Rejoice, Vancouver Canucks fans! The team has now won three consecutive games and is undoubtedly playing their best hockey of the season, but the better news is that there are still many ways in which they can improve.
The most obvious example would be Elias Pettersson’s eventual return to the lineup, which unfortunately won’t happen for at least another week.
Elias Pettersson is out at least another week, per Coach Green.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) March 9, 2021
It’s important to keep in mind that adding a player back to a lineup doesn’t automatically make the team better, no matter how good he is. There are many other factors in play, like how to divide up each skater’s ice time and what line combinations to use so that the team’s chemistry isn’t affected.
Even so, Pettersson’s return will no doubt give the Canucks a boost as he’s Vancouver’s best player. However, there is another change that the team could make to improve their play, which is scratching Jordie Benn in favour of Olli Juolevi.
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By now, Canucks fans are well aware that Benn plays much better on the right side of the defence even though he shoots left, but he’s been forced to play on the left beside Tyler Myers since Travis Hamonic has replaced him alongside Quinn Hughes.
This is no doubt due to the fact that Travis Green prefers defenceman to play on their natural side, and he’s already making an exception for Nate Schmidt by deploying him on the right beside Alex Edler. But like I said before, Benn struggles when he plays on his strong side, and the numbers back this up.
According to Natural Stat Trick, since Hamonic returned to the lineup on February 25 which forced Benn back to the left, the latter has registered a corsi of less than 40% and an expected goals percentage of 37.65% at five on five. Those rank last and dead last, respectively, among defencemen on the team since that date.
More importantly, Benn’s poor play has impacted Myers as well. Since Hamonic made his return, the duo has had a corsi of 39.86% and an expected goals percentage of 38.09% at five on five; Benn and Myers aren’t just struggling, they’re getting shelled when together.
The obvious solution would be re-inserting Juolevi in place of Benn. The rookie hasn’t suited up since February 23, but he and Myers have put up decent underlying numbers together this season, as they’ve controlled shot attempts 49.82% of the time at five on five while also sporting a decent 50.76% expected goals percentage.
By now, it’s obvious that Benn should only play if the team is down a right-handed blueliner, which would allow the veteran to play on his more comfortable side. Since that isn’t the case right now, Juolevi should replace him in Vancouver’s lineup.
What do you think, Canucks fans? Should Benn be scratched in favour of Juolevi? Let us know in the comments below!