Listless effort a surprise after ugly loss

For almost two full periods, the Vancouver Canucks appeared, again, to be without life.

A late second-period spurt and then two goals early in the third period appeared to change the story, but in the end, the song remained the same for the home team at Rogers Arena on Saturday as they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Montreal Canadiens.

After Thursday's ugly 7-3 loss to the Canadiens, it made sense to think the Canucks would fly out of the gates like a rocket on Saturday.

They didn't. They were listless in the first period and fell behind 1-0. They were mostly lacklustre in the second period, too, yielding another goal to the visitors.

Late in the middle frame, though, they pulled their socks up and slowly found some spurts of possession. That flicker of light erupted into a proper blaze in the third period, as Elias Pettersson finally got his first goal of the season — he'd rung a shot off the post in the first period — and rookie Nils Höglander got his second.

But as has been the case too often through the first week and a half of the season — an astoundingly short period that also feels like it's taken forever — they couldn't put enough together and then surrendered two goals in the third to the Habs, settling the game for the visitors.

The Canadiens' goals were scored by Nick Suzuki, Corey Perry, Brendan Gallagher, Jonathan Drouin and Joel Edmundson into an empty net, while Pettersson and Höglander scored for the Canucks.

Here's what we learned:

YOU KNOW HE NEEDED THAT

Pettersson has had a rough start to the season.

He mostly hasn't looked himself. There have been moments of confidence — like his between-the-legs effort on a breakaway on Wednesday that didn't lead to a goal — but mostly he looks to be squeezing his stick too hard.

Finally, Saturday, he got a bounce, making a perfect tip of a point shot by Jordie Benn, deflecting the puck down toward the ice and past Price into the Montreal net.

UGLY GOALS

They could have used a game-stealing performance by either Thatcher Demko or Braden Holtby.

On the first-period goal by Nick Suzuki, it was a quick shot from in close, but Holtby let his body get too loose and the puck went in under his arm. Suzuki, by the way, has picked up a point in every game his team has played so far this season.

And on the second goal, it was a tough situation with Corey Perry and Jesperi Kotkaniemi tearing down the ice towards him, but he got caught leaning across his crease as Perry's attempt at a pass across the crease became a shot and slid through Holtby's five hole.

NO-TOFFOLI FOR ONCE

Tyler Toffoli has been electric in his return to Vancouver this week. He nearly had his sixth goal of the season on Saturday night after a perfect cross-crease pass by Perry left Holtby hung out to dry.

A second-period chance saw the puck land on his stick to the left of the net. It was a tight angle to shoot from but the net was yawning in front of him.

He missed to the right of the net and then stared at the sky.