Prior to Monday night against the San Jose Sharks, it had been a troublesome month so far for the Vancouver Canucks. With just three wins in 10 games, December was proving to be a miserable time for the team and their fans alike.
At least the Canucks were able to enter the Christmas break on a positive note, beating the Sharks 4-3 in a game which wasn't quite as close as the final scoreline suggests. As a result, Rick Tocchet's team find themselves in a playoff spot as of Tuesday morning, sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference.
At the same time, no one is under any illusion that this Canucks teams is playing particularly well right now, with their 17-10-7 record paling in comparison to 22-9-3 at the same point last season. Of course reports about an ever-growing rift between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller don't help, but neither does the crazy amount of adversity they've had to deal with in general so far in 2024-25.
With this in mind, there are certain areas of the Canucks' game which could stand to improve, to help move them up the Western Conference standings. Here are three stats in particular, which are currently holding them back from having more success.
25.9 - Shots on goal
In one respect lets give the Canucks due credit, as they find themselves tied-11th as of Tuesday morning, with an average of 3.15 goals per game. However, there remains an underlying concern with the offence and no, we don't mean because of Pettersson and Miller not playing 'best friends'.
The underlying concern relates to the Canucks' inability to consistently create shots on goals during games. Consider that entering the Christmas break, they are ranked all the way down in 29th place, in averaging only 25.9 shots on goal per game.
Now we appreciate that some people will point towards the Canucks only ranking 26th last season in shots on goals, while ranking sixth for actual goals scored, but keep in mind the respective stats were 28.4 and 3.40. Aside from continuing to convert shots at a high efficiency rate, the team clearly still needs to start creating more chances on goal.
7 - Home wins
Arguably the most impressive thing about the Canucks this season, has been their ability to win on the road, as they enter the Christmas break with a 10-3-2 record which is among the very best in the NHL. The home record however, is another story altogether.
So far through 19 games at Rogers Arena, the Canucks have only been able to win seven games, compiling an overall home record of 7-7-5. Only six NHL teams have less wins at home to date in 2024-25, and this clearly isn't good enough by Tocchet and his players.
For some context, consider that the Canucks went an impressive 27-9-5 last season in Vancouver, helping them significantly on their way to the third-most overall regular season points in franchise history. The team needs to start picking more points up on home-ice -- something which they are more than capable of doing -- to help better compliment their road record.
.894 - Save percentage
Last season the Canucks' goalies combined for an excellent team save percentage of .909, which was tied-eighth best in the NHL and likely would have been even better if Thatcher Demko hadn't missed more than a month of the regular season. In this respect, the team had a glimpse at life without their number one goalie to begin the 2024-25 campaign, and it wasn't great.
As of the Christmas break the Canucks find themselves ranked a lowly tied-24th in the NHL, with a .894 team save percentage. And keep in mind this is with Kevin Lankinen playing above and beyond what was expected, producing a .907 save percentage in 23 starts (along with a 2.61 Goals Against Average which projects to be the best of his five seasons in the NHL).
Now yes, it doesn't help that Artūrs Šilovs has been significantly worse than anyone expected, while Demko is still finding his feet after a longer than anticipated absence through injury. In this respect, last season's Vezina Trophy runner up should improve as we move along, which in truth is also imperative, if the Canucks are going to make the playoffs full stop, never mind be a genuine contender.