John Gibson stopped four of five shots in the first two periods but did not come out for the third period because he had something in his eye. Michal Postava, who was recalled from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League earlier in the day because of an undisclosed injury to Daniil Tarasov, made seven saves in relief in his NHL debut.
“It’s crazy,” said Postava, who flew out of Grand Rapids at 6 a.m. and arrived in Vancouver around noon after a stopover in Minneapolis. “I think it’s for me the best option. I don’t have time to think about anything, so yeah, I just warm up and be ready.”
Detroit coach Todd McLellan was also caught off guard by having to put Postava into his first NHL game.
“Well, that’s not the way we planned it and even with ‘Gibby’ I didn’t find out until about 10 minutes left in the intermission,” McLellan said. “He had something in his eye. They’re still looking at it, and so the EBUG is dressing, Michal’s told he’s going to play, and away he goes. Did a real good job, happy for him, and congratulations, you’re in the NHL now.”
McLellan said after the game that Tarasov is day to day after getting injured in practice on Wednesday and Gibson’s eye issue is not believed to be serious.
“From what I understand, he’s OK,” McLellan said.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki had a goal and an assist, and forward Elias Pettersson scored for the Canucks (2-9-1), who are 0-8-1 in their past nine games. Kevin Lankinen made 26 saves.
“It’s the same stuff game after game,” Vancouver forward Brock Boeser said. “I don’t know where the disconnect is, if guys in here aren’t listening to what the coaches are preaching on our style of play or some of our structure is not working or what it is. But it’s embarrassing.”
Raymond put Detroit ahead 1-0 at 4:18 of the first period, deflecting an Albert Johansson point shot between his legs and over the blocker of Lankinen while skating towards the slot near the bottom of the left face-off circle.
“It’s just kind of one of those that that comes at you in the moment,” Raymond said.
Wallinder made it 2-0 at 6:04 by banking a shot in off the back of Lankinen from the goal line after his cross-ice pass bounced back to him off Dylan Larkin.
Pettersson cut the deficit to 2-1 on the power play with a one-timer under Gibson’s left pad from the right dot at 7:02.
Raymond restored the two-goal lead with a power-play goal at 8:56. Alex DeBrincat threw the puck into the crease from the bottom of the left circle and the puck got caught under the right leg of Arvidsson as he got knocked down in the blue paint. Raymond pounced on the loose puck and backhanded it into an open net before Lankinen could cover it.
