Canucks' special-teams surge might punch ticket into playoffs
Recent performance like `night and day' from lacklustre output earlier in season
Punching your ticket to the post-season requires knockout punches.
In a special-teams league, there was nothing special about the Vancouver Canucks' plodding and predictable power play — and a historically low-percentage and passive penalty kill — until a new coach, new systems and new players were introduced to stop the bleeding.
With the Canucks needing to run the table in their remaining games and hoping that erratic play drops a contender from the race at the wire — hello, Los Angeles Kings — a ninth-ranked power play that was first overall during a recent 20game run with a whopping 35.4 per cent efficiency bodes well.
It was 22.9 per cent heading into Thursday's meeting with the Arizona Coyotes and J.T. Miller was fourth overall with 34 (7-27) man-advantage points.
The penalty kill also went from an embarrassing 63.8 per cent in early November — it hadn't been that bad since a sorry 76.7 per cent showing in 2016-17 — to a current remarkable run of 80.3 per cent to help the big climb to 74.2 per cent overall. It's another indication of hitting the daily double at the right time.
Tyler Myers led the Canucks in most penalty-kill minutes (186:32) through his first 74 games and knows it has come a long way from snow-angel sprawls to block passing attempts and a passive approach.
More pressure and more minutes for penalty-kill newbies Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, along with captain Bo Horvat, have made a huge difference.
“It has been night and day — that's the simple way to put it,” Myers said with a chuckle Thursday following the morning skate. “Obviously, at the start of the year, we were trying to figure a lot of stuff out. And with the intensity we're now playing with, and the mindset we have to disrupt the other team as much as we can, it's paying off.”
There's a lot of credit to go around.
Upon his arrival, Bruce Boudreau adjusted to a team that was sitting back on the penalty kill by introducing some forward thinking. He gave young stars with incredible agility and anticipation a chance to augment their games and make the Canucks dangerous on the PK with numerous 2-on-1 odd-man rushes off pass interceptions.
Boudreau gives associate coach Brad Shaw full credit for implementing the systems. “Skilled players don't block shots, but they put the fear in the other team,” said Boudreau. “You can see that Petey's anticipation is as good as anybody. He can look at a stick and the angle and knows where a puck is going to go.
“He knocks pucks out of midair, and because we're trying to be more aggressive, Quinn's first step is so good that he can jump at you real quickly.”
And, of course, the players have bought in, especially the emerging younger core.
“They're really quick on pucks,” Myers said of Pettersson and Hughes. “You can tell the other team is having a tough time making the play they want to make. And guys have done a great job of reading when to take a chance to go after a short-handed goal and those guys have been awesome.
“It gives us a (playoff ) chance for sure and so does our five-on-five play because we have an exciting group.”
The plaudits for Pettersson are plentiful with 16 points (8-8) in his previous 10 games and 26 goals heading in Thursday's meeting. The production has been spurred by throwing hits and defensive diligence to play freely and with considerable confidence.
It might be the best version of Pettersson.
“Yeah, maybe,” Pettersson said. “I don't think about that too much, but I feel good and I'm creating. It means a lot to get those PK minutes because it's different thinking and it's fun.
“I've played the power play my entire life and I'm trying to think what their (opposition) power play is trying to do and make my reads off that with my instincts.”
Myers marvels at Pettersson's patience and drive to overcome a hyperextended wrist injury on March 1, 2021 in Winnipeg that shut down his season and contributed to a slow start this season. As the 2019 Calder Trophy winner, he has always had game, but it's now on a higher and encouraging trajectory.
“This might be another step up with the way he has been engaged and the way he's moving his feet and dropping his shoulder on guys,” said Myers. “It might be the best hockey he has played in my mind and a great show of character with the ups and downs. You can feel it on the bench. He has a presence.”
OVERTIME: Brock Boeser was spotted in the Rogers Arena hallway Thursday morning sporting an ice bag on his right elbow. It could mean the winger suffered a hyperextension in an April 3 sideboards collision and the normal timeline for recovery is one to two weeks. That might make him available Monday for a massive meeting here with the Dallas Stars.