It was a low-scoring affair on Thursday night, as the Vancouver Canucks took on the San Jose Sharks in a 2–1 overtime win. Dakota Joshua and Drew O’Connor scored for the Canucks, while ex-Canuck Tyler Toffoli notched the tally for the Sharks. Thatcher Demko continued his excellent stretch of play by making 33 saves on 34 shots against. With the Calgary Flames losing to the Colorado Avalanche earlier today, Vancouver now has sole possession of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
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Quinn Hughes missed his third game since being shaken up in last week’s match against the Dallas Stars. However, despite missing their undisputed best player, Vancouver has looked solid and continued their steady stretch of play tonight. While they were a little slow in capitalizing on their opportunities, they did well in neutralizing San Jose’s chances.
The last time the Canucks took on the Sharks, Elias Pettersson had himself an impressive two-goal game, but left the game early due to injury. The most notable part of tonight’s game for him was the fact that, during the third power play for Vancouver, Pius Suter took his place. Pettersson finished the game with 19:33 minutes on ice.
The #Canucks getting a power play goal in this game after looking so lousy on the power play…that’s something, I guess.
— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) February 7, 2025
Speaking of the power play, Vancouver’s has not looked the same since Hughes went down due to injury. With Filip Hronek walking the blueline, the Canucks had many options to send the puck back to their defender to take a hard shot on net, which they did plenty of times in their first opportunity. The power play has also looked new with the addition of puck-carrier Filip Chytil. As the game went on, the Canucks were unable to set themselves up, and things looked bleak. However, after a change in personnel on their fourth opportunity, Joshua swung by the net and helped nudge the puck past Vitek Vanecek.
Nice glove stop by Vanecek on Pettersson.
Elias Pettersson, to be exact.
D Elias Pettersson, to be exact exact.
— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) February 7, 2025
Elias Pettersson (D) played his fifth NHL game, and was paired with…