Canucks takeaways: Nils Höglander's strong return, the Victor Mancini experiment

By / / Sports / 5 minutes of reading


VANCOUVER — Who said meaningless games can’t be legitimately entertaining once in a while?

The Vancouver Canucks are all but officially eliminated from the playoffs, but on Sunday they put on an exciting back-and-forth show against the Vegas Golden Knights. With both teams playing on the second leg of a back-to-back, you might have expected this game to have sluggish play and low-event flavour, but both teams were fast, aggressive and fully engaged.

Both teams were manufacturing scoring chances in bunches. Both goaltenders stepped up with spectacular stops. The pace was ramped up, and both sides (especially Vegas) were creating fun, high-skill plays off the rush.

The Golden Knights hit a whole new gear in the third period and dominated play at the end, but for the most part, this was a fun, competitive tilt. Here are three takeaways from the Canucks’ 3-2 loss.

Nils Höglander returns with a bang

On two occasions last week, Rick Tocchet raved about how badly Nils Höglander was pushing to return to the Canucks’ lineup from his injury. And you can understand why.

Höglander struggled mightily through the first two or three months of the season, but before he got hurt against the Rangers on March 22, he was playing his best hockey. Since Jan 1, he’s scored 16 points (all at five-on-five) in his last 33 games. He’s been a play-driving ace, too — the Canucks have controlled a whopping 59.9 percent of expected goals and outscored opponents 21-7 during Höglander’s five-on-five shifts since Jan 1.

Continuing that momentum and finishing the campaign strong would be a nice confidence builder to salvage an otherwise difficult season. It could also give management faith that Höglander will rebound next season, which would increase the odds that they pencil him in as a top-nine forward rather than explore trade opportunities in the summer to reallocate the $3 million cap hit that his new contract eats up.

Höglander didn’t skip a beat in his return to the lineup against the Golden Knights. Less than five minutes into the game, he beat Alex Pietrangelo, a strong net-front defender, to the rebound after Pius Suter’s slot chance. Höglander took two whacks at the puck and beat Adin Hill.

It wasn’t just the goal that stood out, however. Höglander and his line with Brock Boeser and Suter played fast, decisive and connected. Individually, he created nifty zone entries with control and attacked the middle. Höglander’s line controlled 54 percent of shot attempts and outchanced Vegas 11-8, which was impressive because it got the primary matchup against Jack Eichel’s line.

There is still room for improvement — he had a couple of turnovers and would benefit from ironing out his wall work in the defensive zone — but this was the kind of promising return Höglander would have wanted.

The Victor Mancini-Quinn Hughes experiment hasn’t panned out

With Tyler Myers injured, Elias Pettersson and Victor Mancini both drew into the lineup for this weekend’s games rather than rotating in and out for each other. For Mancini, it’s also created the opportunity of a lifetime to play on a pair with Quinn Hughes.

These are intriguing, useful experiments for the club to run with its playoff hopes gone. They give the organization valuable intel on how some of its young players look in different spots and higher-leverage roles.

So far, however, Mancini hasn’t clicked next to Hughes.

The Canucks were outshot 14-2 and controlled less than 10 percent of expected goals during the 17 1/2 minutes that Mancini and Hughes played together against the Ducks. Their struggles continued against Vegas, as they were mostly hemmed in the defensive zone again.

Mancini had a few shaky moments throughout Sunday’s game. He dove in and put himself out of position on a first-period offensive zone draw, which led to Vegas countering on a dangerous three-on-one rush. His puck touches in the defensive zone weren’t sharp and led to a couple of failed clears/exits. Late in the second period, Brandon Saad set up William Karlsson for a one-timer from the slot, a pass that Mancini should have been stationed to intercept. He was on the ice for two of Vegas’ three goals, including the game winner.

His play wasn’t all bad — Mancini had an impressive solo rush in the second period where he leveraged his speed to drive the Vegas net and produced a Grade-A chance. But the overall takeaway is that while his size, speed and better-than-expected offensive flashes have looked intriguing in a depth role, he’s still raw and requires more polishing. He’s only 22, so this is normal and not a concern, but it’s an important reminder not to get too carried away with how optimistically we project some of these young players.

Kevin Lankinen bounces back

Kevin Lankinen needed a bounce-back performance. He’s had a solid season, but his play has dipped since the 4 Nations Face-Off break, and his last outing against the Blue Jackets, where he surrendered six goals against on 38 shots, was especially rough.

The 29-year-old Finnish netminder faced a high volume of Grade-A chances Sunday. Vegas looked electric attacking off the rush and generated several quality looks from the inner slot and net-front area off the cycle. He was peppered by a barrage of shots and chances in the final period, when the Canucks were barely clinging on.

Lankinen stopped 32 of 35 shots. He anticipated and read Vegas’ offensive plays well. Lankinen flat-out robbed the Golden Knights on a couple of occasions with unbelievable desperation saves on rebounds.

This was a nice get-right game for Lankinen against a potent offence.

(Photo of Nils Höglander attempting to avoid Brett Howden: Bob Frid / Imagn Images)





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