K'Andre Miller had three assists for his first three-point NHL game, and Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers (29-14-8), who are 4-0-1 in their past five games and 11-3-0 at home since Dec. 5.
"To be honest, it feels a little bit like last year with that type of belief," Miller said. "Obviously, not winning in the prettiest ways all the time, but just finding a way, sticking it out to the last second and finding a way to win, really."
Vasily Podkolzin scored his first goal of the season, J.T. Miller had one assist for his 500th NHL point, and Quinn Hughes had two assists for the Canucks (20-27-4), who have lost the first two of a four-game road trip (0-1-1) that continues Thursday at the New York Islanders. Spencer Martin made 17 saves.
"I don't think we were ready to play," Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. "I know we had the shot volume down for them, but they're a fast team. But just some guys weren't ready to play tonight."
Tocchet said he could count five players on his list of those who were not ready, adding the Canucks got into trouble because they were not making simple plays, such as getting a puck deep when there were no other options.
"We're looking for the result, we want to score the goal, but there's a lot more to scoring a goal," Tocchet said. "It could be chipping a body. It could be winning a battle. It could be boxing a guy out. We want to go A-to-Z too quick. We've got to go through the progression, and tonight it showed that if we don't value certain plays, they're going to be tough games to win. You're always going to play catch-up."