If you are checking the Vancouver Canucks’ position in the standings on your smartphone, you may think your device has failed to correct the screen while you hold your phone upside down.
Yes, that is the Canucks you see sitting third in the Pacific Division, three points clear of the playoff cut line after a 4-1-0 road trip that nobody saw coming.
Tonight’s 1-0 win against the Minnesota Wild in a game so ugly Canucks winger Brock Boeser’s cheering section may have gone home to beat the traffic back to Burnsville, Minn., pushed Vancouver two games over .500 (5-3-1) for the first time since last Jan. 6.
Having wobbled out on their five-game roadie after three straight home losses, the latter two in regulation time, the Canucks shut out good teams in Ottawa and St. Paul, beat bad teams in Buffalo and Detroit, and lost to the Boston Bruins as they nearly always do.
But while they were away, they built something more than their record. Rookie coach Travis Green’s team has an identity: hard-working, resourceful, balanced and confident. None of their four wins was a fluke.
The problem is the playoffs are still 73 games away. Chances are the rebuilding Canucks will never see them this season, but they have started better than most people imagined and – as Green has said optimistically (we think) – who knows what the team might look like by March.
A few takeaways from this game and this road trip.
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BALANCING ACT
There’s a reason the Canucks don’t have a clear first line. It’s self-explanatory: because they don’t have an NHL-calibre first line. We can’t tell you what the fourth line is, either.
But Green has taken a lot of disparate parts – several of them cast adrift by other teams – and is moulding them into something strong and cohesive. And he’s getting a team that isn’t fast to play quickly, although there was nothing fast about Tuesday’s win.
Bo Horvat is the Canucks’ best player and he and/or Markus Granlund has led them in ice time most nights. But in St. Paul, at the end of a long trip and on a night when Daniel and Henrik Sedin with Jake Virtanen was the best line, Horvat logged 16:29 of ice time and Granlund only 15:37.
Checking centre Brandon Sutter, meanwhile, played 17:40 and Henrik Sedin 14:39.
Green has followed through on his promise to make the Canucks a meritocracy. And although many will point to Jake Virtanen’s 10:02 of TOI and wonder why the game’s lone goal-scorer didn’t play more against the Wild, Green has is also following through on making young players like Virtanen and Boeser earn their opportunities.
The challenge to Virtanen when the season began was simply: Prove you can be an NHL player, and once you do that, prove you can be something more. So far so good.
JAKE TAKE
On ice times alone over the course of the road trip, the Sedins and Virtanen are the Canucks’ fourth line. A lot of people have clamoured for Virtanen, the slow-developing sixth-overall pick from 2014, to play with the Sedins. But nobody figured it would be on a fourth line.
Playing with the twins has simplified the game for Virtanen. He provides speed and energy, goes to the net with his stick on the ice and plays both ends of the rink. Rarely does Virtanen go more than two shifts without being counselled in some form by Daniel or Henrik, who are outstanding role models for their 21-year-old linemate. If the twins can see their ice time cleaved by more than four minutes a game since last season, yet embrace their lesser roles, then Virtanen has nothing to complain about. And he’s still playing with excellent players. And in the NHL.
Virtanen’s goal, his second in as many contests after failing to score in 28 NHL games dating back to 2015-16, was a pure wrister that beat Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk over his catcher at 10:07 of the third period. It’s that shot, in combination with Virtanen’s size and speed, that still makes him a genuine prospect even if he spent nearly all of last season struggling to score at the American Hockey League level.
Virtanen came to camp with both his body and ego trimmed down, and he looks an entirely different player because of it.
THE SEDINERY
The twins will be twins. Twice against the Wild they passed the puck away on outstanding shooting chances. But the Sedins and Virtanen had plenty of excellent shifts, which their possession numbers quantify (66.7 per cent even-strength shots-for for Virtanen, 61 and 59 per cent for the Sedins).
Although the 37-year-old Swedes would love to be playing more, they are benefitting from better matchups playing down the lineup and, both say, feel fresher and healthier than they have in a long time.
Yeah, it’s tough sitting on the bench for six or eight or 10 minutes of running time between shifts, but the Canucks’ “old men” have lots of energy when they do get over the boards.
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PLAYING WITH HART
The following words have never before been written: Stop Derek Dorsett and you have a chance to stop the Canucks.
Even more surprising than the Sedins getting fourth-line minutes some nights is that Derek Dorsett, a career mucker who underwent serious spinal surgery last season, is getting first-line minutes and leads Vancouver with five goals.
Dorsett didn’t score against Minnesota but was a key figure, leading Canuck forwards with 18:18 of ice time and defending Vancouver’s lead late in the third period.
Dorsett wasn’t even guaranteed a roster spot when training camp opened, but is Exhibit A that the new coach will reward you if you play well. Dorsett’s impact, including in the dressing room where a lot of teammates are rooting for him, can’t be overstated in the Canucks’ strong start.
DEL BLOCKO
Defenceman Michael Del Zotto blocked six shots and, as he has been each game for the Canucks, was engaged at both ends of the ice. Some nights his advanced stats are not flattering and we’ve seen the “risk” side in the defenceman’s risk-and-reward style.
But with top defenceman Alex Edler and third-pairing blueliner Troy Stecher out four to six weeks with knee injuries, the Canucks would be in crisis without Del Zotto to eat up minutes and play in all situations.
As far as the minutes go, his 23:11 against the Wild was behind Chris Tanev’s 24:08 and Ben Hutton’s 25:14. Fourth defenceman Erik Gudbranson logged 20:25. These four will have to thrive for the Canucks to stay above .500 without Edler and Stecher.
AND FINALLY
We made it 1,000 words without spending any on Canucks goalie Anders Nilsson, whose 29 saves against the Wild gave him two shutouts in three starts on the road trip after waiting until Game 5 to get a chance to play ahead of incumbent Jacob Markstrom.
Of course, between those bagels in Ottawa and Minnesota, Nilsson was torched for four goals on 17 shots in Boston and did not survive the first period of the Canucks’ 6-3 loss to the Bruins last Thursday.
So, what do the Canucks have in Nilsson, the six-foot-seven human eclipse? They have competition in goal, where there are two players eager to prove they can start in the NHL. And that’s what general manager Jim Benning wanted when he signed Nilsson as a free agent.
