It’s getting hard to come up with the right ways to contextualize what Elias Pettersson has done so far as an NHLer.

It must be said that not every team in the league is the Calgary Flames, and not every goaltender is Mike Smith. But the Canucks’ rookie has five points in two games and has looked dangerous on every shift he’s taken.

In short, the Flames have shown absolutely no ability to even slow him down and Pettersson’s vision and offensive instincts just seem to be on another level.

The comparisons have been out of control (Gretzky, Sakic, Filip Forsberg), but that’s because people feel the need to justify things they just don’t understand or haven’t seen before.

The one that’s always felt the most accurate to us is Pavel Datsyuk (which we first saw from Daniel Wagner of Pass it to Bulis), just given the Russian’s ability to pull things off on a nightly basis that previously didn’t seem possible on a sheet of ice.

If the top line for the Canucks ever gets going, this won’t be the last high scoring affair this season. Everyone thought this team would be bad this year, but whether they’d be fun to watch was always up for grabs. On that front, the first two games have unquestionably delivered.

On whether the Canucks will be bad, well, that was also pretty evident tonight. Though the Canucks were in the game until the very end, the Flames badly outshot Vancouver (35-20) and dominated the visitors for stretches.

Here are a couple things we noticed in the Canucks’ 7-4 loss to the Calgary Flames.

Three that impressed

1. Elias Pettersson

Sorry, but he’s going to get this spot until his production falls off. There were just too many moments of dominance on a night when the rookie put up two goals and one assist and could have had many more helpers.

2. Troy Stecher

Despite limited ice time, Stecher made a big impression on defence, escaping the forecheck numerous times and using his speed effectively to break up plays. With just over 11 minutes of time on the ice, Green has to start giving Stecher more time. He received almost four minutes of ice less than the next lowest defender, Derrick Pouliot.

3. Matthew Tkachuk

It’s always a bit hard to watch Tkachuk wreck havoc against the Canucks. Not only has the team been on the hunt for a power forward ever since Todd Bertuzzi was shipped out of town, but Tkachuk was taken with the sixth overall pick in 2016, one after the Canucks drafted defenceman Olli Juolevi, who has yet to play an NHL game.

Tkachuk was all over the ice tonight, registering four assists and generally throwing around his 6’2, 202-pound frame. He also appeared to score a goal but it was taken back for goalie interference.

Though Jake Virtanen (drafted a year earlier to be that coveted power forward) had his moments, including a massive hit on Flames star Johnny Gaudreau (that was whistled for a penalty, but still), it’s obvious that if the Canucks had gone in a different direction in the prior draft, they may have been more inclined to take a chance on Tkachuk.

Three that didn’t

1. Brock Boeser

The top line still hasn’t gotten it into gear, though they were better than in the season opener. For his part, Boeser had two shots but didn’t seem as reluctant to shoot as he did in the first game.

2. Dalton Prout

The Flames defenceman ostensibly brought in to bring retribution on Erik Gudbranson was more or less a liability on the Flames blueline and took a bad penalty. Maybe this will end the culture of trying to make teams physically pay for perceived wrongdoings. Probably not, but maybe.

3. Michael Del Zotto

Many aren’t sure why Michael Del Zotto is playing over someone like Ben Hutton, and add us to that category. He mishandled a beautiful pass from Pettersson that went the other way for a break and one wonders when Del Zotto might be effectively Sam Gagner’d off the roster.

Notable

- It was a great challenge from Travis Green to get the Tkachuk goal off the board, as Green saw that a stick was used by a Flames player to push goaltender Jacob Markstrom back.

- Speaking of Markstrom, he had some rough moments, even as the Canucks were badly outshot. A couple pucks went right through the Swedish ‘tender.

- Loui Eriksson had his moments for the second straight game (obviously that gets chalked up to playing with Pettersson), including a beautiful flip pass to Pettersson, who found Goldobin with a slick pass for a good chance on Smith.

- Jay Beagle didn’t have a great game, as he was on the ice for three shorthanded goals against. The depth additions were supposed to make the Canucks penalty kill better, and though they got the job done in the first game against Calgary, it was a different story last night. Beagle was also 33 percent in the faceoff dot, not great for a veteran centre.

Quotable

“Of course I’m happy about that, but I don’t care about that, we didn’t win.” – Elias Pettersson on his own efforts

“You give him an opportunity and he’s going to make plays. Last game we did a pretty good job breaking them out and tonight he was slinging them through pretty good.” – Brandon Sutter on Calgary’s Gaudreau

“It was an uneven game each way.” – Calgary coach Bill Peters