkovic.

Petersson had hit the post or the crossbar a few times this season, his coach noted, so it was pleasing for all to see him finally net a goal.

And the fact he did by finding a soft seam in the Penguins’ defence was notable. He’s been doing that plenty lately, his head coach pointed out.

Garland, for his part, said that Pettersson’s positioning wasn’t an accident — that’s a spot they’re always looking to find.

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The Penguins, like many teams, defend off both posts. “Steel balls,” Garland termed it. It’s challenging the players down low to make passes off to the side, because those are lower percentage shots than shots from on top of the crease.

It’s a choice teams make: they can’t defend everywhere.

Elias Pettersson is congratulated at the players bench after scoring a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the second period Photo by Derek Cain /Getty Images

With the Pettersson line as currently constructed, it’s a spot that makes sense for Pettersson to be. He’s got a pair of forechecking dynamos on his flanks after all.

“They’re definitely better than me in the corners,” Pettersson said. His job is to be ready, stick on the ice.

“They’re really good around the corners to work the puck down low, and I’m trying to find open ice in the middle.”

It was a goal that got everything rolling. Down 2-0, the Canucks had looked a little stiff against the not terribly good Penguins squad, a shadow of their Stanley Cup days.

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The Canucks scored two more times in the ensuing 1:05. First a fantastic two-on-one strike by Kiefer Sherwood, the sequence launched by a marvellous neutral-zone poke check by Vinny Desharnais. Then there was an ugly tally by J.T. Miller, who was launched on a breakaway by Brock Boeser. Miller drove the net and the puck ended up in the goal because the Penguins were a mess on the backcheck.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates past Kevin Lankinen #32 of the Vancouver Canucks during the third period Photo by Derek Cain /Getty ImagesThat save

In the moment it did seem massive. Post-game it was everything.

Kris Letang doesn’t often miss. Especially on a two-on-one.

Kevin Lankinen gave him nothing to shoot at. As has become familiar this season, the Canucks’ current No. 1 goalie did everything he could when the moment called for him to be big.

He stretched himself as wide as can be, kept his blocker down in front of his five hole, and Letang hit him in his trailing leg.

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That’s just playing the position.

“If it goes to 3-0 there, that’s probably a different game. But I think that’s part of being a goalie: try to make those timely saves.”

His technique on those saves does stand out. Perhaps only Jaroslav Halak in recent memory would play cross-crease sequences as such, with the conscious effort to put the blocker low, stick flat on the ice, covering off shots that might sneak under him.

It’s a conscious choice, Lankinen said, to challenge the shooter.

“Build a wall, you know, from the bottom up. That’s the game plan. And if they put it a bar-down, then hats off, but it’s gonna be hard for them to make a perfect shot,” he said.

The rush

By the way, those two tallies coming on the rush were no mistake: that’s how the Canucks want to play hockey.

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It’s worked well over the past week against bottom-feeding teams.

How will it look next week versus Carolina and New Jersey, both Stanley Cup contenders?

Arshdeep Bains is congratulated at the players bench after scoring a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the second period Photo by Derek Cain /Getty ImagesThe look of happiness

And then there was Arshdeep Bains, who scored the Canucks’ fourth goal, banging in a rebound from Daniel Sprong.

Bains almost forgot to celebrate, the moment was so good. Sprong was electric with the puck all night, doing exactly what he’s expected to do when the Canucks are on the attack.

Credit to the rookie, who drove down Broadway to collect the rebound, an obvious shot-pass by Sprong.

Bains learned quickly last year how hard it is to score in the NHL. You have to find a way to get to the net. It’s obvious that it was a point of focus for him, if he was going to stick, he needed to up his net-crashing ability.

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“You got to get to the net,” he said. Pretty straightforward, but not as easy as it seems.

He saw in Rick Tocchet a coach who would give him a fair shake.

“He’s a smart coach,” he said. “I hope I can keep going, keep being effective.”

Sprong sees a young player who knows where the net is. He said on the ice that he would try to find Bains a few pucks around the net. When the two-on-one developed midway through the second, he did as promised, firing a low shot that Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic would be forced to spill.

“I was able to put it behind Karlsson and skate around him, and then Bainesy was going to the net. You don’t want to miss wide on those. And as a shooter sometimes, you know, you’ve got to be unselfish and just make the right play,” he said. So bang, on the pad, and the puck slid right on to Bains stick for the straight-ahead hard finish.

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Sprong then smiled: “He’s been f***ing me at cards so I told him he owes me!!”

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Bryan Rust, left, and Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes,  during the NHL game in Vancouver, on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. Photo by ETHAN CAIRNS /THE CANADIAN PRESSHow good are these two? 

Or, why Garland and Nils Hoglander are the perfect wing pair for Pettersson.

There was a first period shift that saw Garland and Hoglander put on a forechecking clinic, creating all kinds of chaos in the Penguins’ end.

Pettersson had changed just before so he wasn’t there for the fruits of their labour, but when you have forwards controlling play like that, your superstar is going to thrive.

And that he did on his goal, burying a perfect setup from Garland.

Evgeni Malkin #71 of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores on Kevin Lankinen #32 of the Vancouver Canucks during the third period Photo by Derek Cain /Getty ImagesThe third period

Tocchet wasn’t stoked on how his team closed the game.

“I’m not going to b**ch about a win, but, you know, the third period, I’d like us to a little bit more put a stamp on it,” he said.

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More offensive zone time, less sitting back. Evgeni Malkin’s goal came with the Canucks on their heels a little. They managed the neutral zone sequence that led to the goal pretty badly.

But late on, after Malkin scored, with the Penguins dominating possession and trying to swarm Vancouver’s net, the Canucks maintained containment around the crease.

Pittsburgh managed just two shot attempts in the final five minutes of the game, including just one on target.

“I thought that was great. I don’t know how many, if any, shots we gave up,” Lankinen said. The one shot was off the side wall by Erik Karlsson, an easy save in relative terms. There was a long-bomb Malkin shot that skipped off the post, but really Pittsburgh never looked like scoring a fourth goal.

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How fast are ya?

So we’re clear: the Canucks scored four goals in a wildly fast 1:23 sequence in a game versus Pittsburgh in 1980, yielding what are today the second and third fastest three-goal sequences in team history. 

The fastest was a 1992 sequence, while Saturday’s three-goals-in-one-minute-five seconds is the fourth-fastest all time.

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No Beauvillier video

Anthony Beauvillier didn’t get a welcome back video on the big screen, so he took matters into his own hands.

That was a heckuva tip to open the scoring.

Jake where are you?

In all the Pettersson angst … what about Jake DeBrusk?

He’s struggling to make himself visible this season. His scoring chances have been few and far between. His shot rate is way below his career average.

Was there a more apt analogy for how the winger is struggling to fit than when he passed, badly, on a two-on-one with  Boeser moments before Beauvillier’s goal?

Tyler Myers #57 of the Vancouver Canucks is congratulated for his 1000th NHL game alongside teammates Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser #6, J.T. Miller #9, Elias Pettersson #40, and Quinn Hughes #43 before their NHL game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rogers Arena on Saturday night Photo by Derek Cain /Getty ImagesWhere do the Penguins go from here?

The Penguins are slow.

Half the lineup is older than the general manager.

They have only a couple prospects.

Sure they made it close late — it sure helps to have Geno Malkin still flying — but in the end this is a team of ill-fitting and poor parts.

“There’s a lot of pride in that room. They’re not going to go quietly,” Tocchet said of his old squad.

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