The 2014-15 season started with something fans of the Vancouver Canucks hadn’t felt in a long time. It was a feeling of freshness, of renewal, of turning a page. It’s not hard to see why, with a new team president, general manager and head coach, not to mention one-third of the roster featuring new faces (including the man in the crease).
Despite the inherent feeling of dread that haunts Canucks fans, they have to be pretty happy with the results so far. Vancouver has been bouncing around the top three in the Pacific Division all season long, and they in fact currently hold the 3rd position with 55 points through 45 games. Here is the state of the Vancouver Canucks during the 2015 NHL All-Star break.
Leading by defense
The team has been very good defensively, ranking 10th in goals against per game (2.51), and the penalty kill has been absolutely lights-out, sitting second in the league with an 88.3% efficiency (just o.1% behind league-leader Chicago). In fact, they’ve conceded just 18 goals when down a man all season long, while scoring four short-handed goals themselves.
All this despite a defense that has seen one of its key figures go down for an extended period of time (Dan Hamhuis missed 22 games due to injury), another about to go on the shelf (it looks like Kevin Bieksa will be sidelined indefinitely with a broken hand), and a new goaltender in the form of Ryan Miller, who took longer to coalesce with the team than many would have hoped.
However, beyond Hamhuis and the outstanding pair of Alex Edler and Chris Tanev, there isn’t much on the back-end the Canucks can rely on. Luca Sbisa, Yannick Weber, Ryan Stanton and Frank Corrado are all short on experience, and at least one or two of them will need to step up and play a solid role in the top four.
Goaltending rounding into form
Coming into the club as a virtual unknown (in that, nobody knew how he would perform this season after the disaster in St. Louis), Miller seems to have won the hearts and minds of the fans, if not the coach.
New head coach Willie Desjardins has been riding Miller hard lately, but with his performance its hard to argue against that philosophy. After coming back from sickness earlier in January, Miller started two back-to-backs, on the road no less, and won three of them while allowing only five goals and posting two shutouts in those four games to head into the all-star break as one of the hottest goalies in the league. He currently sits 6th in the league in wins (23), 10th in goals against average (2.30), 2nd in shutouts (5), and has allowed no more than three goals in 11 straight appearances.
Offensive injection needed
While the defense has been solid, and the goaltending has been rounding into form, there is growing concern about the lack of offense up front in Vancouver.
Daniel and Henrik Sedin are having a bit of a bounce-back year for themselves. Though they will never again be 100+ point scorers, a point-per-game isn’t out of the realm of possibility, and both are close to that standard (Daniel has 39 points and Henrik has 38, both in 45 games).
With them on the top line is another new addition making an impact, Radim Vrbata. Not only does he lead the club in goals and power play goals (18 and 8, respectively), but he was recently selected as the Canucks lone representative at the All-Star Game in Columbus – a first for the 33-year-0ld.
However, beyond that dynamic first line, the offense dries up pretty quickly. There seems to be a pervasive theory that the team is rolling with three third-lines, which is great for offensive depth, but players expected to regularly carry the secondary scoring, like Nick Bonino, Alex Burrows and Chris Higgins, have been disconcertingly quiet for long stretches of the season while posting borderline acceptable numbers.
So while the depth has been good (in fact almost all of their forwards may flirt with at least 10-15 goals and 25-30 points by season’s end), overall the team needs help to put the puck in the net with more consistency. 2.71 goals for per game (17th in the NHL), and notching power play goals with an 18.7% efficiency (15th in the NHL) is not going to be enough against some of the top teams in the West, particularly in the post-season.
Moves they could make at the deadline
The trade deadline will be interesting for the Canucks, who appear to stand a decent chance of securing a playoff position at the end of the season, but also don’t appear to be willing to load-up for a long playoff run at the expense of the future. General Manager Jim Benning recently said in the media that the team wasn’t interested in parting with any of the club’s draft picks or prospects, though he does seem to want to augment the club if he can.
If the Canucks are looking to get value for players off their roster, Zack Kassian is an option. The 23-year-old winger has skill and size, but can’t seem to find his niche in the lineup and has netted only five points (two goals, three assists) in 24 games. His name has been churning around the rumor mill all season, though fans in Vancouver are quick to point out that a similar player from the team’s past, Todd Bertuzzi, didn’t break-out until his age 24 season, and any potential Kassian deal could come back to haunt them.
The crux is that ideally the Canucks want to bring in some firepower up front and some defensive depth, yet trading roster players alone to acquire such assets isn’t going to get a deal done, and Benning is loathe to trade any futures. As a result, Vancouver may end up being one of the quieter teams come deadline day.
Outlook for the rest of the season
The Canucks appear to be sitting pretty at the moment, but Calgary and Los Angeles are biting at their heels and even a small slide could see Vancouver slip down to 5th in the Pacific and out of a playoff position .
If the Canucks do stand pat at the deadline, it becomes all the more likely that Vancouver could finish the year outside the playoffs. That wouldn’t necessarily be the worst thing, as the current iteration of the club doesn’t appear poised to make any real noise in the playoffs even if they do qualify, and another pick in the top-14 of a deep draft would be most welcome.
At times the Canucks can be a difficult team to get a read on, as their lapses in concentration and inability to put together a full 60-minute effort are offset by their ability to just keep winning games. Most likely we’ll see more of the same, great goaltending, solid defensive efforts, and enough offense for the team to win its share of games, en route to a first round playoff matchup against one of the more powerful teams in the West, at which point their prospects for advancement look cloudy at best.
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