3 takeaways from the Canucks’ comeback win against the Canadiens

The Vancouver Canucks have now won three straight games!

Boy, with the way this season has gone, I never thought that I’d be writing those words but it sure feels good to be doing it. Vancouver is undoubtedly playing its best hockey of the year even without Elias Pettersson, so let’s hope that the team can maintain its momentum when he returns.

Here are three takeaways from last night’s 2-1 shootout win against the Canadiens.

No-show special teams

After scoring two power play goals on Saturday against Toronto, the Canucks went back to firing blanks with the man advantage last night.

The worst part is that they had a five on three that lasted for 1:25 minutes at the end of the first period and had another chance with 10 minutes left in the third, but they failed to convert on all their opportunities.

The good news is that they had their fair share of chances, so Vancouver wasn’t failing to maintain offensive zone time like they had in some previous games. Brock Boeser, in particular, had a great chance that was stopped by Carey Price to the Canucks off the board.

Meanwhile, the penalty kill went one for two and gave up the game’s lone goal, which was all the difference that Montreal needed. The goal itself wasn’t the fault of any one player, as Jeff Petry’s shot beat Thatcher Demko from the blueline due to Corey Perry screening in front.

https://twitter.com/HeresYourReplay/status/1369124582658031623

It’s important to note that the Canadiens’ power play has been extremely hot lately, as they’ve converted on more than half of their past 10 opportunities. This is also why I’m not too worried about Vancouver’s special teams performances from last night, since neither unit had any glaring problems in the game.

Demko stays hot

We’ve all known for a while now that Demko has officially stolen the net and been anointed as Vancouver’s de facto number one goalie. What some people might not know, however, is just how good he’s been after a somewhat rocky start to the season.

In fact, he was named as the second star of the week by the NHL, with only Mark Stone besting him in that category.

More importantly, his performance this year places him among the best in the entire league, when looking at his save percentage above expected at five on five.

This is a stat that takes into account the difficulty of shots that each goalie has faced, and Demko ranked seventh in the league (prior to last night’s game) by saving 0.7% more shots than he was expected to.

This is especially impressive considering Demko didn’t have a great start to the season, so it’s not hyperbole to say that he’s legitimately been one of the best goalies in the NHL since his first few games of the year.

I think it’s safe to say by now that Demko has solidified himself as a bonafide number one netminder who might already be among the better goalies in the league. His current level of play is probably unsustainable, but he’s also much better than the player he was to start the year, so Demko’s true value likely lies somewhere in between.