Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe Vancouver Canucks fell victim to a heist in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon.Lifeless and disinterested for much of the game, the New York Rangers nonetheless scored five times on just 12 shots on goal. The result, a 5-3 Rangers win, had almost no relationship to the high-quality performance that the Canucks brought to Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon.The Western Conference playoff race does not care, however, for the deserve-to-win-o-metre. Vancouver dropped points in a game they really should’ve won, at a time of the year when points are all that really matters for a hockey club that’s scrapping for their playoff life.Compounding Vancouver’s dismal fate, the “Inside Man,” J.T. Miller, set up a backbreaking third-period goal for the Rangers and then added the empty netter against his former club. And finally, a pair of key Canucks forwards, Elias Pettersson and Nils Höglander, left the game before the start of the third period and didn’t return.Their absences, should they extend and cause them to miss actual games, would severely dent Vancouver’s already popgun offensive attack.Now all that’s left for an unlucky Canucks side to do is sit and scoreboard-watch. The St. Louis Blues are facing a pair of cupcake opponents back-to-back this weekend, with a game on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks and on Sunday against the Nashville Predators. If the Blues take care of business, the Canucks could be staring up at a significant gap between them and the second wild-card spot by Monday.Goalie fatigue and bad bouncesThe Rangers were an unscreened rush wrist shot away from scoring a fortunate goal hat trick against Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.Despite being flattened through the first 30 minutes of the contest, the Rangers got on the board in the second period off of a long-range, seeing-eye Adam Fox wrist shot that eluded Kevin Lankinen. They scored a key 3-2 goal when a Vincent Trocheck centring attempt deflected neatly off of K’Andre Miller’s skate and into the top corner of Vancouver’s net.There were some breakdowns for Vancouver too, it certainly wasn’t a perfect defensive effort. Both of Jonny Brodzinski’s third-period goals were scored off of the rush as a result of real defensive breakdowns, with Miller wonderfully setting up the first goal, and Kiefer Sherwood misplaying the rush on the second goal set up by Alexis Lafrenière. Nonetheless, this was one of those games where the puck felt like it was magnetized to the back of Vancouver’s net. Eventually, the puck was going to bounce in, regardless of what either team did about it.For Lankinen, meanwhile, the stat line isn’t pretty — four goals against on 11 shots faced is a difficult outcome for any team hoping to have a chance to win. On Saturday, however, Lankinen was making his eighth start in the last 15 days. Eventually, one expected, the Canucks might bump into a game where the netminder — who has never previously made more than 37 starts in a campaign prior to this year — might not look sharp enough.With Thatcher Demko seemingly nearing a return, perhaps the Canucks can find a way to get Lankinen some rest. If Demko isn’t ready to go this week, surely Rick Tocchet and company will have to look at their upcoming games against the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils this week and strongly consider utilizing Artūrs Šilovs in one of them.Can’t get much more from Quinn HughesThere was nothing else Quinn Hughes could’ve provided Vancouver on Saturday.Hughes walked the Rangers line like a dervish, and had this game on a string all afternoon. On Vancouver’s first goal, Hughes did things to Matt Rempe defending the point that somehow seem harsher when described in French.
Ouf, Quinn Hughes fait mal paraître Matt Rempe 😵💫 pic.twitter.com/pY4az1a7Wm
— TVA Sports (@TVASports) March 22, 2025By the end of the night, Hughes looked gassed, especially as he stayed on the ice for an extended multi-minute shift with the goalie pulled and the Canucks chasing the game. He’d also been completely dominant.Hughes was actively looking for his shot, peppering Igor Shesterkin with nine shots on goal on 15 shot attempts. With Hughes on the ice at five-on-five, Vancouver out-attempted the Rangers by a ludicrous 40 to 13 margin, out-shooting them 24-8 in Hughes’ 20 minutes.Somehow, because this was a bad luck afternoon for Vancouver, the Canucks nonetheless failed to outscore the Rangers in Hughes’ minutes.On Saturday, Hughes emptied the tank and did everything possible to will his team to victory. For him to be at that level, and for the Canucks still to be unable to get it done, has to be tough for the Canucks (and their fans) to swallow.The J.T. Miller thingCredit Miller for putting in a big performance in a victory for his new club.For all the close monitoring of Miller’s various exchanges with Canucks teammates, a fly-by slash on Pettersson, a little post-whistle shove on Hughes, there’s a truth about the impact of Miller trade for both teams that I’m not sure we’ve discussed as simply as we should.The truth is that the Canucks, as expected by everybody including the organization itself, got worse in the short term by trading their best forward over the past few years. What’s been more of a surprise, however, is that Miller’s presence hasn’t been sufficient to move the needle in New York.That much has been abundantly clear for months, and despite the result, it was abundantly clear on Saturday too.This Rangers team looked disorganized and disinterested throughout Saturday afternoon in Manhattan. The Canucks soundly controlled the entire game, with Shesterkin, some clinical Brodzinski finishing and a run of fortunate bounces making the difference. They’ve struggled mightily to generate offence against any reasonably stout defensive side, with both their games against the Calgary Flames and Vancouver this week standing up as compelling examples.Now this doesn’t say that much about Miller, or at least, it says more about the state of the Rangers roster and overall direction.On another team, in a different situation, Miller might’ve been the perfect finishing piece. A player that could add attacking ingenuity and snarl for a team — like Colorado, or Carolina, or Los Angeles — that already had the gear required to control play at five-on-five.What this version of the Rangers requires, however, is a standalone driver to boost their five-on-five game. An engine with a level of horsepower that’s unreasonable to ask Miller to provide (or to ask just about anybody to provide that isn’t named Connor McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon).Given the trend lines surrounding this Rangers team, that conditional first-round pick that the Canucks originally acquired for Miller but flipped to Pittsburgh loomed large over our thinking about this game. The Penguins still need to hit a long-shot parlay for that pick to reach its maximum potential, but watching on Saturday, it was difficult to ignore how that pick is looking like one heck of an asset eight weeks out from the two-step Miller trade being consummated.(Photo: Danny Wild / Imagn Images)
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