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Canucks kick off 2022 looking for a better start as they face the Kraken |
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Saturday January 1 - Vancouver Canucks at Seattle Kraken
The streak is over. Now, let's see if Bruce Boudreau's Vancouver Canucks can keep their positive momentum rolling as they skate into 2022 with their second-ever date against the Seattle Kraken.
To be honest, I like their chances. The Kraken are 0-3-1 in their last four games. Since coming back from the holiday break, they've lost 3-2 in overtime to Philadelphia, and 6-4 to Calgary.
And Philipp Grubauer is set to get the start in Seattle's net. My very misguided preseason pick to win the Vezina, he's 7-12-4 for the year, with a .327 GAA and .882 save percentage.
Taking advantage of the novelty of having a road game in such close proximity, the Canucks elected to fly home after Thursday's shootout loss in Los Angeles.
The Canucks currently have three players in Covid protocols. Justin Dowling joined Brock Boeser and Phil Di Giuseppe on the list on Thursday.
Sounds like everything will be status quo against Seattle.
All things considered, the Canucks were probably lucky to eke out a point against the Kings, who outshot Vancouver 35-18 and played a heavy game that reminded me of the Darryl Sutter/Stanley Cup days in Los Angeles. Jaro Halak was outstanding, with a performance that should inspire faith from Boudreau and his teammates regarding future starts. He probably deserved a better fate against the Kings.
So the Canucks start the New Year still seventh in the Pacific Division. They're just three points out of that second wild-card spot, currently held by Colorado. They've moved ahead of Dallas — currently sidelined due to Covid and now with four fewer games played than Vancouver. But they still have three teams to pass in order to move up the standings — San Jose, L.A. and Winnipeg.
While the Canucks are playing on Saturday night, the Kings will be hosting the Flyers.
On Sunday, San Jose plays in Pittsburgh and Winnipeg is in Vegas.
As I'm sure you've heard by now, I was on the right track in my last blog, wondering if the Canucks' home games scheduled for next week would be postponed.
Wednesday's matchup against the New York Islanders is off, but the game against Ottawa next Saturday is set to go ahead. The Senators are booked to come West for a five-game trip. Even though that includes four games in Western Canadian markets with limited arena capacity, apparently the league believes that there isn't another window available to reschedule those games. And since the Sens already went through a serious Covid outbreak, they're among the teams with the fewest games played so far this season — at 28 so far. Boston's in the midst of their 27th as I type this, Colorado's also at 27, and the Islanders are playing their 28th right now, against Edmonton.
The Canucks will play their 34th game tonight, which puts them right up with the league leaders despite the five games that were postponed around the holiday break.
I suspect the Saturday games on Hockey Night in Canada also carry some weight in terms of the league's scheduling logic. Despite the fact that only 1,000 fans are allowed in Ontario, they're going ahead with Toronto's game against Ottawa for this Saturday's broadcast, before Canucks-Kraken.
While we're sitting at Jan. 1, let's take a quick look back at the stats from a very unusual calendar year, which has featured nearly a season-and-a-half's worth of games, even though the 89 total games are not that much more than we'd see in a regular year.
For 2021, the Canucks have a record of 38-44-7 for 83 points in those 89 games — good for 23rd overall in the league by points and 24th in points percentage.
They sit 25th in goals per game (2.57), 21st in goals against (3.12), 20th on the power play (18.5%), 30th on the penalty kill (75.9%), 12th in shots per game (30.5), 29th in shots against (32.8) and seventh in face-off percentage (51.9%).
For some New Year's Cheer, let's see how those numbers shake out in the small sample size of the Boudreau era. Since Dec. 5:
Record: 7-0-1 for 15 pts (T2); .938 points percentage (2nd)
Goals: 2.75 per game for (22nd); 1.5 per game against (T2)
Special Teams: PP 31.6% (4th); PK 88.2% (8th)
Shots: 31.0 for (14th); 31.3 against (17th)
Faceoffs: 50.6% (15th)
So — better special teams and outstanding goaltending have pretty much been carrying the day so far. Let's see if they can keep it going.
In Saturday's pre-game media availability, Bruce Boudreau identified another bugaboo:
He's not wrong there, either.
During his tenure, the Canucks have scored five first-period goals in eight games, to go along with seven in the second, nine in the third and one in overtime. They've given up six in the first, then just three in the second, three in the third and none in OT.
If the team can improve its starts, that should further boost the results. As they say, it's a lot easier to play with a lead.
And here's a fun story to wrap up today — and somewhat timely.
I spent New Year's Eve watching Slap Shot, which I hadn't seen in at least a decade. All the talk of how Bruce Boudreau's epically messy minor-league hockey apartment was used as the set for the home of Paul Newman's character, Reggie Dunlop, brought the back into the front of my mind, and it's currently available to stream on Starz.
There's certainly some language that doesn't pass muster in 2022 — but serves as a reminder of how deeply homophobia is ingrained in hockey culture. Still, the overarching storyline actually holds up pretty well, with talk of the Charlestown Chiefs potentially relocating to Florida due to economic issues in their town and the never-ending debate surrounding skill vs. violence.
Now, the old-time organist has made his way to the brand-new Kraken. Pretty cool!
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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