Canucks Crushed By MacKinnon’s Two Goals In 3–1 Loss To The Colorado

Faced with one of their toughest tasks of the season, the Vancouver Canucks put up a decent effort but fell short in a 3–1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. Linus Karlsson scored the lone goal of the game, while Kevin Lankinen stopped 28 of 32 shots faced.

Lankinen was the key to a good start tonight, as throughout the first half of the first period, it was all Avalanche. Colorado lobbed anything and everything at Lankinen and continued their siege even after coming off a two-minute power play. They reached the 12-shot mark by the halfway point of the period, though were unable to get the puck past Lankinen until the final minute of the frame.

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With Conor Garland still unavailable for Vancouver, Jonathan Lekkerimäki received a promotion, filling in the empty spot on Elias Pettersson’s line alongside Evander Kane. The trio performed excellently defensively, holding the Avalanche to only one 5-on-5 scoring chance. Even so, the Canucks’ lines ended up being shaken up during the third period, with Lekkerimäki ending up alongside Brock Boeser and David Kämpf and Karlsson taking his place.

Today’s game solidified another point — if you put any iteration of last year’s Abbotsford Canucks together on one line, chances are, they’re going to find the back of the net. Most often, it’s been the trio of Arshdeep Bains, Max Sasson, and Karlsson who end up scoring. Today, it was Karlsson who deked Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood out and opened the scoring for Vancouver, doing-so while on a line with Bains and Aatu Räty.

Beating an Avalanche team that sits comfortably at the top of the NHL was a tall task, so it’s not a surprise that the Canucks were unable to close this one out. With that being said, Vancouver did a surprisingly decent job of matching the pace of play that Colorado generates, specifically during the first period. While it was clear that the Avalanche were the better team tonight, Vancouver put up a solid effort during certain…