Ask most people without a particular affinity on the Vancouver Canucks about their reputation, and you’re likely to hear similar answers. The Canucks are divers, whiners and complainers who are willing to do anything they can so the penalty calls go in their favor and can attribute their success in past seasons to that fact, and that fact alone. There even exists a conspiracy theory within Canucks fandom that part of the reason they haven’t been getting those power play opportunities this year is because the referees have gotten wise to the team’s tactics and are no longer taking the bait.
That perception is not entirely unwarranted, however it’s one that coach John Tortorella is trying to change.
“I know the reputation from the outside looking in, when I wasn’t coaching here, everybody outside thought Vancouver dove and did some whining,” said Tortorella after the team’s 3-2 shootout victory over New Jersey on Thursday night. “Our team is not going to dive. Our team has already been talked to. We’re not going to dive. I don’t think there is much whining going on either.”
The evidence of Tortorella’s influence on the team is already quite tangible. You can see on a nightly basis the effort the Canucks put in not only to stay on their feet, but to work hard for pucks. No longer are they willing to sit back and hope for opportunities as they were under the old regime. This a team that doggedly pursues the puck at every opportunity, and they’re doing it fairly.
Through 13 games, the Canucks have yet to be called for diving.
Center Ryan Kesler, a long-time lightning rod for diving criticism, has also shown how a leopard can change his spots. Taken away from his customary two-way, second line center role and placed alongside the Sedins on the top line has reinvigorated Kesler’s game. The 29-year-old is having a bounce-back season with seven goals already, and looks to be playing an honest game without the traditional falling to the ice that he’s been known for in the past.
However, less than a fifth of a season does not make a team, nor is it enough time to truly gauge whether the Canuck’s new approach is for real or is even respected around the league. A reputation is a hard thing to shake (just ask Matt Cooke) and the Canucks will have to prove themselves consistently, again and again, if they hope to be seen as an honest, hard-working, elite team, something of which Tortorella is highly aware.
“I know there’s been a reputation. I’ve been in the League long enough, and sometimes that hangs around too. I guess it’s my chance to say we’re going to be an honest team, we’re trying to be an honest team, and I hope we get some … calls along the way,“ said Torts.
Getting some calls would certainly help the Canucks going forward. They’ve only had 34 power play opportunities (the fifth least in the NHL), despite playing the most games so far this season. They haven’t been able to capitalize on those chances either, as the team has scored just four goals on the man advantage, good for an anemic 10.4% conversion rate.
In past years, the power play has been Vancouver’s bread and butter. Teams knew that they couldn’t take liberties with the Canucks lest they be forced to kill a penalty against a power play unit that features the likes of Kesler and the Sedin twins, as well as Alex Edler and Jason Garrison – two of the hardest shooting defensemen in the league. It’s no small wonder that the team was often rumored to be encouraged by the old coaching staff to do whatever they could to draw penalties.
However, the team is trying to move past that and prove they can still be elite thanks to excellent five on five play and not having to use the power play as a crutch. So far this season it’s working, as the team has a 1.08 five on five goal differential and generally positive puck possession and Corsi numbers.
“We don’t want to be known as a team that dives,” said Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa. “We’re too good of a team to be doing that.” After finishing the best road trip in club history on Friday with a 5-1-1 record and sitting second in the Pacific with 8-4-1 record on the year, the Canucks indeed seem to be proving that they are too good of a team to be doing that.
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