10 Surprises 10 Games into the Vancouver Canucks Season

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Santorelli is the Team’s Leading Goal Scorer

When the Vancouver Canucks signed Mike Santorelli to a one-year contract worth $250,000 in the minors and $550,000 at the NHL on July 6, they probably had him pencilled in as the Utica Comets first line centre.

The Canucks brass (and fans) did not expect him to make the team. Maybe as the 13th forward if he is lucky and has a good training camp.

Santorelli not only made the team, but he is the leading goal scorer with four. He is fourth on the team in points with six behind Henrik Sedin, Jason Garrison, and Daniel Sedin.

He is also the best Canucks faceoff man winning 64.5 per cent of all draws.

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Stanton is a Top-Six Defenceman

Ryan Stanton was claimed off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks on September 30th and many thought he’d be the team’s eighth defenceman behind Andrew Alberts and Yannick Weber. Stanton only had two games of NHL experience after all.

To the surprise of many, Canucks head coach John Tortorella inserted him into the lineup for the first game of the season after only one practice with the team.

It seemed like he was going to be destined for the press box after averaging only 10:30 a night in the first two games, but Tortorella stuck with him and picked up his first point as a Canuck in his third game.

Stanton has exceeded expectations as a player and has exceeded expectations offensively. He has a goal and four points through ten games.

Two ‘Long Distance’ Goals

‘Long distance’ goals are quite rare in any level of hockey, but the Canucks have already scored two of them this season.

The first was by Dan Hamhuis on Edmonton Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk. He leaned into a slapshot at the blueline and it was slightly deflected by Oilers defenceman Jeff Petry en route to the goal. The shot dipped and went under the blocker of Dubnyk.

The second was scored by Alexander Edler on Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Edler faked a dump-in just pass the red line, but instead fired a slapshot at Fleury. The shot hit Fleury on the chest, bounced over his head, and into the net.

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Lack is a NHL Goaltender

It was expected there would be some growing pains this season as this is goaltender Eddie Lack‘s first season in the NHL. He also missed most of the 2012-13 season with a hip injury.

Lack has made the transition seamlessly and has played well through two games.

He picked up his first NHL win in his first NHL game. Remember Dany Sabourin in 2006-07 who didn’t pickup a win until February 20?

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Sedins, Kesler Averaging 21+ minutes A Night

Former Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault didn’t play his best three players more than 20 minutes a night.

In their seven seasons under Vigneault, Ryan Kesler averaged 19:09, Daniel Sedin averaged 18:46, and Henrik Sedin averaged 19:34. One of the ways Vigneault kept the Sedins ice time down was to keep them off the penalty kill and only start them in the offensive zone.

Tortorella says he doesn’t care how much his best players play and isn’t worried about burning them out.

“I’m not a big believer in, ‘Holy crap, he played 26 minutes, does he have anything left for Wednesday?’ I don’t buy it,” Tortorella said.

“I want to win that game. I want to win Game 2, I’m not looking to Game 5. So if Sedin or Kes needs to be on the ice in those situations, in that third period and play 12 minutes of that third period, they will play the 12 minutes of that third period to try to win that game.”

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Richardson is Tied Second in Goal Scoring

Mike Santorelli leading the Canucks in goal scoring is a surprise. Brad Richardson second in goal scoring is as much of a surprise if not more.

Richardson is tied with Ryan Kesler with three goals—two of them shorthanded.

He has been a solid contributor on the penalty kill, been a good faceoff man winning 54% of his draws, and has brought versatility to the lineup playing on the third and fourth line, left wing and centre.

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Hamhuis is Minus-3

Describe Dan Hamhuis’s game? “Safe, steady, and calm”

Describe Dan Hamhui’s game this season? “Risky”

He has made a number of ill-advised pinches this season that has lead to odd-man rushes the other way into the Canucks zone. Sometimes leading to goals.

Hamhuis might be feeling the pressure to make things happen offensively to secure a spot on Team Canada for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Among the defencemen trying to make it, he is arguably the one with the least offensive pedigree along with the Washington Capitals’ Karl Alzner. 

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Special Teams Has Been Extremely Good and Extremely Bad

The Canucks penalty kill is the best in the league with a 91.4 percentage—allowing only three goals on 35 opportunities.

The power play has been extremely bad though. The Canucks have only scored three times on 27 opportunities. It is 27th in the league with an efficiency of 11.1 per cent.

It showed tremendous potential in the first few games of the season with the amount of movement, but it hasn’t produced much for some reason.

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Booth’s Only Got One Goal, Two Assists

David Booth is a player that is on the hotseat and he’s only produced one goal and two assists in ten games.

Not only has his point totals been low, but we haven’t seen much from him offensively in terms of chances or physically.

We haven’t seen him go end-to-end and make a ‘power’ move cutting to the net that we have seen in the past. Perhaps a move to right wing (where has played his best hockey) will ignite him.

Booth was a candidate to be bought out this past summer, but the Canucks could not because he was injured. With one year left with a $4.75 million salary and $4.25 million cap hit, the Canucks could do it this offseason if he doesn’t pick up his game.