Second line combination still anyone's guess
How Vancouver creates its threesomes still a matter of conjecture at this point
The “financial” decision to let Tyler Toffoli leave as a free agent this past fall has the Vancouver Canucks back to where they were a year ago in trying to set their forward groupings: debating what to do with the likes of Jake Virtanen and, yes, Loui Eriksson.
Toffoli was a good fit on the first line with J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. This put the Canucks' coaches in a position where they could play Brock Boeser with Bo Horvat or even with Adam Gaudette, giving the team some forward depth even if in both cases the fits have both looked a bit awkward.
Horvat and his usual left-winger Tanner Pearson are both shooters rather than playmakers, much like Boeser, which made for an awkward line, but Boeser's two-way game is better than many realize and given the heavy defensive load that Horvat carries, it's the kind of partnership that could still work.
Playing him with Gaudette might have worked better if the centre didn't struggle so much controlling play in his own end.
Boeser may be a handy two-way player, but he's not so good that he can make up for a centreman's defensive problems.
Anyway, with Toffoli now out of the picture, it would be foolish not to have Boeser back in a top-six role. Putting him back with Pettersson is the most logical choice, simply because he was a nice fit with Pettersson and Miller.
It's still remarkable to look at the numbers the Lotto Line of Pettersson, Miller and Boeser posted when they played together at even strength. In just over 426 minutes of five-on-five ice time together, the Canucks took 58.4 per cent of the total shot attempts while they were on the ice and scored twothirds of the goals.
That said, the numbers were similar when Jake Virtanen was on the line as the right wing, though that trio had about one-quarter the ice time of the Lotto Line. That's a statement about the talent of Pettersson and, to a lesser extent, what a great sidekick Miller has proven to be for him.
Basically, whoever plays with Pettersson is the least of head coach Travis Green's worries when training camp for the 2020-21 NHL season opens this Sunday. It's the rest that will be dicey.
Overall, Boeser has been a positive influence on the Canucks when he's on the ice since he first made it to the NHL in 2017 and so he should still be a good fit with Horvat, even if the playing styles might not be obvious.
THE CASE FOR ERIKSSON
The best version of the Horvat line was the one dubbed the Insurance Line, where Eriksson was the right-winger and Tanner Pearson played on the left.
In their 277 minutes of five-onfive ice time together in 2019-20, the Canucks took 51.8 per cent of the shot attempts when they were on the ice. That's especially impressive given Horvat's job was to go up against the opposition's top centres game in, game out.
Eriksson may not have the scoring touch he once did and he was never the fastest skater, but he makes smart plays all over the ice and the Canucks are lacking in wingers who do that.
You'd rather play him down the lineup for what he brings overall, but in this game of lineup triage that Green and his coaches have been forced to roll out, Eriksson probably still has a role to play.
WHITHER VIRTANEN
Virtanen has had some success playing with Miller and Pettersson. He could yet play there. Playing him with Pearson and Horvat doesn't work as well. In the 118 minutes he skated with those two at five-on-five, the Canucks took just 47.9 per cent of shot attempts while the trio was on the ice.
Virtanen's talents are in the offensive end and not at his own end of the ice, which is far from ideal.
THE OTHER TWO LINES
This is where losing Toffoli and Virtanen being a flawed two-way player really hurts. The third and fourth lines have problems in the middle and they also struggle for consistent play on the wings.
Gaudette's defensive issues saw him relegated to fourth-line minutes — and even the press box — in the playoffs, while Jay Beagle may win a lot of faceoffs, but he doesn't have the motor to defend effectively in the rest of his shifts.
Beagle's struggles are so real the Canucks were taking less than 40 per cent of the shot attempts when he was on the ice and are scoring less than one-third of the goals.
He is playing less than 10 minutes per game at five-on-five, but when it's combined with Gaudette's struggles, about onethird of the Canucks' five-onfive ice time per game has them bleeding shot attempts and goals against. (Gaudette's five-on-five shot attempts share in 2019-20 was just 46.4; his goals-scored share just 46.6.)
The Canucks are hoping that Pettersson's overall game will take another step forward from 201920. But when he and Horvat aren't on the ice, the same problems that faced them last year remain.
The Canucks will again try to outscore their way out of problems, but what this team had lacked last year became plainly clear only after we understood what they'd gained in Toffoli.
They're back to Square 1.