The Canucks are winning, but working overtime to post their points
Team is breathing again after horrible start, but wins have come in shootouts or OT
In the moment, Ben Hutton’s overtime penalty-shot game-winner against Arizona on Thursday was a huge boost for the Vancouver Canucks.
A young defenceman thrust into an unnatural situation with the game on his stick, and he delivered like he’d been there a thousand times before. It was also great to see the personable young blue-liner flash his mega-watt smile, which has been in hiding for much of this season.
Hutton’s goal — just like Markus Granlund’s overtime winner against the Dallas Stars last weekend — lifted the spirits of a hockey club that has just now started to breathe again after nearly having the life choked out of it with nine straight losses.
The overtime wins count in the standings, but when trying to get an accurate read on the Canucks, don’t be distracted by the blaring goal-songs or the confetti cannons at Rogers Arena. This is a team that has just two regulation victories in its first 18 games going into Saturday night.
Flip that around, and 16 of 18 opponents have taken at least a point off the Canucks (7-10-1) in the early going this season. That is hardly the definition of a team that is tough to play against, when it’s virtually guaranteed-point night anytime the Canucks are on your schedule.
It’s great that the Canucks have figured out an effective strategy for three-on-three overtime, which has propelled them to four of their seven victories on the season, to go along with a shootout win over Calgary on opening night.
A year ago, they lost their first seven games decided in overtime, so it’s one area the coaching staff has adequately addressed and made necessary adjustments. Without question, their play beyond 60 minutes has been their biggest weapon so far this season and is the only reason they can still see the playoff bar in the Western Conference.
Here’s the problem: If the Canucks are going to somehow scratch and claw their way to the post-season the way management believes they can — and that remains a long-shot at best — they’ll find a harsh reality check waiting for them there come April. Playoff overtime, of course, reverts to five-on-five hockey, and, as you surely know by now, the Canucks aren’t exactly specialists when it comes to scoring in that fashion.
Through their first 18 games, the Canucks have managed just 24 five-on-five goals, or an average of 1.3 a night. It’s damn near impossible to win games in that fashion, which brings us back to the team’s regulation record. That’s the truest indication of who the Canucks are right now and, as they near the 20-game mark, it’s quite likely that’s who they will remain with the roster as currently constructed.
The team will point to its ability to stay in hockey games and even battle back, which is an admirable quality but a dangerous way to constantly play. Few could argue that the effort level has been the issue most nights for the Canucks. It’s the ongoing inability to generate offence which has them mired near the bottom of the standings.
However, if the Canucks somehow manage to creep into the playoffs, it would almost surely be as a lower seed, and the task then would be trying to pull off an upset in the opening round. It’s one thing to beat Calgary or Carolina or Buffalo or 30th-place Arizona in a one-off, as the Canucks have already done this season.
But those aren’t the types of teams the Canucks would face if they qualify for the playoffs. As a lower seed they’d face the daunting challenge of trying to stay with a top team, and one that quite likely has legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations.
Do you really like this group’s chances of outscoring a playoff opponent? Could you see the Canucks getting that next goal in playoff overtime? I didn’t think so.
As the Canucks near the quarter-mark of this season, don’t judge them on their wins and losses, or where they sit in relation to the teams they’re trying to catch. Much of that is an overtime mirage. Take the good things they’ve managed to accomplish, beyond the usual 60 minutes, out of the equation, and assess this team on its play in regulation time.
That reveals the real Vancouver Canucks — and exposes just how much work the management group has ahead of it.