Vancouver Canucks: 3 keys to victory over the Coyotes

Coming off a 4-3 overtime victory over the Islanders and the loss of All-Star rookie Brock Boeser, the Canucks look to face the Coyotes in a battle of the bottom feeders in the West.  Here are 3 things the Canucks will want to do in order to defeat the Coyotes.

Monday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders was billed as a showdown of the top two Calder Trophy candidates between star Brock Boeser and Mathew Barzal.

Unfortunately, the game ended with all of Canuck Nation holding their breath on a doctor’s report of how bad the injury to Boeser, who was taken to the hospital on a stretcher, would be. He’s out four-to-six weeks and is expected to be out for the season.

The good story coming out of the victory over the Islanders is that Brendan Leipsic is proving to be a fantastic acquisition.  With two goals and an assist against the Islanders, and five points in his first three games as a Canuck, Leipsic brings a speed, tenacity, and skill that the Canucks have desperately lacked.

With the league worst Coyotes coming into town, head coach Travis Green will want his team to come out the gate hard and bury Arizona early.

Early production

The Canucks will want to start a lot faster against the tired Coyotes than they did against the Islanders.

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Vancouver only had 6 shots on net through the first 20 minutes against the Islanders.  Travis Green was not happy with that start, nor should he be, and will be pushing his men to have a much stronger start in Tonight’s match-up.

With the Coyotes in the middle of a three game road trip, Expect to see the Canucks push the pace early to secure a victory over their draft lottery rival.

Stay out of the penalty box

Although the Canucks didn’t surrender a shorthanded goal until the final minute of Monday’s game, the two penalties taken in the first period helped give the Islanders all the momentum to start that game.

Coach Green will be wanting his team to keep the game clean and not allow Arizona to get off to a good start.

As good as his three points were against the Islanders, Leipsic also took three of the Canucks four penalties in that game.  Leipsic plays with an edge that is needed by the Canucks, but he still needs to learn to walk the line a little bit better and not spend so much time in the penalty box.

Draw more penalties

With the loss of Boeser, the Canucks powerplay will suffer.  The only way they can counter this will be to try and draw more penalties, to allow more chances with the extra man.

Obviously this is easier said than done, but the Canucks will need to play with speed and take the puck hard to the net.  Force the Coyotes defense to hook and hold to try and slow them down.

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This is obviously easier said than done, but if the Canucks can push Arizona early, keep themselves out of the penalty box and force the Coyotes to take penalties to slow them down, we can expect a solid victory in a game thank frankly, just doesn’t mean much to either team at this point in the year.