Around this time last year, the Vancouver Canucks were verging on disarray. In the middle of January, team president Jim Rutherford held a press conference to address the team’s terrible season, which began with eight straight losses and didn’t improve much from then on. “I’m pretty disappointed in the job I’ve done,” Rutherford said at the time. The team’s fans felt the same way, especially regarding how the team was treating then-coach, Bruce Boudreau, who was rumoured to be on the chopping block, with Rick Tocchet apparently already waiting in the wings to take over. At the presser, Rutherford could merely only offer that “Bruce is our coach, and that’s the way it is today.” The Canucks fired Boudreau a few days later and, as predicted, Tocchet took over. It was messy.
But winning clears things up – and the Canucks have done a lot of it this year. As the NHL pauses this week for the All Star break, the Canucks sit atop not just the Pacific Division, but the entire Western Conference. They went 8-0-2 through their last 10 games before the break, a record second only in the West to the streaking Edmonton Oilers, who the Canucks shocked with back-to-back defeats to open the season – losses that sent the Oilers, a pre-season Stanley Cup favourite, reeling for months.
What’s working for Vancouver? Seemingly everything – even the things that shouldn’t be. For instance, goaltender Thatcher Demko is playing very well, posting a .920 save percentage with a 2.44 goals-against average. But Demko’s numbers hide the fact that he’s faced a barrage of shots – 1,061 through the first half of the season, fourth-most overall. (Colorado’s Alexander Georgiev, by comparison, has faced 1,133 shots with a more believable .898 save percentage.) At the same time, the Canucks are scoring a lot (186 goals), second overall in goals to the Avalanche (190 goals). What’s striking about this comparison isn’t necessarily the total goals, but Vancouver’s shot economy. The Canucks have managed to nearly tie Colorado’s goal total with almost 200 fewer shots. Bottom line is exactly what it sounds like: Vancouver score a lot and don’t concede many either.
Meanwhile, Vancouver have three top-10 individual point-getters in JT Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Quinn Hughes. With regards to Miller in particular, the turnaround since – again – last season is stunning. Back then, pretty much the only thing people said…