Despite Thursday’s win, the Canucks are still not a playoff team
It definitely wasn’t the prettiest, but Vancouver Canucks still managed to come away with a much-needed victory.
After a four-day hiatus, the team traveled to California to take on the San Jose Sharks at the SAP Center, hoping to keep themselves in the playoff conversation. Heading into Thursday night, Vancouver was just two points ahead of San Jose in the Pacific Division, with both teams trying to close the gap with the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks.
Vancouver was ultimately able to secure the extra point in the end, thanks to J.T Miller’s overtime tally. But, despite adding one more “W” to the record, the 15th under the Bruce Boudreau era, fans should still be reminded of one key message about this organization.
They’re still nowhere near being a playoff team.
And here are three reasons why:
Special team shortcomings
There’s no surprise that the Canucks need help on their penalty kill.
In the first 25 games of the season under former head coach Travis Green, the team was establishing historical lows while being shorthanded, posting an abysmal penalty kill success rate of just 64.6%. The once-lethal powerplay wasn’t doing much better, executing at a mediocre 17.4%, good for 20th in the league.
Fortunately, special teams have improved overall under Boudreau’s new systems, with the Canucks posting success rates of 75.8% and 21.1% respectively over the past 25 games, but don’t let those numbers fool you.
Let’s use Thursday night’s contest as an example.
The Canucks were awarded four separate powerplays throughout the evening, with one of them taking place in the second period when the Canucks were holding onto a one goal lead. Had the Canucks been able to capitalize on that opportunity, they might have been able secure the victory within 60 minutes instead of handing out free points to a divisional rival.
Unfortunately, their penalty killing was even worse.
Vancouver managed to surrender only three separate infractions on Thursday night, but allowed their opponent to take advantage of those chances far too quickly.
San Jose only needed 29 seconds on the first powerplay to bring the score to 3-2, and were also able to tie things up just 45 seconds into the third period.
Vancouver was technically able to make up for their own man advantage struggles in overtime, potting the game-winning goal on a delayed penalty, but their current special team efforts aren’t nearly good enough if they want to make a legitimate push towards the offseason.
Second period collapse
It’s been a long time since the Canucks have played a full 60-minute contest, and Thursday was no exception.
Despite what we witnessed earlier in February, the team looked impressive in the first period, playing with tons of energy and grit on the road. As a result, the Canucks were able to outshoot the Sharks by a wide margin of 15-4, with Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes finding the back of the net on two of those opportunities.
Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.
Vancouver allowed San Jose to claw its way back into the game at the beginning of the middle frame, giving up the first three shots of the period while also failing to clear their own zone on multiple occasions.
The Canucks did get some puck luck after Logan Couture managed to cut the lead down to one, thanks to a nifty deflection from Juho Lammikko to help restore the two-goal lead, but it didn’t swing the momentum back in Vancouver’s favour as expected.
In the end, San Jose managed to register 31 shot attempts against Thatcher Demko in the second period, including six SOG on the powerplay, all of which essentially set the stage for a comeback third period from the home team.
Not enough middle-six support
Prior to the start of the 2021-22 season, many people envisioned Vancouver to have one of the most high-energy and effective top-nine forward group in the league.
That hasn’t exactly come to fruition this year.
Outside of Miller, who leads the club with 50 points in 48 games, as well as Boeser and Elias Pettersson, who have appeared to rediscover their elite gameplay under Boudreau, the Canucks have faced some difficulty when it comes to other players providing any offensive production.
Tanner Pearson has gone ice cold, having only registered one goal in his past 12 games, while Jason Dickinson continues to be one of the biggest disappointments of the year with his measly three goals and three assists in 46 games.
Bo Horvat and Conor Garland have excelled for the most part this season, with the duo right behind Boeser and Pettersson in point totals, but both players have also had moments of inconsistency and ineffectiveness (cue Horvat’s performance in San Jose) that have ultimately hurt the team in the results category.
And let’s not forget about Nils Höglander and Vasily Podkolzin.
Both young players have been punished with limited ice time and press box appearances for their poor 200-foot outings this season (and rightfully so), but let’s not forget that they’re being forced to play under extremely high expectations given Höglander’s rookie campaign, as well as the team’s lack of overall forward depth, both of which could be damaging their development in the long-run.
Like the relationship with Demko and Hughes, the Canucks could try to ride the coattails of Miller, Boeser and Pettersson for the remaining 32 games, hoping that those core players will be enough to squeeze them into the playoffs.
But, at the end of the day, relying on a small handful of teammates is never a well-designed recipe to get you into the playoffs, and fans will probably have that bubble burst sooner rather than later.
Jack Rathbone taken off on stretcher after dangerous hit on Wednesday night. dark. Next
What are your thoughts from Vancouver’s overtime win on Thursday night? Make sure to drop a comment below!