Canucks: 3 takeaways from last night’s 5-1 win against the Senators

Make that two in a row, Vancouver Canucks fans!

The team is now on its first winning streak of the season, and there seems to be a positive energy surrounding them now. Of course, we need to keep in mind that these two wins have come from playing the Senators, who most people predicted to come in last in the Canadian division.

Even so, the Canucks have been pretty dominant for five out of the six periods during the first two legs of this mini-series. Their only blemish came during the opening frame of last night’s game, when Ottawa fired an astounding 24 shots on goal.

Outside of those 20 minutes, Vancouver played a complete game and got contributions from up and down the lineup. Hopefully this is a sign of better things to come, but the sample size isn’t large enough to draw any definitive conclusions just yet.

Here are three takeaways from last night’s 5-1 win against the Senators.

The slump is over

What’s wrong with Elias Pettersson?

That was the first question on the minds of Canucks fans during the first eight games of the season, even with the other problems facing the team.

Well, Pettersson has temporarily put an end to those worries after putting in his best performance of the year last night by assisting on a J.T. Miller goal before potting his first of the season.

He didn’t showcase the sheer dominance we’ve come to expect on a nightly basis, but I’m optimistic that those performances will soon be back now that he has hit the scoreboard and got the monkey off his back.

Furthermore, the Lotto Line looked much better as a whole, as their Corsi and expected goals percentage were both just a hair under 65%.

Again, this came against a relatively shallow Senators team, but it’s still a good sign nonetheless.

Motte stays hot

Nine games into the season, Tyler Motte is tied for second in the league in goals with five.

Yes, you read that right. Penalty kill specialist Motte has already surpassed his goal total from last season and is halfway to eclipsing his previous career high set two years ago when he found the back of the net nine times in 74 games.

We obviously shouldn’t expect him to maintain this level of production, but after his standout performance during last year’s playoff run, perhaps Motte has some untapped offensive potential that was previously unknown to fans.

As you can see, his first of the night was a simple tap in off a rebound from a Tyler Myers shot, while his second came from a lucky bounce that hit a Senators defender before ending up in the net. Both of those goals can be labelled as lucky, but it does prove that he has a knack for ending up in the right place at the right moments, which is a skill in and of itself.

If Motte can have an offensive breakout this season, it will greatly improve the bottom six and provide the top guns with some much needed secondary scoring.

Demko continues his steady play

Although the game ended in a blowout, Thatcher Demko had to stand tall in the first period to give his team an opportunity to pull out a victory.

Like I previously mentioned, the Canucks gave up 24 shots in the opening frame alone and Demko made 42 saves on the night. Many of his stops came from close range as well, with one in the third that stood out in particular.

After conceding seven goals to Montreal last week, Demko has now let in two in as many games, which speaks well his resiliency and competitive nature. Braden Holtby will get the start tonight, but don’t be surprised to see the team lean more on Demko in the future if he continues his impressive play.

Other notes

• Lost in the talk about Pettersson’s struggles has been Miller, who has had a slow start to the season himself. Thankfully, he also broke out yesterday by potting his first two goals of the year, which should be a sign of better things to come for the Lotto Line.
• Olli Juolevi was a healthy scratch last night in favour of Jalen Chatfield, which was a mild surprise given that he scored the first of his career on Monday and has been solid all season. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s just a one game blip or become a long term trend.
• Speaking of scratches, Adam Gaudette watched from the pressbox for the third consecutive game. He’ll get back into the lineup at some point, but you have to wonder if the team has shifted their expectations of him as a player. If Gaudette’s defensive game never takes that leap, he might be more suited to be a scoring winger, and could end up as Vancouver’s best trade chip too.

The Canucks are right back at it tonight against, you guessed it, the Senators once more. This will be the third and final meeting between the two teams before they face off again in March. Vancouver has been able to take advantage of a weaker Ottawa team thus far, and if they do so again tonight, they’ll be right back in the mix in the Canadian division.