WHITE TOWEL: Canucks have a golden opportunity to groom rookie Ben Hutton
So far this season, team defined by strong goalies, stumbling defence, promising youngsters
46
To little surprise, there’s a strong connection between your goal differential and your record.
With the Canucks current record of 131 goals for and 152 goals against, you would expect the team to have managed just 46 points so far this season.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to go check the standings, I’ll do that for you: they have 56 points. Credit the 10 extra points on some good luck and a whole lot of strong goaltending.
93.62
That’s Ryan Miller’s even-strength adjusted save percentage. That’s 12th in the league. Jacob Markstrom’s is 93.55, good for 15th. In a season filled with defensive breakdowns, the Canucks goalies have been a strong point.
44
Luca Sbisa has the 20thworst even strength Corsi among NHL defencemen who have played at least 200 minutes this season.
There are 216 defencemen who have played that much. His defensive mates Alex Biega (44.5, 23rd-worst) and Matt Bartkowski (45.2, 31stworst) aren’t much ahead of them.
If you want to see why the Canucks are still mired in the muck of the Pacific Division, it’s the struggles of their defence corps. At 49.9 per cent, Dan Hamhuis is the Canucks team leader and has been a positive player since returning the lineup a week ago vs. Calgary.
53.1
Jake Virtanen’s Corsi continues to blow the rest of the team out of the water. It’s been an impressive run for the kid.
Until Saturday’s all-around debacle vs. the Leafs, Virtanen hadn’t had a negative shot-attempts game since returning from the World Junior championship.
If the team is serious about making the playoffs, they would be wise to keep throwing ice time at The, um, Goat.
5
Canucks prospect Brendan Gaunce scored five seconds into overtime in last Saturday’s Utica Comets win over St. John’s. The forward (Utica coach Travis Green has played him at all three spots) now has 14 goals on the season. Given he’s played just 37 games, that’s a quality haul for the second-year pro. Hunter Shinkaruk has been pulling most of the press (and with 19 goals now on the season, he should be), but Gaunce has quietly, assuredly, put together a very strong season.
‘What’s the sophomore slump?’ he asks.
Will Gaunce see any more action this season? With the way management is talking about taking their time with him while chasing the playoffs with more experienced players, you have to wonder.