Another ridiculous Vancouver Canucks road trip kicks off after a successful return to the regular schedule.
A Special Year or Smoke and Mirrors?
Hard at Home
With a 3-1 win over the Western Division-leading St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, the Canucks are up to nine victories in a row at Rogers Arena. Those are numbers that haven’t been seen for decades and is just two away from the record. But it gets better!
The Canucks’ road trip ends with home games against the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators. Game three? It’s not just the night Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin have their numbers retired. It’s also against the Chicago Freakin’ Blackhawks. Given that the duo is going to be celebrated for an entire week, a loss beforehand would be a real let-down.
It’s a long way away right now, but if they could that would be a fitting cap to brilliant careers. In the meantime, they’ll just have to make do with being 17-5-3 at home so far.
Coffee is for Closers…
…and right now every pot is reserved for Bo Horvat, Tanner Pearson, and Loui Eriksson. As a line, those three lead the league in points when the opposing goalie is pulled. They were put together when Josh Leivo was injured and have been the Canucks’ go-to closers ever since. That’s fourteen games and SEVEN empty-net goals.
The fourth most prolific player? Alexander Edler.
With the emergence of Quinn Hughes, Edler has been able to cut back his ice time. Since returning from injury he’s even dropped below 20 minutes and incredible (for him) four times. It doesn’t look bad for it, either.
Vertical Lift
One of the more controversial moves by coach Travis Green is moving Jake Virtanen up to the first line. He’s been great there, which is a little unsurprising; but how he’s been great is. He’s more patient, finding teammates with excellent passes, and picking his spots. The big strike against Virtanen has always been his “hockey IQ” – mostly play away from the puck. But skating with Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller has brought out a depth to his play that has been a pleasant surprise. He’s finding more to his game than barrelling down the wing and slamming a shot on net. That’s led to – sorry, Shotgun Jake fans – more assists.
But it’s also dropped Brock Boeser to the third line with Adam Gaudette and Antoine Roussel. The deployment hasn’t produced results, unfortunately. Boeser has zero points and seven shots in his last three games, Roussel just one assist. Gaudette has two, but both against a disinterested San Jose squad. Despite the lack of results for the third line, Virtanen succeeding on the top line means he’ll at least start the Canucks’ road trip beside Miller and Pettersson.
The problem is that Boeser was in a scoring slump before the demotion, and hasn’t yet played his way out of it. Add that to a team on a roll, and the best option may be to hope the trio builds some chemistry. Either that or switch him back to see if Virtanen can get that line going again.
Not a sentence I ever expected to type.
Good Neighbours Make Great Enemies
One thing Canucks fans are looking forward to when the Seattle Mysterions* join the league is a weekend series (or four). After that one-game mini-stand at home, the Canucks’ road trip takes them five games in eight days. It starts against the San Jose Sharks then across the continent to play the New York Islanders. Then South to visit the Carolina Hurricanes the next day, North past New York to play the Boston Bruins two days after that, and finishes up stopping at the Minnesota Wild on the sixth.
The last five-game Canucks road trip ended with them being beaten by a hot goalie to finish the trip 2-3. They should be happy to get anything better than that this time out. Yes, the team needs to improve its road record, but first, they have to survive the road.
A 200-kilometre day trip isn’t looking so bad, is it? Seriously, someone recommission Princess Maggie – you’ll make a MINT!
*C’mon, guys, go for it! The captain’s ‘C’ can be replaced with a question mark!
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
