VANCOUVER – If you had three guesses to name the Vancouver Canucks‘ leading scorer the last eight weeks, you would probably strike out because even Tanner Pearson wouldn’t guess Tanner Pearson.
Elias Pettersson is going to the NHL All-Star Game, J.T. Miller has been a revelation on the West Coast and Brock Boeser is quietly constructing another excellent season.
But nobody on the Canucks’ 6-40-9 Lotto Line has cashed in as much as Pearson has over the last 23 games, when the 27-year-old has amassed 10 goals and 24 points while continuing to play a two-way game that frequently sees him matched alongside centre Bo Horvat against the opposition’s best forwards.
Pettersson has 23 points, including 13 goals, over this period and Miller and Boeser each has 21 points in Vancouver’s last 23 games, so the internal scoring race is close.
But what makes Pearson’s production especially remarkable is that the winger, who was traded by both the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins last season, is suddenly on pace for a career year after enduring a 14-game goal drought that saw him collect just two assists from mid-October until mid-November.
After he went pointless on five shots in a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Nov. 10, Pearson told Sportsnet: "I’m here to help the team win… and I’m not carrying my weight right now. I’m trying not to get frustrated but, at the same time, there’s a tipping point for everything."
Well, things have tipped alright.
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Pearson had a goal and two assists in the Canucks’ 7-5 win Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks. It was his second straight three-point game, and Vancouver’s sixth consecutive victory.
Pearson, who learned his 200-foot game under former L.A. coach Darryl Sutter and won a Stanley Cup with the Kings in 2014, is on pace to shatter his previous-best of 44 points set during the 2016-17 season.
With 12 goals and 18 assists through 41 games, Pearson projects to tie his career-high of 24 goals. For the season, he is fifth on the Canucks in scoring and Vancouver is one of only two Western Conference teams with five forwards at 30 points or better. The Vegas Golden Knights are the other.
"Last year, frustration set in for sure," Pearson said. "Even if you look at my 14-game goal-less streak this year, frustration could have crept in really easily there. But I was still getting my looks. I was an inch off on a shot or I hit a post. Eventually they were going to go in, and once one did, they kind of kept going in.
"I think after last year, it’s been a bit easier not to get frustrated. I think I’ve learned to stick with it. When things aren’t going your way, eventually they should if you just put your nose to the ground and keep working. I think that’s what I took most out of last year."
A 2012 first-round draft pick from Barrie of the Ontario Hockey League, Pearson spent six years in the Kings organization before L.A. traded him to Pittsburgh for Carl Hagelin last Nov. 14. Only 3 ½ months later, the Penguins forwarded him to the Canucks for Erik Gudbranson on Feb. 25.
Both Hagelin and Gudbranson have since changed teams again.
The Canucks are keeping Pearson.
"He’s just a good all-around player who does a lot of grunt work that goes unnoticed," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "He has won. He knows what it takes to win and he knows the areas that are important on the ice. He’s a good example for guys that play a 200-foot game and can still score, still get points."
Vancouver looks like a turning point for Pearson, who had nine goals in 19 games playing with Horvat at the end of last season.
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Green helped rebuild Pearson’s confidence.
"Our first meeting, he said: ‘Come here and work. I don’t really care about the rest of it,’" Pearson recalled. "That was encouraging because I didn’t have to worry about putting up points. Then with hard work, the puck started going in and I finished the year strong. He had confidence in me."
Green explained: "When things haven’t gone well for a player where it has gone well before, they can get inside their own head a little bit. There’s something to be said, I think, for feeling like the coach believes in you or the team does."
At six-foot-one and 201 pounds – and with a Stanley Cup ring, which are scarce in the Vancouver dressing room – Pearson is built for playoff hockey. Actually, he’s built for any hockey, but could be even more important to the Canucks in the second half of the season.
"The way I grew up in this league, if you were getting points but not doing your duty in your own end, you weren’t going to play no matter how many points you put up," Pearson said. "I think for me, taking care of those things in D-zone coverage, making plays on the wall and being hard on the forecheck and that kind of stuff, that’s where I find my game. And the (scoring) kind of takes care of itself."
The Canucks can match their longest winning streak in nine years when the New York Rangers visit Rogers Arena on Saturday.
