CANUCKS KNOCK ON WOOD
Healthy Tanev a boon to blue-line
During a lengthy five-on-three in the third period of Tuesday night’s game, the Red Wings’ Filip Hronek teed up a slapper from the top of the faceoff circle, which caused a nervous moment for the faithful.
The situation had something to do with it. The score was 4-1 for the Canucks and this power play represented the Wings’ best chance to get back in the game. But the larger concern was Chris Tanev, the man directly in the line of fire between Hronek and goalie Thatcher Demko, who’d gone down to one knee to block the shot.
This, Canucks fans immediately realized, is Tanev’s classic foot-breaking posture.
Hronek let fly. The puck hit the rearguard and, in a happy development for the Canucks, deflected harmlessly to the corner. But the happier development was Tanev bounced up, none the worse for wear, and killed the remainder of the two-man advantage with colleague Alex Edler, which was the last the Red Wings were heard from on this night.
“You just look at some of the injuries,” said teammate Troy Stecher. “He works so hard to get back and that first game back, he’s still going to block shots. He has no fear in his game. You’re going to win a lot of games when you have guys like that on your team.” Especially if they stay healthy. There are, of course, a number of positive storylines to emerge from the Canucks’ three-game, home-ice winning streak, which concluded with the 5-1 romp over the Wings. Some will dissolve over the 82 games of the NHL season. Some will be magnified by the game’s ever-changing circumstances.
But in terms of the big picture, in terms of the one area absolutely crucial to the Canucks’ success this season, we direct your attention to the blue-line where, for the first time in a decade, the Canucks have six bona fide NHL blue-liners at their disposal.
The new guys, Quinn Hughes, Tyler Myers and Jordie Benn, you know about. Edler, the longest-serving Canuck, you certainly know about. But the key to the whole operation, the one variable in the equation, may be Tanev, who brings so much to the table when he’s in the lineup.
Now, if he can just stay in the lineup.
“That’s been the goal the last few years,” he says. “It just hasn’t happened.”
And its impact on the player and the team has been enormous.
“When you play 10 games, then you don’t play 10; when you’re in and out of the lineup, it’s hard to get into a rhythm,” Tanev continued.
“You’re more focused on your health. Sometimes you’d like to focus on your game.”
As you may be aware, that’s a luxury that hasn’t been afforded the 29-year-old Torontonian.
While it’s a given the hockey gods aren’t benevolent deities, it seems they’ve taken special delight in tormenting Tanev over the last three seasons. Since 2015-16, when he played 69 games, he’s been sidelined by injuries on 18 different occasions, missing 96 games in the process.
Some of the injuries have been macabre: last year he missed 11 games beginning in February with an ankle/foot injury, returned to the lineup, then suffered a season-ender in the same general area blocking a shot against New Jersey. Some have been mundane: he missed 20 games in 2016-17 with the dreaded lower-body injury. And some have just been weird: three games due to food poisoning, two games with the mumps, two more after taking a puck in the mouth, costing him some of his favourite teeth.
The sum total of all that misfortune has cost the Canucks the services of one of their most reliable players, a pro’s pro who commands respect in the locker-room and on the ice. This season he’s also been paired with wunderkind blue-liner Quinn Hughes, and Tanev’s intelligent, risk-averse two-way game is the perfect complement to Hughes’ more impetuous instincts.
“I’m fortunate to be able to play with a guy like that, and we’re just getting started,” Hughes said. “I don’t think it’s too easy to play with me. He’s just really smart.”
In its early stages, the TanevHughes partnership has paid significant dividends for the Canucks. Both are averaging right around 20 minutes a game. Both have a goal and two assists and both are plus-players.
In the Canucks’ configuration, moreover, neither is overworked. Edler and Myers form the top pairing and they’re one-two on the team in ice time (Edler 25:09, Myers 22:26). Benn, who plays on the penalty kill, clocks in at 15:31. Stecher is 13:41.
The larger point here is there is balance and harmony in the group where, last season, Ben Hutton was second on the team at 22:21 per game. As long as everyone stays healthy, the blueline figures to be the Canucks’ most improved area. Now, they just have to stay healthy for 77 more games.
As for the future, well, that’s where things get interesting. Tanev is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this off-season, and if that raises some level of uncertainty, he should be used to it by now.
Long a walking trade rumour, the presumption has always been the Canucks would move Tanev, one of their few marketable assets, at some trade deadline. But 10 years in, he’s still here, a loyal Canuck who’s endured some lean years. If the good times are just around the corner, he’d like to stick around to enjoy them.
Besides, those hockey gods owe him.
“It’s gone by so quick,” he says. “You look back on it and go, oh man, I can’t believe it’s been that long already. Hopefully there are a few more years left.
“We’ll see how things play out. Things happen. It’s a business. But we know where our focus is.”
For others it’s goals and assists. For Tanev, it’s much more basic.