3 takeaways from the Canucks’ big 5-1 win against Calgary last night
By Bill Huan
The Vancouver Canucks played arguably their best game of the season last night, resulting in a 5-1 blowout win against the Flames in Calgary.
Vancouver dominated right from puck drop, as the team led the entire game after opening the scoring. The most encouraging news is that they bounced right back after Calgary scored, answering with two goals of their own less than a minute after Andrew Mangiapane put the Flames on the board.
Although the results have been underwhelming, this is actually the fifth consecutive game in which the Canucks have played decent to great hockey, which hopefully means that they’ve finally turned a corner after an abysmal start to the season.
Here are three takeaways from last night’s 5-1 win against the Flames.
Benn’s steady presence
After enduring a rough season last year, Jordie Benn has been a pleasant surprise so far by complementing Quinn Hughes nicely and also being one of the team’s best penalty killers.
The 33 year old veteran had gone more than a year without scoring, so it was nice to see him get his first of the season on a gorgeous fake and pass from Bo Horvat.
https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1362239390609641474
However, Benn’s steading defensive presence is what makes him so valuable to the team. I’ve previously talked about Hughes’ defensive struggles this year, and Benn has played a large part in helping the Calder trophy finalist stabilize his two-way game.
According to Natural Stat Trick, when Hughes plays without Benn at five on five, he has an expected goals percentage of less than 40%. With Benn, that figure jumps to over 50%.
To put that into context, that latter number is almost identical to what Hughes posted with Chris Tanev last year. Now, no one is saying that Benn is on the same level as Tanev, but it just shows you how much of an impact he’s had on the team and Hughes.