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Confident Canucks firing on all cylinders; head east after Sens' sweep |
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A .500 record wouldn't be enough for a playoff spot in any other division.
But it's good enough for fourth place in the Scotia North Division after the Vancouver Canucks became the first team in the league to hit the 10-game benchmark with a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
Sweeping the three-game series with the Sens by a collective score of 16-3 was great for Vancouver's stat lines — and hopefully even better for the team's confidence. Bigger challenges lie on the horizon as they head east for a six-game road trip: Saturday in Winnipeg, then back-to-backs in Montreal followed by three games in five days in Toronto, where every detail, good and bad, will be duly examined under the hockey microscope.
Not long ago, the Canucks were near the bottom of the league in nearly every statistical category. As the sample size grows, they're now doing pretty well in some categories, but still need work in others.
Now at 3:50 goals per game, that ties them for sixth in the league offensively, with Colorado and Philadelphia. Montreal is the only Canadian team that's better.
And with five points against Ottawa, Quinn Hughes is now up to 11 points on the season. He currently has a two-point lead over all other defensemen in the league standings, but believe it or not, his 1.10 points per game only ranks him sixth. Watch out for John Klingberg, who's at 1.75 with seven points in Dallas's first four games!
On the defensive side: even after three games with just one goal allowed, goals against is still at 3.60. That ranks Vancouver 26th overall, with only Edmonton and Ottawa lower in the North Division.
The power play looked much more alive against the Sens, but still went just 2-for-9 over the three games. It's now at 15.8 percent for the season, ranked 21st, with Ottawa as the only Canadian team that's lower.
The penalty kill gained some juice, though — going 13 for 14 against Ottawa. It's now up to a pretty respectable 79.2 percent, good for 14th place.
Now at 29.9 shots per game, that's middle-of-the-pack, tied for 17th. But Vancouver was still outshot by Ottawa in all three games, and now in 9 of 10 so far. The only exception was the season opener against Edmonton.
So yes — the Canucks are still tops in the league in shots against, at 37.1. And with Chicago in second at 34.4, it's not even particularly close.
The good news out of that, though, is that the goalies' numbers are improving!
After stopping 77-of-79 in two games against the Sens, Thatcher Demko now has his save percentage at an above-league-average .909, even if his GAA is still 3.65.
And Braden Holtby stopped 36-of-37 on Thursday, to get himself to .906 (the average) and 3.17.
He also picked up his first assist as a Canuck on a dazzling stretch pass that led to Brock Boeser's second goal of the night and sixth of the year.
That adds a new wrinkle, doesn't it?
The manpower situation has also now stabilized, which has allowed Travis Green to make some lineup tweaks.
Both Jordie Benn and Jalen Chatfield have already missed time this year. But now that they're back, they seem to have the inside track on those fifth and sixth jobs on the blue line.
This is how the defense has rolled for the last two games. Not exactly the way we drew it up in preseason, but it's working!
Edler-Chatfield
Schmidt-Myers
Hughes-Benn
Up front, I'd say Zack MacEwen has now carved himself out a more secure roster spot that either Adam Gaudette or Jake Virtanen.
MacEwen is averaging just 8:02 per game so far, but he broke the 10-minute mark for the first time this season on Thursday night. He also leads the Canucks in hits-per-60 and in major penalties, thanks to fights this week with Austin Watson on Monday and Brady Tkachuk on Thursday.
That toughness is something that could be extra-important this season, when the personal feuds among the division rivals ramp up as the season goes along.
I thought Gaudette also looked feisty and engaged as he drew back into the lineup after being scratched for the last three games. And yes, I could understand why Green chose to scratch Virtanen, who has managed just one point so far this year and also hasn't given much away from the puck.
My list of bouquets has grown so long that I barely have time to shout out Nils Hoglander — with five points in his first 10 games, tied for third in rookie scoring. And at this point, Hoglander is probably doing his best work away from the puck. John Garrett highlighted a terrific sequence on Thursday's broadcast where he cut in front of an Ottawa player along the boards, getting body position that allowed him to easily gain possession. Hoglander has already been credited with eight takeaways for the year — tops among rookies, and on the Canucks, and tied with Evgeni Malkin and Jake Muzzin for fourth in the league.
I love that he's earning respect for the details of his game. Just wait till he whips out the lacrosse goal!
Finally — shout-out to Petey, whose back-to-back two-point games have tripled his point total for the year and, as I'd hoped, moved him ahead of Nico Hischier to top the points race among the draft class of 2017.
With 60 fewer games played, Elias Pettersson now has 138 career points, compared to 135 for Hischier. That spot could belong to him for a long time to come.
Next up — a well-rested Jets team, which hasn't played since beating Edmonton 6-4 on Tuesday. Winnipeg is 5-2-0 so far this season, good for third place in the North Division, and has been fuelled more by offense than by goaltending. The Jets have held their opponent to less than three goals just once this season, but have also scored four or more in five of their games. And while their power play has been clicking at a so-so 20 percent, they're one of the best teams in the league at drawing penalties this year, averaging about 4.3 power-play chances per game. The Canucks are middle-of-the-pack at 3.8.
I don't expect we'll see new Jet Pierre-Luc Dubois in the lineup on Saturday night, but I guess that could still change. The team traded for him last Saturday, and has requested a government exemption to lower his time in isolation from 14 days to seven. The latest report I've seen, from Wednesday, is that the request had been approved by the provincial government, but the federal authorities had not yet signed off.
Dubois guested on the 'Ray & Dregs' podcast from quarantine earlier in the week, where he said that he has been watching video of Jets games to start getting accustomed to the team's system, and that he's been included in team meetings via video. It does sound like he's ready to swoop in, the instant he's allowed to do so. Something to watch.
Canucks-Jets is the late game on Saturday night, with puck drop at 7 p.m. PT — 9 p.m. in Winnipeg. Even that couple of extra hours might end up working in the Jets' favour.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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