Thursday November 10 - Detroit Red Wings 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
Taken in isolation, the Vancouver Canucks' loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday isn't too hard to digest. At the end of a long, tough road trip, the Canucks mounted a solid effort—outshooting Detroit 37-27 and putting forth a solid all-round effort.
Here are your highlights:
In his third year with the Canucks, Ryan Miller is proving that his will to win is as strong as anybody's. As he was leaving his crease in favour of the extra attacker with two minutes to go on Thursday, Miller came back to make a diving grab on a Henrik Zetterberg shot at what was supposed to be the empty net.
I like what Miller had to say about the play almost as much as I liked the effort and the athleticism.
“Coming back from two goals is tough, but anything can happen,” Miller told Ben Kuzma of The Province after the game. “It was such a quick turnover and I had already started and I’m kind of sick of seeing pucks go into empty nets.”
According to Fox Sports, the Canucks have already given up four empty-net goals this season during Miller's eight games. That's the second-highest number in the league—Brian Elliott has watched five pucks go in from the bench in Calgary. It's a side-effect of playing for a team that's playing from behind in a lot of close games. Vancouver has given up just one empty-netter so far this season when Jacob Markstrom has been the goaltender of record.
The Save is also the second gutsy effort we've seen from Miller on this road trip, after he stepped in to protect Troy Stecher from that Matt Martin beatdown last Saturday in Toronto.
Miller's record is now 1-7-0 for the year. Considering how frustrated he has looked at times while those losses have piled up, it's heartening to see him digging deep. Throughout the lineup, the effort was there on Thursday night—and has been for most of the road trip.
Believe it or not, the Canucks were outshot just once in the last six games—the 7-4 loss to Toronto—and they averaged a solid 32.7 shots per game. On Thursday, they were stared down by another super-hot goalie in Jimmy Howard.
They're not a team that seems to be able to generate many quality chances off the rush but the opportunities are there.
The Canucks are still last in the league with an average of just 1.8 goals per game, but they're actually 14th in the league in total shots on goal, with 421 in 15 games or an average of 28.1 shots per game. So the road trip has shown an uptick in shots, but the problem is the team's shooting percentage—currently a league-worst 6.4 percent. By comparison, the high-flying New York Rangers are connecting on more than twice as many shots, scoring 14 percent of the time to lead the league.
Fancy-statters often argue that shooting percentage is an indication of luck as much as anything—players with low percentages will eventually start putting pucks in the net, while those with high percentages are due to cool off. Maybe the Canucks will get a few bounces to go their way during their upcoming four-game homestand?
My other positives from Thursday's game—both Troy Stecher and Nikita Tryamkin look like they're quickly establishing themselves as regulars on the Vancouver blue line. It's only a matter of time until Stecher gets his first NHL goal. He picked up his second assist against Detroit, setting up the twins for Vancouver's only goal of the night, and led the team with six shots on goal while logging more than 20 minutes of ice time for the third time in his six NHL games so far.
Tryamkin played just 14:32, lowest among the defensemen and the lowest total in his five games so far, but he was steady. He tied for the team lead with four hits, including one that knocked Andreas Athanasiou out of the game in the first period.
Tryamkin crushes Andreas Athanasiou and then makes a terrific tape-to-tape outlet pass to Loui Eriksson. Quality scoring chance #Canuckspic.twitter.com/VS9OObcECv
The other good news? The Sedins have continued to score, even without Jannik Hansen on their wing. Daniel's 3-1-4 in Vancouver's last four games and Henrik is 1-3-4. They're still the engine that drives the Canucks' offense. Now they need some help from their teammates!
One other positive statistical note—operation Manny Malhotra is paying immediate dividends. Through 15 games, the Canucks are tied for sixth in the league in faceoffs, winning 50.7 percent of their draws overall. That's an enormous improvement from last season, when they finished last with a 45.4 percent success rate.
The improvement has come across the board, too. Henrik is winning 52.5 percent of his draws this season, Brandon Sutter's at 51.6, Brendan Gaunce is a solid 51.1 and Bo Horvat is within range at 48.7.
These are the sorts of numbers that lend credence to the team's assertions that there are some good things happening with the group this year—they just haven't been rewarded with many wins.
Though they're back in Vancouver with a 1-5-0 record on the road trip and a 1-9-0 record in their last 10 games, I don't think we'll see Willie Desjardins get axed or see any big trades right now.
The team is off today, then will practice on Saturday ahead of a winnable Sunday matinee game against the struggling Dallas Stars at Rogers Arena.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»