The Vancouver Canucks have gotten off to a pretty good start so far in 2014-15. A 5-3-0 record has them top ten in the league with 10 points (tied with six other teams, four of which have less wins, and the other two have played more games), though it’s only good enough for 5th in the Pacific Division at this point, thanks in large part to the surprising Calgary Flames.
All in all though, it’s a favorable position for a club hoping to find its new identity early. However, it hasn’t been all roses and sunshine (and in Vancouver this time of year, is that any surprise?) for the Canucks. Here’s a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly for the team’s season so far.
The Good:
Undoubtedly it’s the offense, and the play of the team’s new look top line. Much was said about the potential impact that Radim Vrbata would have playing alongside Daniel and Henrik Sedin, but few expected to see the fruit of their labors so early.
As a group, the unit has 31 points through only eight games, making them one of the hottest lines in the league. All three are in the top-20 in league scoring (just a few points shy of NHL points leader Tyler Seguin) and, given their pedigree, there’s no reason to doubt they can stay up there for the remainder of the season, barring injury.
However, it’s not just the first line getting it done, as the secondary offense has been a pleasant surprise so far. Nick Bonino, Chris Higgins, and Alexandre Burrows make up a second line that has been contributing on a pretty consistent basis, to the tune of 18 combined points.
They haven’t exactly been dominant, but they’ve been chipping in enough that the fears of Vancouver being a one-line team seem to be, at this point, unfounded (not to mention the joy Vancouver fans have felt in seeing Bonino keep pace offensively with Ryan Kesler so far this season).
The Canucks would undoubtedly like to see more of a scoring contribution from their bottom six, though players such as Linden Vey, Zack Kassian and Jannik Hansen have each scored two goals, meaning that the team’s third and fourth line haven’t been completely inept (though, to be fair, both of Vey’s goals have come by way of the power play and him playing on the first unit with the Sedins).
Overall, the team’s 3.25 goals per game is 5th in the league, their 21.7% power play is 13th, and their 52.75 Fenwick % at 5-on-5 is 7th. Vancouver certainly appears to be a team that knows how to move the puck in the right direction, and take advantage of their opportunities after having done so.
The Bad:
In a word, goaltending. New starting netminder Ryan Miller has had his moments, including a 28-save shutout against Edmonton on Oct. 17, but has been wildly inconsistent thus far. Book-ending that shutout was a win over the Oilers in which he allowed four goals, and a brutal loss to the Dallas Stars, a game that saw Miller pulled for the first time as a Canuck after allowing five goals on only 13 shots.
Naturally, he followed up that awful night in Dallas with his best showing of the season, a 31-save performance in a 4-1 over the St. Louis Blues last Thursday. As good as that game was, it just reinforced the most pertinent question of this young season for Miller: which version of him will show up?
The Canucks are in the middle of their first home stand of the season (which started with an average 18/20 performance for Miller against Washington), so perhaps now is an opportunity for Miller to get into a consistent groove.
Vancouver hopes that he does, because at this point the prospect of putting back-up Eddie Lack between the pipes isn’t very appetizing. The 26-year-old from Sweden hasn’t been great, allowing 13 goals on 87 shots through three appearances (including seven goals in a loss to the Avalanche on Oct. 24) , and seems to have carried over some of the baggage from a disastrous end to last season that saw Lack really struggle with consistency and injury down the stretch after Roberto Luongo was traded.
While the goaltending as a whole hasn’t been a complete disaster, seeing what’s been going on in the AHL has made the situation somewhat untenable. Jacob Markstrom, the goalie that nobody wanted via trade this summer, has been an absolute monster for the Utica Comets.
Through four games, Markstrom has three shutouts and has allowed just one goal on 109 shots, helping propel him to AHL player of the week honors. While the issue of what to do with Markstrom and the entire franchise’s goaltending situation in general is an entirely different kettle of fish, there’s no doubt that his performance has caused some consternation among the Canucks and the efforts of their NHL goaltenders.
The Ugly
At this point, it has to be the contributions of the defense – on both sides of the puck.
Offensively, the Canucks have gotten little to nothing from their back end. Only Alex Edler and Luca Sbisa (who can hardly be counted on for consistent goal-producing) have been able to find the back of the net, while Dan Hamhuis and Chris Tanev have each chipped in with three assists. That’s a far cry from the likes of what Christian Ehrhoff, Sami Salo, and even Jason Garrison were able to produce for the d-corps in recent memory.
The unit lacks a true power play quarterback, and the strategy of the right-shooting Kevin Bieksa on the top unit in place of lefty Edler has been a disaster.
Bieksa in general has been a complete no-show for the Canucks so far this season. Despite leading Vancouver’s defense in shots on goal (23), Bieksa has nothing to show for it other than just a single assist. More was needed offensively out of Bieksa this year with the loss of Garrison over the summer and, to this point, he is yet to step up.
Defensively, only the Edler-Tanev pair has showed any real semblance of consistency. Bieksa and Hamhuis, while assumed to be the team’s shutdown pair, hasn’t shown the same level of play. Bieksa’s -6 is ugly, though his even strength possession numbers haven’t been that bad. However, Hamhuis in particular hasn’t been his usual self.
His 49.3 Corsi For % and -5.2 Corsi Relative % are the worst he’s posted since his sophomore season, and by far his worst as a Canuck. Yes, you can say that it’s evidence of a small sample size, but the eye test alone has proven that Hamhuis, for whatever reason (and he’ll be the last one to tell you it’s due to the extra headgear he’s sporting thanks to a broken nose), just hasn’t been performing as a #1 shut-down defenseman.
Now we get to the bottom pairing, where it really gets ugly. Sbisa, despite generally moving the puck in the right direction, has developed (or perhaps carried over) an unfortunate knack for horrible giveaways or poor positioning that leads to his goaltenders being hung out to dry. His -3 is ahead of only Bieksa among Vancouver’s blueliners.
His countryman and defensive partner Yannick Weber has had even worse luck. He has the lowest ice time (15:37) of any Canuck defender for a reason: he has the group’s worst possession numbers. Normally that wouldn’t be too much of a concern, as the right-shooting Weber is expected to make most of his contributions on the power play, however the Swiss blueliner hasn’t had a sniff of the PP point all season long.
Compounding these issues is the injury to Ryan Stanton, and coach Wille Desjardins’ apparent hesitation to play youngster Frank Corrado. If there’s another injury to the defense, especially to the top four (thereby forcing players to move up into roles they perhaps aren’t suited for), things could get even uglier on the backend in Vancouver very soon.
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Statistics via Hockey Reference.
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