The Canucks are great on D, but their offensive game needs work.
Remember when the Canucks’ penalty kill was all-time bad? That’s a distant memory at this point.
The Canucks head into Friday’s home game against the Minnesota Wild with the NHL’s sixth-ranked penalty kill. That’s the kind of elite specialty team that will help you win games.
That is a huge factor in them having the best penalty kill in the NHL since Christmas.
“PK is about attack points. You know, I hate a passive PK. You hate the seam passes (getting) through the PKs,” Tocchet said.
“They have good commitment,” Hynes said. “They get in shot lanes. They have good sticks. I think they pressure as a unit. And usually when you have a good penalty kill, a lot of those things are in sync together.”
Minnesota scoring star Matt Boldy said the challenge for him and his teammates on the powerplay is pretty simple — make the Canucks do things they don’t want to do.
“Sometimes quantity’s the answer,” he said.
In other words, shoot, shoot, shoot.
“Get pucks back, break them down (defensively), get them tired. I think that’s something that leads to a lot of success.”
Despite having some formidable weapons, such as Boldy and the injured Kirill Kaprizov, the Wild’s power play has struggled this season — they’re at just 19.9 per cent. So that looks like a big advantage for the Canucks going into Friday night.
Here are some other numbers that are standing out at the moment …
20
Sidney Crosby is the other. That’s impressive company.
The Canucks’ all-time record for faceoff wins in a game was by Mark Messier, who won 28 draws on Jan. 8, 1999 against Florida.
In more recent times, Bo Horvat won 26 draws Nov. 16, 2019 vs. Colorado.
36
The Canucks managed 36 shots on goal on Wednesday, a season high.
It’s been a very dry season on offence for Vancouver. They have averaged just 25.6 shots per game.
If there is one thing they need more of it’s shots.
He is currently averaging just 1.8 shots per game. His career average is 2.4 shots per game.
“That comes with not getting looks, trying to make the perfect passes,” he admitted. He needs to do better at that, find his confidence again. “I’ve always been a pass first guy, but I also have a good shot.”