Welcome back to Canucks on the Radar , a weekly feature focused on Canucks analysis here on Last Word On Hockey, where we break down the stories and developments worth watching around the Vancouver Canucks each week. We will cover a variety of topics, including the week's games in review, top performers, players making a positive or negative impact, roster questions, news, and trends that could shape the season. This series will break down the developments worth watching around the Canucks.
On our radar this week is, as usual, a quick look at last week's games and top performers of the week, and then we will look at the Aatu Räty trade, the performance from the defencemen so far, and the struggles in recent third periods, contrary to how the team played early on.
October 13th: Vancouver 2-3 New York Islanders
October 15th: Vancouver 2-3 Florida (OT)
October 17th: Vancouver 2-4 Tampa Bay
Record: 0-2-1 (Overall: 2-7-1)
To start this week's edition of Canucks on the Radar , let's take a brief look at this week's games. It was another week without wins for the Canucks , as they finished up their brutal Eastern road trip. They did have 2-0 leads against both Florida teams, but could not hold them. The positive from all this is that they have been able to keep the puck out of the net a bit better over the past week, due to decent goaltending. For a more comprehensive discussion, we also wrote about five takeaways from the Eastern road trip . Now, the team will return home in hopes of better performances.
While the results did not show up in the win column, there were some positive individual performances to take note of. This week, our spotlight players are defenceman Elias Pettersson and goaltender Leevi Meriläinen .
Pettersson had a good week, as he was reliable defensively and also scored a goal. He has now scored three goals this season, which already ties his total from last season. He has arguably been the best defenceman on the team so far, as he has looked calm and has made fewer errors compared to the other defenders. He has the fewest giveaways among defencemen with seven, which is tied with Luke Schenn, but Pettersson has also played in all ten games so far. His offensive awareness could also be an underrated asset, as in all three goals this season, he has activated at the right time in the offensive zone to catch the other team off guard.
Meriläinen has also been very impressive so far for the Canucks, as he has a .925 save percentage through six appearances, a 2.8 goals-saved-above-expected stat according to MoneyPuck , and a .960 save percentage at 5-on-5. With Lankinen's struggles early on, Leevi Meriläinen could have a shot at being the temporary starter , or at least the 1A in tandem with Lankinen as Thatcher Demko is out until at least Christmas. His lateral movement has been impressive, and his aggressive style of goaltending has worked so far. He has faced a lot of rubber, with 161 shots faced in 287 minutes in goal.
On Thursday, Aatu Räty was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Jacob Quillan and Brandon Buhr. It was clear that there was no spot for him on the team, so General Manager Ryan Johnson recognized that and sent him to a team that could potentially use him.
Losing Räty means the Canucks are losing a talented player in the face-off circle. He was the team's top-performing centre at face-offs, as he won 56.8% of his draws so far this season. The only other natural centre who has won more than half of his draws is Marco Rossi, who has a 54.7%-win rate. When Rossi was out with illness for Saturday's game against Tampa Bay, the Canucks only won 38% of the face-offs, which led to a few chances for the Lightning right off face-off wins. If the Canucks want to be a bit more successful, they will need to improve themselves in the dot, or respond better when they do lose a face-off.
We already discussed the impressive play of Pettersson, the defenceman, but the defence on the team has still had its ups and downs. After a tough start, Tom Willander has turned his game around a bit, as his breakouts have been cleaner, and he is not turning the puck over as much.
Zeev Buium , on the other hand, has not found his footing yet and was demoted to the third pairing this week. He has struggled with zone clearances and needs to simplify his game. His puck-moving ability in the offensive zone is decent, but his defensive reads and positioning still clearly need work. He is the youngest defender on the team, and one of the youngest in the NHL at the moment, so his development is definitely still in progress.
Filip Hronek 's start has been baffling, to say the least. He has the most giveaways among Canuck defencemen with 16, and has looked shaky in his top-pairing role. A lot of his turnovers have been on innocent-looking plays, and they look like mental lapses. Everyone will make mistakes, but it is a bit shocking coming from a defenceman who has looked pretty stable in his time in Vancouver.
Head Coach Manny Malhotra was critical of the team's starts early on in the season, as the team's best period was consistently the third period, but recently, it looks like the opposite is happening. The starts have been decent, but the team has been dominated in the third period, even when they are trailing. The Canucks have been outshot 78-31 in third periods during this road trip, and in four of the six games, they were either trailing by one goal, tied, or leading going into the third period.
The schedule has been very unforgiving on this road trip considering the quick turnaround between games and the quality of opponents, but you would probably want to see the team dig in a bit more. Fatigue may have been a factor, so hopefully as the team returns home, they can play a more complete game.
The Canucks have two big occasions to look ahead to, one of them being tonight's game against the Carolina Hurricanes, where the team will honour the late John Garrett, longtime Canuck colour commentator and former goalie, as well as Quinn Hughes' return to Vancouver on October 25th as the Canucks host the Minnesota Wild, which will surely be a doozy.
Main photo by: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
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