3 takeaways from the Canucks’ big 5-1 win against Calgary last night

Impressive performance from Holtby

After three consecutive starts from Thatcher Demko, the Canucks elected to go back to Braden Holtby last night.

And boy did they make the right choice.

It was undoubtedly Holtby’s best performance of the season, as he kept Vancouver in the game when Calgary started pressing in the second period. Although the score appears lopsided, the Flames actually outshot the Canucks 36-33.

Moreover, Vancouver conceded 12 high danger scoring chances against (HDCA) at five on five, which is actually higher than their season average of nine and a half per game. For the record, the Canucks have given up 195 HDCA this year, which is dead last in the league by a wide margin; Ottawa comes in second with 171, albeit in two fewer games played.

It’s nice to see Holtby turn in a vintage performance, but the team still needs to learn how to prevent high-quality scoring chances, especially since they don’t have a Vezina quality netminder in Jacob Markstrom to bail them out anymore.

Brock keeps rocking

After experiencing a sub-par offensive season in 2019-20, Brock Boeser has bounced back in a big way this year. The 23 year old already has 12 goals in just 20 games after only scoring 16 in 57 matches last season.

Last night, he once again showcased his lethal wrist shot that is reminiscent of what we saw during his dynamic rookie campaign.

It’s unreasonable to expect him to keep up his current pace, which would be prorated out to almost 50 goals in an 82-game schedule. Boeser’s shooting percentage is also over 20% right now when his career average is 13.6%, so expect him to regress somewhat in the coming weeks.

With that said, he should be able to hit at least 25 goals this year if health permits, and I could see him flirt with 30 if the bounces really go in his favour.

Other notes

• Boeser also had two assists on the night, as he keeps on rounding out his overall game. The winger has been one of the better defensive forwards on the team as well, so his impact goes well beyond just scoring and racking up points.
• Tanner Pearson had an amusing run-in with Markstrom when the Flames netminder came charging out of the net to play the puck, which led to a collision between the two. They seemed to exchange some words after, but Pearson shouldn’t be too surprised by Markstrom’s aggressiveness after playing with him for more than a season.
• Horvat had a great game, ending the night with a goal and an assist. His goal also came after another aggressive charge from Markstrom, but Horvat was able to deke around the goalie and shoot it into an empty net, showing Pearson how it’s done.

The Canucks are back home on Friday to host the Jets, whom they beat quite handily during their first meeting of the season. Let’s hope that Vancouver can make it two in a row.