The Canucks are healthy, and no, it’s not farfetched to believe that this team won’t settle for third place or a wild card. Vancouver was a fun team to watch even when they were banged up, so what will they look like once everyone is in midseason form?
Well, we can point to a trio of stats that the Canucks are among the better teams in the league. All three have come when they have the puck, and they’ve played a major part in helping the team return to its high-octane ways.
So, where has Vancouver been rather dominant, and how much more dominant will they be once the crew is up to scratch?
Special teams
The Canucks currently rank above the NHL average in the power play and penalty kill. Currently, they’re at 23.08 on the man advantage, which is over three percent better than what the rest of the NHL is doing, heading into Saturday night.
Breaking things down further, Vancouver has converted 21 of just 91 power play opportunities. The latter number was, prior to Saturday’s slate of games, four below the rest of the league average. Yet they converted one more power play goal than the rest of the NHL had collectively. Not a bad number at all.
As for the Canucks penalty kill, it’s been on fire. So far, they’ve been successful 80.21 percent of the time, allowing just 19 in 96 opportunities. The rest of the league has given up an average of 20, and have collectively been successful on 79.14 percent of their opportunities.
Shooting percentage at 5-on-5
The Canucks are crushing the league average shooting percentage at 5-on-5, heading into Saturday’s matchup sporting a 9.1 in the category. This is a significantly better number than the league average, which is currently at 8.2, and it’s yet another stat that shows why Vancouver has re-emerged as one of the NHL’s higher-octane teams.
Fans can thank players like Jake DeBrusk, Pius Suter, and Kiefer Sherwood, among others, as all three have a shooting percentage of at least 17.5 or better. Brock Boeser is also up there with a 17.0 shooting percentage.
High-Danger Chances converted
When a team creates high-danger chances, it’s a good sign that they’ll be one of the league’s better teams when they possess the puck. But they also mean virtually nothing if they can’t convert those high-danger chances into goals.
Fortunately, that’s not a problem the Canucks are facing, as they’re currently successful 10.9 percent of the time in that situation. If you’re curious, the league average is 8.8, so it’s clear the Canucks are flat-out dominating the category.
But, you might raise this objection: Yeah, but high-danger chances converted mean nothing if teams aren’t creating them, right?
That could be the case, but the Canucks are forging high-danger chances at 5-on-5 over 50 percent of the time and 204 total. Yeah, this is lower than the league average of 240, but Vancouver’s also doing a good job preventing opponents from attaining such chances.