Saturday night was a memorable one for the Vancouver Cancucks in the nation's capital, with plenty of headlines coming out of the game against the Ottawa Senators. Among other things, Jake DeBrusk's breakout performance, Max Sasson grabbed a primary assist on his NHL debut, and Quinn Hughes receiving the first five-minute major and game misconduct of his NHL career.
However, most important of all was of course the Canucks securing two points, with a 4-3 win which wasn't as close as the final scoreline suggests. And as a result, the team made a new entry into their franchise record books.
A record-breaking win for the Canucks
As per Sportsnet, the win by the Canucks marks the first time in team history that they have started a regular season campaign with a 7-1-0 record on the road. This is of course a remarkable way to begin a season on your travels, made even more impressive that they have been without the likes of Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller for various reasons and lengths of time.
For some context, consider that the only other NHL team with just one regulation loss on the road so far in 2024-25 are the Minnesota Wild, who have a record of 9-1-3 as of Monday morning. Further, the Canucks' impressive record on the road has been a necessity, given their subpar 3-5-3 record at home.
The Canucks also made a mark in the NHL record books during the same game, courtesy of Kiefer Sherwood, who has been a revelation this season. Among other things, he is sixth on the team with 12 points and second with a +5 rating.
Sherwood proving to be a big hit
However, where Sherwood entered the NHL record books, was after producing 10 hits against the Senators. As per Adam Kierszenblat of The Hockey News, this tied him with Tommy Wingles and Jeremy Lauzon for the most 10+ hit performances in a season by a player.
Of interest, Lauzon equalled the record last season with the Nashville Predators, while Sherwood was one of his teammates. With three quarters of the regular season still to go, it's a safe bet that Sherwood will soon have the record all to himself, of 10+ hit games in a single campaign.
As we've already written about, Sherwood has been a big hit for the Canucks this season, quite literally. And at his current pace, he's also going to take another hits record away from his former teammate.
Consider that just last season, Lauzon set the single season record for hits, with 386. By comparison, so far in 2024-25 Sherwood has recorded 125 hits in 19 games, putting him on course for a ridiculous 539 over 82 games.
We're not going to proclaim that Sherwood will keep up his current hit ratio; plus, there is the chance he will miss some games for any number of reasons. However, he still seems well-placed to have the two aforementioned hits records all to himself, come the conclusion of the 2024-25 regular season.