Canucks' quarter-mark report: Grades, developments, concerns

VANCOUVER — Until goalie Thatcher Demko hurt his knee last March 9, none of the Vancouver Canucks’ core players had missed a game. 

Except for Elias Pettersson’s second-half struggles, the team’s best players all had career seasons and their health and consistency were key to a charmed 51-win season for Vancouver.

Just past the quarter mark of this season, Demko has yet to play a game. Forty-goal scorer Brock Boeser missed seven games with a concussion, 103-point leader J.T. Miller is on an indefinite leave of absence, and Pettersson, although playing better now, was as inert in October as he was during the playoffs last spring. And since Wednesday, 23-minute, No. 2 defenceman Filip Hronek is out with what seems to be a significant shoulder injury.

Along the way, coach Rick Tocchet’s team has also been trying to absorb and train as many as nine players new to the Canucks since the end of last season.

What’s the opposite of charmed? Cursed? 

Well, hockey fans on the West Coast understand that feeling, but we wouldn’t go that far. Not yet. Certainly, the Canucks have been mightily challenged. And so far, they have managed to build a 12-7-3 record despite lurching, at times, from game to game without the consistency they displayed nearly all of last season.

“I think every team goes through adversity at some point,” general manager Patrik Allvin told Sportsnet during the current Canucks road trip, which continues Sunday with an early game in Detroit. “What I will say, though, is that I don't think we were humble enough coming into the season as individuals to understand what Toc was talking about: ‘embrace the hardness.’ What I mean by that is, other teams are getting better. So we need to get better. In order to get better, you have to prepare yourself for the next level. We weren't good enough last year; we lost in the second round. That's where I don't know if we were humble enough.

“It's tough to be uncomfortable, as Toc says. How do you want to embrace it? And how do you want to play uncomfortable and maybe sacrifice some of your individual points for the team points?”

Starting with Boeser’s injury, which was followed five games later by Miller’s sudden exit for personal reasons, the Canucks are 5-5 in their last 10 games. Newcomer Kiefer Sherwood, one of six free agents signed by Allvin on July 1, has been excellent. Another, winger Daniel Sprong, has already been traded. The roster churn was a big story in the Canucks’ opening quarter.

“We probably had a couple of more new players than would have been ideal,” Allvin said. “It took a little bit longer for some of them to adjust. And maybe the coaching staff wanted to move it along faster than we were ready for. But a couple games in, we went back to fundamentals and basics, and started working again.”

Don’t expect effort to be an issue for the Canucks over the next 60 games.

MOST ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENT

Resiliency, resourcefulness and depth have allowed the Canucks to maintain a playoff position despite the challenges. Even with their inconsistency and depleted lineups, the improved structure the Canucks have built under Tocchet and his staff has them fourth in the NHL with 25.5 shots-against-per-60 minutes at five-on-five, and second in the league with just 8.8 high-danger chances against per hour. Goalie Kevin Lankinen, signed as a free agent during training camp, has been a hugely positive factor, especially on the road where the Canucks are 9-2-0.

It's unclear what the team’s ceiling will be if they get everyone back in their lineup, but we can see how high the floor has become under Tocchet’s structure. There are enough good players in Vancouver that the Canucks can stay in the race even when not all of their great players are playing at an elite level — or playing at all.

MOST CONCERNING DEVELOPMENT

On an individual basis, there have been no shortage of worries: Demko’s confounding injury, Pettersson’s mystifying start, Miller’s personal leave of absence. But the biggest team concern, beyond its overall inconsistency, is a dismal home record that transcends all of the individual problems.

Vancouver is just 3-5-3 at Rogers Arena. On its last homestand, the team went 2-4-0 after sweeping a three-game tour of California. And when the current trip ends Tuesday in Minnesota, nine of their next 11 games are in Vancouver. 

Much of the trouble can be attributed to a five-on-five team save percentage of just 87.3 per cent, which ranks 31^st in the NHL. The net-power-play efficiency of 12.1 per cent is 25^th, and the Canucks are generating only 26.6 shots per 60 minutes at five-on-five, which is 29^th.

Still, they are controlling 51.4 per cent of shot attempts and posting expected-goals of 52.6 per cent, so their play hasn’t been as poor as their record. But there’s no way they can match last season’s success — and, remember, their goal is to surpass it — without fixing the home record.

TOP-SIX FORWARDS: C-PLUS

None of the Canucks’ big three — Miller, Pettersson and Boeser — has played close to their best hockey, although Boeser was still very good until he was concussed by Tanner Jeannot on Nov. 7. And before his leave, Miller was at least still a point-per-game player.

But others in the top-six, especially play-driving winger Conor Garland, have elevated. Garland leads all forwards with 21 points and his eight goals are tied for the team lead with Pius Suter, who played in the top-six for most of November. After a slow start to his $38.5-million free-agent contract, winger Jake DeBrusk has 15 points, including seven goals, all of them on the road.

BOTTOM-SIX FORWARDS: B

There has been quite a range in performances from the Canucks’ seventh through 13^th forwards. Sherwood has been relentlessly engaged (his 140 hits leads the league by 37) and far more productive (six goals and 12 points) than most people expected. At the other end of the bottom-six spectrum is Nils Hoglander, last season’s 24-goal scorer who has just two goals so far, has played his way on to Tocchet’s fourth line and in Friday’s 4-3 overtime win in Buffalo saw just 6:28 of ice time. 

But there has been more good than bad with this group. Danton Heinen (10 points) has been the smart, fast, solid pro the Canucks wanted when they signed him, 22-year-old Aatu Raty is a player-development success story as the fourth-line centre, third-line centre Teddy Blueger is always reliable, and Dakota Joshua is making progress as he works his way back from a September surgery for testicular cancer.

DEFENCE GRADE: B-minus

It’s difficult to assign a group mark to the Canucks’ defence because if you were charting it, the grade scale would look something like an ‘L’ with Quinn Hughes a stratosphere above everyone else. He’d have an A-plus, unless there’s a higher option we don’t know about. Hughes leads the Canucks with 25 points and a shots-for percentage of 61.3. Hronek has also been excellent and he and Hughes, as a pairing, have allowed the Canucks to outscore opponents 18-10 at five-on-five.

But the shutdown second pairing of Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy has been outscored 13-6 and Soucy (40.2 Corsi), especially, has struggled. The Canucks have been outshot 173-110 with Myers and Soucy on the ice, which is why Tocchet split them up at the start of the current road trip, even before Hronek's injury forced a realignment of the blue line.

A take-back in the pre-season cap dump of Tucker Poolman’s contract, Erik Brannstrom has been good in a sheltered role on the third pair, which has been hurt by injuries to Derek Forbort and Vincent Desharnais.

GOALTENDING GRADE: B-minus

Temporary starter Lankinen (11-3-2, .909 save rate), who seized the job of filling in for Demko early in the season, has been outstanding. He gets an A. The only player on the Canucks who has been more valuable is Hughes, and not by much.

But backup Arturs Silovs (1-4-1, .847), who was expected to be the temporary No. 1 after his scene-stealing role in last year’s playoffs, has been as poor as Lankinen has been excellent. Probably the most disappointing Canuck, Silovs would grade an F. 

CANUCK AWARDS

Most Valuable Player: Quinn Hughes

Most Improved Player: Conor Garland

Best Defensive Player: Quinn Hughes