Canucks' defensive stoutness to face another stiff test vs. high-flying Oilers

VANCOUVER — Playoff Nikita Zadorov has looked a lot different than regular-season Nikita Zadorov.

The Vancouver Canuck defenceman had a monster first-round series against the Nashville Predators. And, yes, at six-foot-six and 248 pounds, he is big enough to be a monster. But it is the way Zadorov played that made a difference.

He led Vancouver defencemen with 24 hits, and left the mark of Z a couple of times on Nashville blue-line ace Roman Josi. The Canucks dominated at five-on-five when Zadorov was on the ice, generating 64 per cent of high-danger chances. He contributed two goals — matching the Predators’ team output against the 29-year-old over six games — and averaged 20:20 of ice time, a workload he hadn’t reached in any regular-season game since Jan. 4.

Zadorov was a healthy scratch just nine games before the Stanley Cup tournament began.

How is this possible?

“It's just everything,” Zadorov explained. “I like the environment, like the challenges. I like spending time with the guys more and more. Those playoff wins, those good emotions you get on the ice, they create memories for you. I think that's the biggest thing for me to say: you're just enjoying being around these guys every day and also playing super-competitive hockey. You're playing for something, right? That's why we play hockey. . . so when the Stanley Cup playoffs start, we can win something.

“You're getting all kinds of emotions every day you come to the rink — memories and everything. It kind of makes you happy, you know.”

Zadorov seems built for playoff hockey. And so does the Canucks’ defence, which has become an underrated backbone for the team as it prepares to open a second-round matchup against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday that almost no one outside the West Coast thinks Vancouver can win.

The Canucks suffocated the Predators, allowing only 12 goals in six games while yielding just 25 shots per game and restricting Nashville to 40 high-danger chances at five-on-five.

And what does any of this have to do with a fast and furiously good Oilers team whose formidable attack is fronted by McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the best player in the world and another who is in the top-five? 

Maybe nothing. We’re about to find out. But from the National Hockey League all-star break until the end of the regular season three weeks ago, the Predators actually were ahead of the Oilers in scoring (3.71 goals per game to 3.62), power-play percentage (27.2 to 25.5) and shots on goal (34.4 to 33.7).

Edmonton is an elite, offensive team. So was Nashville heading into the playoffs.

“Those principles that we brought into the Nashville series are our principles and how we want to play,” Canuck defenceman Ian Cole said after Tuesday’s practice. “Do we make adjustments and tweak little things here and there depending on who we're playing? Yeah, absolutely. We can't let McDavid pick up speed (and) dice through your neutral zone by himself and go one-on-one against a defenceman who's standing still. That can't happen. 

“But there are aspects of those tweaks against Nashville that will certainly apply to this series. I think there is some crossover. Nashville was a great team. We did a good job against them and hopefully we do the same (against Edmonton). But McDavid and Draisaitl, even (Zach) Hyman, I mean, they're a different animal, for sure.”

The Canucks started the season as an offensive dynamo, too.

They led the NHL in scoring through the first half of the season, averaging 3.9 goals per game. But as their offence lost a full goal per game over the second half of the season due to several factors, including the Canucks’ struggling power play and a market correction in their historic shooting percentage, the team was forced to embrace the defensive ideals pushed by coach Rick Tocchet and his staff as a means of winning.

Vancouver transformed in the second half of the season into one of the league’s best defensive teams, even if their 10^th-best goals-against (2.80) didn’t fully reflect this. They allowed just 26.1 shots against per game after the all-star break, while generating 56 per cent of scoring chances.

This defensive stoutness is the identity the Canucks carried into Nashville, where they won all three road playoff games.

“We're all on the same page,” checking centre Teddy Blueger said. “Obviously, we had the whole year to dial in the system and make some tweaks and adjustments. And playing together, building some chemistry that way... I think that stuff is a little more dialled in towards the end of the year. I think we executed well (against Nashville). But I also think part of it is the way that series developed. It just seemed like a very cagey, defensive series where we had to be patient.”

Vancouver’s defence was better than Nashville’s. And the Canucks’ defence, especially after the dynamic top-pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, is as big as anyone’s.

The bottom four of Zadorov, Cole (6-1, 225 pounds), Tyler Myers (6-8, 229) and Carson Soucy (6-5, 208) average six-foot-five and 228 pounds. That’s a lot of reach with which to defend, a lot of heft with which to protect the front of the Vancouver net, which the Canucks did as well against the Predators as they have all season.

“Yeah, it's fair to say,” Tocchet said. “I think all year the D has been somewhat of a fabric of our team — the way we play defence. But I thought they did a great job with the interior. They did a really good job of protecting the high-danger, interior stuff. I thought that was probably their best.”

It was apparent against the Predators why general manager Patrik Allvin rebuilt the Canuck defence the way he did, signing Cole and Soucy as free agents last summer and acquiring Zadorov in a November trade from Calgary.

The Vegas Golden Knights won last year’s Stanley Cup with a defence nearly identical in size, although Zadorov noted Tuesday there are some fundamental differences, including the zone system Vegas employs compared to the Canucks’ hybrid model in the defensive zone.

But one common denominator is how hard the defencemen battle to win pucks and protect the slot.

“Does size matter? Sure,” Cole said. “Longer limbs, longer legs, longer reach — all these things are important for sure. But I think you need to pair that size with battle-level and desperation otherwise... I mean, there's plenty of big guys in the league. But are you able to win battles with your size? Are you able to go in hard and box out and do the things that help you capitalize on your size? And I think that's what we've done much better.”