{"id":434620,"date":"2023-11-29T09:45:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T14:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=434620"},"modified":"2023-11-29T08:06:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T13:06:35","slug":"kuzmenko-needs-to-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/11\/29\/kuzmenko-needs-to-step-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Canucks Forward Needs to Step Up in Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/canucks\/\" target=\"_self\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a> head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tocchri01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rick Tocchet<\/a> wants his players to be held accountable. He wants them to learn from what they&#8217;ve been doing wrong. That leads to demotions and healthy scratches. In this case, Canucks winger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuzmean01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrei Kuzmenko<\/a> was a healthy scratch for not just one, but two straight games on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/11\/27\/takeaways-canucks-road-trip\/\" target=\"_self\">last road trip<\/a>. Kuzmenko needs to step up as\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanucksReporter\/status\/1729244052091199740\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">he was slotted back in the lineup for Tuesday&#8217;s game against the visiting Anaheim Ducks.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It looks like Kuzmenko will be back with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mikheil01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ilya Mikheyev<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/petteel01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elias Pettersson<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"fi\" dir=\"ltr\">Warmup <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Canucks<\/a> lines vs. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnaheimDucks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AnaheimDucks<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Mikheyev. Pettersson. Kuzmenko.<br \/>PDG. Miller. Boeser.<br \/>Joshua. Blueger. Garland.<br \/>H\u00f6glander. \u00c5man. Lafferty.<\/p>\n<p>Hughes. Juulsen.<br \/>Hronek. Myers.<br \/>Cole. McWard.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83e\udd45<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DemkoTime?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#DemkoTime<\/a> \ud83e\udd45 <\/p>\n<p>7pm on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sportsnet650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Sportsnet650<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KAgpi3goGL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/KAgpi3goGL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rhhAw9vBX4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rhhAw9vBX4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BatchHockey\/status\/1729690751544558036?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 29, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Kuzmenko Needed a &#8220;reset&#8221;<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This isn&#8217;t the first time Kuzmenko was scratched. Former Canucks head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/boudrbr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bruce Boudreau<\/a> made the Russian winger a healthy scratch on November 13, 2022, in a game against the Boston Bruins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">It was eyebrow-raising for Tocchet to scratch Kuzmenko for the game against the Seattle Kraken but two eyebrows were raised when he was scratched the next night against the San Jose Sharks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Tocchet spoke to the media after Monday&#8217;s practice to talk more about his decision to scratch Kuzmenko.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;There\u2019s a couple of guys,&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/canucksarmy.com\/news\/scenes-canucks-practice-tocchet-san-jose-wake-kuzmenko-suter-setback\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">said Tocchet per Jeff Paterson of Canucks Army. &#8220;<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I\u2019m not picking on him, [Kuzmenko] but he\u2019s got to get his game sharpened up. It\u2019s not about last year, it\u2019s about this year for us. He\u2019s a guy that needed a reset. We worked with him on a few things. I thought he had a good practice today and that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for tomorrow.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Kuzmenko Has to Step Up<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Last season, Kuzmenko exceeded expectations. The former SKA St. Petersburg star scored 39 goals and 35 assists for 74 points in 81 games. If he was a few years younger, he would&#8217;ve won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL&#8217;s rookie of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Halfway through 2022-23, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/article\/kuzmenko-signs-two-year-11m-extension-with-canucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0rewarded Kuzmenko with a two-year contract extension worth 5.5 million dollars a season.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This season, Kuzmenko has only managed three goals and 11 assists for 14 points in 20 games. It was inevitable his shooting percentage would <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/nhl\/andrei-kuzmenko-player-stats?category=shooting&amp;seasonType=reg\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">regress from the astronomical 27.3% last season<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. This season it is at 10.7%. That is quite the drop-off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/player.htm?p=8483808\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">MoneyPuck<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Kuzmenko&#8217;s percentage of shots on net (in all situations) was at 67.9% and this season it has dropped off to 57.1%.(Again before the game against the Ducks<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">But like Tocchet said, it is not about last season, it is about this season. Kuzmenko has been missing the net more often and his shot isn&#8217;t as dangerous. Last season, he was constantly in front of or around the net and he pounced on scoring chances. This season, there hasn&#8217;t been much of that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>How Kuzmenko fared against the Ducks<\/h3>\n<p>Tocchet said Kuzmenko was<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThomasDrance\/status\/1729743535992143909\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> &#8220;Just OK&#8221; in the game against the Ducks per Thomas Drance of The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He had a 93.6% expected goals for percentage in the game at 5 on 5\u00a0 which was the most among all Canucks players according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.naturalstattrick.com\/game.php?season=20232024&amp;game=20336&amp;view=limited\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NaturalStatTrick.<\/a> Kuzmenko was on the ice for seven 5 on 5 scoring chances for and none against.<\/p>\n<p>He was involved in Pettersson&#8217;s game winning goal by being a nuisance in John Gibson&#8217;s crease.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Andrei Kuzmenko with the ghost assist on this one. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Canucks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Canucks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NMFy4HSXRL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NMFy4HSXRL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dave Hall (@davehall1289) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davehall1289\/status\/1729727141137289251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 29, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It was a decent game for Kuzmenko but it is obvious Tocchet wants to see more from him, especially when it comes to creating offence and putting up points.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">But it is not only the offensive side Tocchet wants Kuzmenko to work on, it is also the defensive side. That goes back to last season. Kuzmenko has looked careless away from the puck in the defensive zone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Canucks need Kuzmenko to justify his 5.5 million dollar cap hit. It was great what he did in the past but it is about the present and future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Up next the Canucks welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to Rogers Arena on Thursday. Vegas currently leads the NHL with 32 points. The Canucks have 31 points, the same amount as the the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. If the Canucks beat the Golden Knights on Thursday, they could be first in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet wants his players to be held accountable. He wants them to learn from what they&#8217;ve been doing wrong. That leads to demotions and healthy scratches. In this case, Canucks winger Andrei Kuzmenko was a healthy scratch for not just one, but two straight games on the last road trip. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4956,"featured_media":434682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4548],"tags":[7320,932,4038,2012,158,5892],"class_list":["post-434620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canucks","category-nhl","tag-andrei-kuzmenko","tag-elias-pettersson","tag-ilya-mikheyev","tag-rick-tocchet","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-vancouver-canucks-analysis"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4956"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}