The Canucks came out flying Tuesday night against the Islanders, with no signs of being tired after their win Monday night. The team is looking great and racking up goals. It’s a fun team right now. Halfway through the season, the Canucks are sitting at 27-11-3 and first in the Pacific. Gotta go check out preseason predictions to see how many of us had that………. ya. Anywho, here’s the highlights:
Stacking solid win after solid win. The chemistry is tight. Everyone’s happy. I mean, not much to say here. At this point Tocchet has to be the runaway front-runner for the Jack Adams, no? The change he’s been able to bring in a year has been masterful, as well as Allvin’s smart summer trades and signings.
“I think the way things are going right now shows that everybody's buying in and it's a really good feeling in the room right now,” Myers said. “The last three games, our consistency within our details are maybe one of the best stretches we've had all year. We just have to realize why we're having success: everybody's buying in to doing the little things, and it's working for us.”
It definitely looks that way. Harman Dayal at the Athletic had a little write up about each team’s additions this past year and how they’ve aged, and Allvin I think has passed with flying colours:
Early return: Patrik Allvin’s successfully made a series of incremental upgrades to renovate the Canucks’ depth at every position.
Suter has been the ultimate Swiss Army knife, capable of playing center and wing, filling holes on virtually every line. He’s scored eight goals in 26 games in addition to his savvy two-way toolkit, which has driven terrific underlying results and translated to the Canucks outscoring opponents 15-3 during his five-on-five shifts.
Blueger has admirably played the supporting role on a third line with Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua that’s arguably been Vancouver’s most consistent trio this season. Blueger’s scored 16 points in 26 games, which is a big step up compared to previous seasons.
Lafferty has contributed nine goals and 18 points in 40 games, which is strong depth production.
Cole has been a steady bottom-four presence on the blue line, although his play has slipped a tad lately, perhaps as a result of the extra minutes he logged early in the season. Soucy’s only suited up in 15 games because of injury but has made a strong first impression. He’s offered quality defensive play and better poise with the puck than expected. Zadorov, acquired in early December, capably shouldered second pair minutes while Soucy was hurt.
Combine those upgrades with Filip Hronek’s seamless fit on the top pair with Quinn Hughes (Hronek only played five games for Vancouver last season) and you have a blue line that’s miles better than last season’s.
Allvin’s trade to dump the final year of Pearson’s $3.25 million contract and acquire DeSmith to shore up the backup goaltending is a steal. DeSmith’s posted a .917 save percentage in 12 games.
The team played a really solid game, and DeSmith was all praise after finding another win for the team:
"Can't say enough good things. They're amazing," he said. "[They were] taking care of the slot, taking care of the puck, great on breakouts, and were talking to me all night. I think that was probably the best game that I've been a part of as far as how well we broke the puck out. I think that had a lot to do with our success, and then the guys took over in the offensive zone."
The Canucks are scoring in bunches, and the defense is shoring things up. The luxury of having people healthy and rotating players in to keep legs fresh down the stretch is fantastic. Ian Cole sat last night as Juulsen drew back into the lineup. And, all credit to Juulsen, after a bumpy start he’s been playing really steady hockey for the team. And the team mentality is something Tocc preaches.
“Since I've got here, I always preach the team,” Tocchet explained. “It's no different like, as a coach when there's an empty net, there's eight guys looking (at me) because they want to get on. I get it. Some people want to get on and we can talk about it later. But in the moment, be happy for your teammate. I think that's the key of a good team guy, is being in the moment happy for a guy. And then you have a tough conversation with the coach later. But that's for a different time. That's what this team is really good at — staying in the moment. And that's what being a team guy is.”
The one dark cloud/silver lining to their recent success is special teams. The PK is treading water at 23rd overall, and the PP sliding down now at 12th. However, that PK number was after their great start, yet over the past 24 games, have only converted 9 of 68 opportunities for 13.2% – that would tie them with Chicago for 4th worst in the league. However, the plus side is in that stretch they’ve scored 70 goal at 5 on 5, which is best in the league. So, the good and bad? (I took these numbers from a Reddit post, so hopefully they’re correct!)
The Canucks continue their road trip Thursday in Pittsburgh.
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