Tuesday November 11 - Vancouver Canucks 4 - Ottawa Senators 3 (OT)
I might be moving past the point of cautious optimism and starting to believe in the 2014-15 Vancouver Canucks. A good effort was capped off by a gorgeous overtime winner from Daniel Sedin to move the Canucks' record this season to 12-5—enough to lead the Pacific Division and the Western Conference and tie for first place overall with the Tampa Bay Lightning (though Tampa Bay does have a game in hand).
Here are your highlights from an entertaining game:
Yes, it's still early. And yes, the Canucks still have room for improvement. But when the hot topic of the summer was whether or not this team could qualify for the playoffs, I think it's safe to say that the idea of topping the entire league was far from anybody's mind.
Looks like people outside Vancouver are also starting to notice. Eric Stephens is the beat writer for the Anaheim Ducks, who just got knocked into second place:
After all the talk of the Canucks' core being "old" and "stale" at the end of last season, it's clear that those players weren't messing around when they talked about their sense of pride and their desire to prove people wrong.
The twins were in fine form last night—even with Jannik Hansen on right wing—and the winning goal was a classic thing of beauty.
Hansen has been taking a beating lately for his inability to finish around the net, but I don't think he deserves nearly the degree of criticism that he receives. At $2.5 million a season, it's not like he's being paid like a 30-goal scorer. Hansen's best year was 2011-12, when he had 16 goals and 39 points, so he *can* put the puck in the net. Even his 10 goals during the lockout season aren't that bad. It was really just last year that he dropped off, posting 11 goals and nine assists.
Comparable players of the same age that come up on
CapGeek.com include Arizona's Lauri Korpikoski, whose career numbers are actually quite similar: his best year was 19 goals and 40 points in 2010-11.
Ottawa's Colin Greening is the same age and is on a brand-new three-year contract with an average annual value of $2.65 a season. He scored 37 points in 2011-12 but has been on the decline ever since and is having trouble cracking the Sens' roster this season: he's pointless in just four games.
Even Damien Brunner, who's supposed to be a sniper, hasn't scored more than 12 goals in his first two seasons. This year, he has a goal and three assists, compared to Hansen's three goals and one assist.
I guess the frustration lies in the possibilities that Hansen offers up when he's on his game—and compared to the beginning of the year, he is back on his game. He's skating miles, he's an excellent penalty-killer, and he's actually sixth on the Canucks with a very respectable shooting percentage of 12.0. That's two-tenths of a percentage higher than Radim Vrbata.
Botchford beats this topic to death in the latest edition of
The Provies.
He does acknowledge that Hansen had a great game overall with the twins, even if he couldn't finish. I thought his best analysis was this breakdown of how Hansen changes his playing style when he's working with Daniel and Henrik:
So what does it mean when Hansen says he changes up his game to play with the twins?
A decent example was a late first period shift where he and Henrik get on the ice at the same time. The vid here isn’t clear initially, but Jannik defers to Henrik on the forecheck, allowing 33 to get in their first.
Then, a few seconds later, he has another opportunity to get in behind the net and disrupt things with a forecheck. This time, he really has the guy lined up too.
But again he defers to Daniel, and you can see him looking at 22 like he’s not sure what to do. It’s as though he’s lost that aggressive side which makes him so successful elsewhere in the in the lineup.
Don't lose sight of the fact that Hansen is playing an injury-replacement role with Daniel and Henrik.
Though I thought Alex Burrows was unjustly bumped from that right-wing spot on the first line when Radim Vrbata was signed, he has found such a good home now with Bonino and Higgins that I think he should stay in his second-line spot.
Would it be nice to see Nick Jensen take a spin or two with the twins while he's here? Sure. He showed some promise there last year—but he also took some untimely penalties. That's typically not a problem that we face with Hansen.
For the most part, the Kid Line of Jensen, Horvat and DeFazio was relegated to a secondary role again last night—Jensen got the most ice time of the three with 8:10. With his reputation for outstanding player development, it seems pretty clear at this point that Willie feels he needs to shelter the rookies. I wonder what this means for Bo Horvat as his nine-game trial ticks away.
One other quick note before I sign off for today: Tony Gallagher has
a great column on Kevin Bieksa in today's
Province. Talking about playing for pride, Gallagher reveals that Bieksa's poor play early in the season was caused, in part, by a shoulder issue. He's feeling better now—and got a nice goal last night. Good to think that his play could be on the upswing!
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