Canucks monthly November Edition: Power play, Utica call-ups, more

Welcome to the third installment of Vancouver Canucks monthly! The busy men played 15 games in 30, while dropping slightly in the standings.

The Vancouver Canucks are two months into their 50th season and the “Alien”, Elias Pettersson remains to be out of this world spectacular.

But unfortunately for the rest of the Canucks, November brought them back down to earth. After a strong start with an easy October schedule, the team knew the true test was coming in November. Would they be ready for the road ahead? We now have a much better idea of who this team is, and if they are serious about a playoff push.

The west coast hopefuls faced a tough string of opponents in month two, the injuries piled up, there was a season-defining six-game road trip and the team struggled mightily to score five-on-five. Luckily, they managed to gather some points by surviving regulation, but you can count the amount of victories on one hand. At the end of the day, it wasn’t exactly as pretty as the month of October was, but there were some bright spots that need to be talked about.

The Lotto Line –Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser — continued to be one of the most dangerous trios in the league. The power play has been red hot with all five players contributing on unit one, Quinn Hughes leads all NHL defenders in power play points and Adam Gaudette has solidified himself as a solid NHL player.

October saw the Canucks exceed early expectations, November was a bit of a wake-up call, but the Canucks look to be back to full health by the time December rolls around. 10 of the 13 games in month three will be played at home, giving the team a good chance to get back on track.

But until then, let’s discuss the ups and downs (or the pros and cons) of November. The days of the month were dark, but for every grey cloud, there was a ray of light somewhere to be found.