Younger, faster Giants turn the page
Five big reasons why Vancouver’s juniors are headed for the playoffs for first time in four seasons
The Vancouver Giants could come close to doubling their point output in a year.
Vancouver carries a 25-14-4-2 record into Friday’s contest (7:30 p.m., TSN 1040) against the Victoria Royals at the Langley Events Centre. If they keep up this pace, the Giants will finish the regular season in mid-March with 90 points.
A season ago, Vancouver wound up with 46 points, their 20-46-3-3 record leaving them out of the playoffs for the third straight spring. Not only have they already surpassed their win total from a season ago, Vancouver already has more triumphs than they had in all of 2015-16 (23), and with 27 games left, they’re closing in on their victory total from 2014-15 (27).
Here are five reasons why they team has improved:
One of the new catchphrases in hockey is “play fast.” Vancouver does that now. They got fast quickly. They move the puck from defence to offence better than they have in years.
Their team speed isn’t dramatically better than it was last year, although forwards like Ty Ronning, Brayden Watts and James Malm are among those who are visibly quicker.
The majority of what’s happened here is that the Giants have added puck-movers to the defence, with rookies Bowen Byram, Alex Kannok Leipert and Kaleb Bulych joining offensive-minded incumbents Matt Barberis and Dylan Plouffe on a skilled blue-line corps.
This is the best passing group of rearguards that Vancouver has had since their glory days of a decade ago, when the likes of Jon Blum, Cody Franson, Brent Regner and Paul Albers were quarterbacking the offence and Vancouver was making playoff runs with regularity.
Vancouver did pick up veteran Brennan Riddle at the trade deadline to give them another steady, stay-at-home blue-liner besides Darian Skeoch for the stretch drive and the playoffs, but it’s not about to change the team’s mindset.
Byram, the third overall pick in the 2016 bantam draft, is among the top two or three Giants in terms of ice time. He’s already getting some buzz as a possible early selection for the 2019 NHL draft. His development over the next couple of seasons is going to be compelling stuff.
You could have fired him after last season’s struggles and no one would have been stunned, but leaving Jason McKee in place as head coach for a second season has brought a continuity and familiarity to the group. Keep in mind that veterans like Ronning, Barberis and left winger Tyler Benson have played for five coaches: Don Hay, Troy Ward, Claude Noel, Lorne Molleken and now McKee.
Does McKee’s performance merit some questions? Certainly.
Vancouver was drilled 7-1 and 6-1 by the Royals on their opening weekend of league play and then 11-0 by the Everett Silvertips in their first game after the Christmas break. Those results point to a lack of preparation that falls on the head coach.
Here’s betting those efforts and what led up to them will be discussed internally by the Vancouver brain trust before the playoff opener.
We have seen five, six or seven players improve noticeably this season, though, and a good chunk of the credit goes to McKee and associate coach Dean Chynoweth.
Chynoweth, who replaced Tyler Kuntz as McKee’s top lieutenant last summer, has drawn good reviews from the players.
Ronning has 40 goals, could well become the first Giants player ever to hit the 50-goal plateau, and there’s an argument that he’s played even better than his numbers suggest. Ronning talked over the summer about wanting to stick somewhere in the New York Rangers’ farm system this year as a 20-yearold, and since being re-assigned to Vancouver, he’s played with a chip on his shoulder every night.
The Rangers, who picked him in the seventh round of the 2016 NHL draft, have yet to sign him to a contract. That undoubtedly is pushing him to play like he has something to prove.
WHL teams are permitted three 20-year-olds (or overagers). The clubs with the best overagers routinely succeed. They’re automatically among your leaders, your tone-setters.
Vancouver hasn’t had a 20-yearold top their team in scoring since Casey Pierro-Zabotel in 2008-09. Ronning is on pace to change that, as well as break Evander Kane’s team record for goals in a season, set when he bagged 48 in that same season nine years ago as Pierro-Zabotel’s winger.
The Giants have been largely healthy this season, which is new territory for them.
Vancouver’s wounds over the years have been largely self-inflicted, with the coaching issues and lack of success drafting the main reason for missing the playoffs.
But injuries have also been a factor.
Benson (first overall), Barberis (20th) and defenceman Ryley McKinstry (23rd) were all high picks in the 2013 bantam draft. They could be in the neighbourhood of a combined 700 games played with Vancouver, but extended stays on the disabled list for all three have them at a combined 348 contests going into the weekend.
McKinstry, in fact, has retired due to concussion issues. He played 43 games with the Giants. He was traded to the Calgary Hitmen at the start of the season and contemplated a comeback, but shut it down after one Junior A game.
David Tendeck has provided the Giants with elite-level goaltending. He’s fourth in the WHL in goalsagainst (2.93) and seventh in save percentage (. 911) The Giants haven’t had their starting goaltender finish above the .900 plateau since Adam Morrison checked in at .901 through 55 games with Vancouver in 2011-12.