If you’re the Vancouver Canucks, it’s probably not the best time to play a back-to-back. It also hammers home the idea of moving the farm team a tad closer.

The Canucks pulled off a shootout win against the Vegas Golden Knights, but it didn’t come without a cost.

Alex Edler, Sven Baertschi and Chris Tanev all left the game with injuries, leaving the Canucks with four defencemen. Somewhat shockingly, the Canucks still managed a victory over the defending Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights.

The win came in the shootout, yes, but it showed some resolve that hasn’t been there in years past.

Already down their two most dynamic players in Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson, the Canucks were nonetheless able to secure a 3-2 shootout victory that has them at the top of the Pacific Division (seriously).

Here’s what we saw in the Canucks’ 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Three that impressed

1. Bo Horvat

With two goals, Horvat took the baton dropped by Boeser and Pettersson and ran with it. The Canucks’ defacto captain was great all night, backchecking furiously and making his linemates Loui Eriksson (who hasn’t looked great all year) and Brendan Leipsic (who’s been scratched for most of the season) look pretty competent. It was the type of performance teams need from their superstars and Horvat delivered.

2. Ben Hutton

Last season, if I told you that Ben Hutton would play 29 minutes at some point in 2018, you’d stop reading or, if you were having a particularly bad day, harass me in the comments section or on Twitter.

And yes, there were obviously circumstances that allowed for it, but Hutton was out there for 29:25 last night, a full five minutes more than the next highest player, Derrick Pouliot. And, unlike, Pouliot (who we’ll get to later), Hutton had a strong game. It’s clear that he’s gotten in better shape like coach Travis Green wanted, and it’s also clear Green has a lot more trust in him.

3. Erik Gudbranson

We haven’t been very kind to Guddy in this space so far this season. But last night—before he lost a bit of steam due to having to be on the ice for every second shift—the Canucks’ hulking defender was out there making nice cross-ice feeds and actually setting up forwards. It was good (and frankly, pretty weird) to see. He still got caved in according to the advanced metrics, but that’s to be expected.

Three that didn’t

3. The refs

Sorry, but the hit that injured Sven Baertschi absolutely needs to be called. The forward is reportedly out with a concussion.

2. Derrick Pouliot

While there’s certainly some sympathy for Pouliot, who played more than 24 minutes, he also made some questionable decisions and looked particularly bad on two instances. The first came when Tomas Hyka of all people dangled him out of his skates. Then he was stripped of the puck relatively easily by Erik Haula, which led directly to a Max Pacioretty goal.

3. The ice

Not to hate on the non-traditional market in Vegas, but either the players were dealing with the aftermath of some fun times at the casino last night (which can’t be ruled out), or the ice was awful. Both teams were sliding around the rink like they were at a playground.

Notable

- Loui Eriksson had a pretty strong game, with a couple very nice passes that almost found their way to the back of the net. He also had a clean breakaway in which he shot the puck directly at Marc-Andre Fleury.

- Speaking of Fleury, the way he uses his puck-handling skills to act as a third defenceman is really impressive. There were a couple times where he effectively stuffed a Vancouver forechecking effort by going out to play the puck.

- Max Pacioretty has not had a good start to the year, but perhaps the goal the Canucks gifted him can get him going. The sniper has two goals in nine games so far.

- The Canucks have recalled both Alex Biega and Guillaume Brisebois from Utica, indicating that they don’t anticipate having Tanev or Edler back for tonight’s game against Arizona.