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Thursday, December 16, 2021

Five things that explain the Canucks' crazy turnaround - The Province

New head coach Bruce Boudreau’s team has played well, but how well? It all starts with the veteran bench boss, but goes beyond that

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Bruce Boudreau’s Vancouver Canucks have won five straight games.

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They may never lose again.

All this after an atrocious start to the season, one that saw them with only eight wins in the first 25 games of the season, just six of them in regulation.

Let’s zoom out a little and try to understand what happened in the five games since Bruce Boudreau took over behind the Canucks’ bench for Travis Green.

1. The Canucks were already playing better before Green was fired

Yes, this sounds pretty wild given the run of results under Green, but the truth is they’d pulled their expected goals to roughly 50 per cent, meaning the quality of shots they were taking at even strength matched those that they were giving up.

They weren’t playing very exciting hockey and they were struggling to generate chances on offence, but they weren’t bleeding chances against either.

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Under Green, they beat the Ottawa Senators — who are surging at the moment — and the hapless Montreal Canadiens on the last road trip of Green’s tenure, and they deserved better in losses to Boston and especially Columbus.

Head coach Bruce Boudreau shares a smile with star centre Elias Pettersson during warm-up prior to Tuesday’s game against Columbus.
Head coach Bruce Boudreau shares a smile with star centre Elias Pettersson during warm-up prior to Tuesday’s game against Columbus. Photo by Bob Frid /USA TODAY Sports

2. Boudreau has this team playing more aggressively on offence

“I don’t understand why you can’t be a great offensive team and a great defensive team at the same time … we’re going to try and be a very aggressive offensive team,” Boudreau said at his inaugural news conference.

And to date he’s been that. He’s big on getting two forecheckers in to keep opposing defencemen under pressure. Done right, this can create more scoring chances.

The Canucks’ balance of expected goals under Boudreau remains slightly more than 50 per cent, essentially matching what they were managing in the final five games of the Green era.

In previous seasons under Green, the Canucks had been seen as a fun team. They hadn’t been so this season.

Boudreau arrived and they are seen as fun again.

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The four coaches to go 5-0 in their first five games behind the bench with their new team before Boudreau — Geoff Ward in Calgary and Dave Tippett in Edmonton in 2019-20, Patrick Roy in Colorado in 2013-14 and John Paddock in Ottawa in 2007-08 — all made the playoffs.

That said, the Canucks remain way behind the eight-ball. They may still have a favourable schedule for the next few weeks, but HockeyViz.com still only projects them to be an 83-point team when the season ends, 10 or so points shy of a playoff spot.

Canucks captain Bo Horvat (left) and goalie Thatcher Demko celebrate their 4-0 victory over the L.A. Kings at Rogers Arena, the win that kicked off this current five-game streak, on Dec. 6.
Canucks captain Bo Horvat (left) and goalie Thatcher Demko celebrate their 4-0 victory over the L.A. Kings at Rogers Arena, the win that kicked off this current five-game streak, on Dec. 6. Photo by Bob Frid /USA TODAY Sports files

3. Elite goaltending

Thatcher Demko was named by the NHL as the first star of the week on Monday.

It was a recognition of his outstanding performance over Boudreau’s first four games. He posted a .962 save percentage, at least as big a story as the emotional jump the Canucks have taken on offence.

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Boudreau believes in his goalie, but he also knows that the goalie can’t bail out the defence forever.

That defensive challenge is only going to get tougher, with three defencemen at least on the COVID list as of midday Thursday. With Tucker Poolman joining Luke Schenn and Brad Hunt on the COVID list and Travis Hamonic on long-term injured reserve, there are just five healthy defencemen in Vancouver as of this writing.

Noah Juulsen played his first game as a Canuck on Tuesday and Abbotsford defencemen Guillaume Brisebois and Madison Bowey seem the most likely call-ups.


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4. Pettersson changing back to his good stick

Elias Pettersson was pretty poor to start the season. He admitted more than once he was lacking in confidence, and he looked like it when he played.

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He also couldn’t seem to handle the puck, let alone shoot it. Early in the year he said he was using a new, longer, stiffer stick.

Last Saturday he revealed that he was back to the stick design — he uses a Bauer HyperLite — he’d had much success with in recent seasons.

He had first been sent the wrong stick in the summer, which threw him off and made him think he’d added more strength than he realized, so he switched to a longer, stiffer stick, but that didn’t work and he was only just able to get back to his preferred stick.

It’s no mistake that he’s shooting and passing like he used to. And having your No. 1 centre feeling like his old self is a pretty self-evident advantage for a team that needs to keep piling up wins to get back into the playoff picture.

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5. The schedule

Three of the first four teams the new bench boss saw his charges line up against were playing their second game in two nights. There’s no getting around it: Those were tired teams the Canucks were playing.

The fifth win, vs. Columbus on Tuesday, was against a team that has a very fun offensive profile but in truth would really like to win the lottery.

The Blue Jackets came out on a hot streak to start the season, but few believed they were that good. They’ve now lost seven of nine games.

The Canucks don’t have many tough opponents in front of them between now and the New Year. But they do face a tough road trip in January, when they’ll face some of the league’s best teams in Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina and Washington. They’ll also face the Nashville Predators on their tour of the southeastern U.S.

After a run of relatively easy opposition, a chance to pile up some wins finally, things will get tougher in the new year.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

twitter.com/risingaction

  1. Canucks defenceman Tucker Poolman (second from left) during a first-period scramble at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night that resulted in a Columbus Blue Jackets goal. Poolman, who had 5:37 of ice time before being pulled out of the game because of a late-arriving positive COVID test result, may have put his teammates and opponents at risk.

    Canucks and COVID: Omicron virus variant vigilance vital for NHL, says diseases centre doc

  2. Canucks' assistant coach Jason King (with glasses) at team practice at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC Wednesday, October 6, 2021.

    Canucks add assistant coach to Covid list

  3. Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat (53) scores the game winning goal on Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins (90) in the third period at Rogers Arena. Vancouver Won 4-3.

    Canucks 4, Blue Jackets 3: A fifth straight win under a COVID cloud

  4. Veteran defenceman Luke Schenn was one of two Canucks players sidelined Tuesday morning after testing positive for COVID-19.

    Four Canucks test positive for COVID-19


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