#1 The power play comes to life
The Canucks power play has struggled as of late and at the time of this writing, sit at 22nd in the NHL at 16.9%.
Travis Green mixed the power play units up at morning practice. Alex Chiasson was back in and Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson were demoted to the second unit.
PP1:
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) November 19, 2021
🥅
Chiasson
Garland-Horvat-Miller
Hughes
PP2:
🥅
Pearson
Boeser-Höglander-Pettersson
OEL#Canucks @Sportsnet650
The Jets were coming into the game with the second-worst penalty kill in the NHL but it seems the changes worked.
The power play cashed in twice with the first coming from Oliver Ekman-Larsson getting a wrist shot through traffic and past Eric Comrie. That was Ekman-Larsson’s second goal of the game and his first since scoring on opening night in Edmonton. Ekman-Larsson was tied with Chiasson for the second on Vancouver in Corsi For with 50%.
OEL with the 🎯 pic.twitter.com/JfRvEZxkN0
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 20, 2021
The second came from the other former Arizona Coyote. After a 10-game goal drought, Conor Garland has two goals in back-to-back games. He unleashed a rocket past Comrie.
https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1461911631756025857
“The power play unit split up today,” said Garland. “The other unit had one and our unit had one. Big night for our power play.”
The power play displayed better movement than in recent games. They were playing the puck down low, getting shots through, and moving up the ice quicker. It was nice to see a power play that looked more hungry and displayed more movement.
#2 Thatcher Demko looked solid again
It was just a typical night at the office for Thatcher Demko.
He stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced and once again, the Canucks wouldn’t have won the game without him. The Canucks would be even worse than their current record without Demko.
Demko once again made saves to keep the Canucks in the game.
In fact, he saved the game at the end for the Canucks. With the Jets, pressuring with the extra attacker, Andrew Copp centred the puck for Nikolaj Ehlers who scored the Jets’ first goal and was everywhere in the game. Demko somehow a right pad save on Ehlers.
https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1461933983927660544
Demko tracked the puck well all game and was once again the best Canuck on the ice. He was like Abdul Ali saving Seong Gi-Hun during the red light, green light scene in Squid Game.