The start of Loui Eriksson’s Vancouver Canucks career has been nightmarish for the veteran winger, with his only goal in his first 13 games in the new sweater going into his own net. He finally found the opponent’s net in Game 14, but what has kept him so cold so far?
Last season a full third of Eriksson’s goals were on the Bruins’ lethal power play, so that could be a factor, and he’s also on pace for nearly 60 shots on net fewer than last season.
Eriksson has had years where his shooting percentage dipped, like in 2013-14, his first with the Bruins, but he was dealing with concussion issues. Considering that, it seems pretty unlikely that his goal scoring talent has evaporated. How much exactly are Eriksson’s struggles a performance issue, and how much are they random variance in a small sample? Let’s dig in by comparing his offensive numbers from last season to this season.
I have to admit, I was quite surprised to see that Eriksson’s scoring chances are up nearly across the board so far, with his power play numbers slightly down overall, but equal in terms of getting the puck on net, and high-danger chances.
It looks like, so far, Eriksson is just struggling to finish on chances, which while frustrating, is a much better situation than not getting chances in the first place. We know from his career history that he is a high quality finisher, and we know from their careers that the Sedins have huge positive impacts on their linemate’s scoring ability, so this is a situation where I would preach patience.
What we’re looking at in this breakdown is really only applicable to Eriksson’s goalscoring going forward, not his overall play. It’s certainly possible he is struggling in other areas, but that hasn’t shown up in his possession numbers, as he’s currently second on the Canucks with a +8.69% relative Corsi. Part of that is certainly due to playing with the Sedin twins, but he maintains a positive differential away from the Sedins in a small sample on a team that has struggled to control the puck.
At a certain point in his contract, Eriksson is going to look like a bad deal for the Canucks simply because of the way players trend as they age, and the length and large salary of this contract. But for now he’s playing significantly better than his numbers suggest.
The best course of action for the Canucks with Eriksson is to simply keep putting him on the ice in offensive situations. As soon as his confidence returns, he should start piling up the goals.
