The Vancouver Canucks’ atrocious special teams are costing them hockey games. If they don’t fix them soon, they’ll cost them the entire season.
With Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Nashville Predators, six of the Canucks’ seven losses have essentially come by one goal, including their loss to the Detroit Red Wings that included an empty net goal. The Canucks have been break even at 5-on-5 this season — 16 goals for and 15 against — so we have to look at their special teams, which have been anything but special.
On Friday, the Canucks gave up two power play goals to the Nashville Predators on their first two power plays. The Predators made it look easy, scoring their first goal 24 seconds into their first power play. Their second took just a little longer: 49 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Canucks had a full ten minutes on the power play. Not only were they unable to score, going 0-for-5, they could barely get the puck on net. They had just three shots on goal on the power play. Three shots in ten minutes.
“They weren’t very good,” said head coach Travis Green, bluntly.
That includes just one shot on goal on their two third period power plays, when they were down by a goal and pushing for the comeback. Simply put, that’s unacceptable. It’s one thing to struggle to score goals on the power play — it’s quite another to not even get shots on goal.
Asked to diagnose the problem with the power play, a visibly frustrated Brock Boeser broke it down to basics.
“It's shooting the puck, putting in the effort to get the puck back, opening up another shot, shoot it again, crash the net,” he said. “Can't keep looking for the perfect play, we've just got to find a way. We've got to find a way, there's no excuses.”
Likewise, Nils Höglander embarrassed the keep it simple mantra.
“I think we have to keep it simple from the beginning,” said Nils Höglander. “Everyone knows it's struggling but I think if we keep it simple, it's gonna come. Just take the puck to net and shoot.”
So far on this homestand, the Canucks are 1-for-20 on the power play and have fallen to 14.0% on the season, landing them at 25th in the NHL. It’s shocking they’re not lower.
The Canucks have been experimenting with various power play units in practices over the past two weeks and tried a few different looks on Friday. None of them worked particularly well, even when they had good zone time. No matter what combination of players were on the ice, the puck just didn’t get to the net.
“We've got a lot of talent here. We've got a lot of guys that can score and can make plays,” said Boeser. “It's just a matter of bearing down, accepting whatever role you're put in, play that role as hard as you can. And, like I said, we've got to shoot the puck and get pucks back. That's as simple as it gets when you're struggling on power plays.”
“We didn’t make a difference. It sucks,” he added.
Of course, the other side of special teams was also a major issue. They’ve given up two power play goals in each of their last three games and are now 30th in the NHL at 66.7%.
At some point, you have to wonder if the Canucks’ penalty kill is so bad because they’re practicing against a terrible power play or if the reverse is true.
“I'm a little more concerned with our power play but I'm obviously concerned with the penalty kill,” said Green. “I know it's got to be better as well.”
For Green, the problems start right from puck drop. Literally.
“We've got to win more faceoffs for starters,” he said. “You look at our faceoffs tonight on special teams. It's a simple thing, but it matters. On the powerplay, you start with the puck; on the penalty kill, you get the clear. There was a time in the first period where we lost I think six faceoffs in a row.”
The Canucks were 0-for-4 on faceoffs while shorthanded on Friday. They were 2-for-8 on the power play.
As much as the importance of faceoffs in the NHL is overstated, it’s hard to ignore that kind of disparity. The Canucks have just two centres above 50% on faceoffs this season: J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat. And Horvat doesn’t kill penalties or, at the very least, he’s far from their first choice.
It’s simple: on Friday, the Canucks won the even-strength battle, out-scoring the Predators 2-1 and outplaying them to the point that they drew five power plays. With even a halfway competent power play, the Canucks should have won this game.
But they didn’t. I know, because I watched this game.
- There were positives to take from this game. At 5-on-5, the Canucks were the better team, they got two gorgeous goals from Boeser and Höglander, and Elias Pettersson looked a lot like his old self, by which I mean his younger self. That’s a very confusing idiom.
- Pettersson was dealing like a croupier at a blackjack table but everyone kept busting. A lovely passing play to Quinn Hughes in the second led to the defenceman ringing the crossbar. He gave Boeser a wide open net with a patient play, but Boeser’s shot was blocked by Mattias Ekholm. Then, in the third period, he made a brilliant pass to Vasily Podkolzin, but the Russian rookie was robbed by Juuse Saros when he couldn’t get the puck up.
- A key to the Predators’ power play is how they worked the puck from low-to-high. Their opening goal started behind the Canucks’ net, forcing the penalty killers to come down low. That created a ton of space at the top of the zone to set up a Roman Josi one-timer, which Thatcher Demko never saw past a screen formed by both Miller and Ekman-Larsson.
- The penalty call by referee Francois St-Laurent leading to the Predators’ goal was oddly aggressive. St-Laurent seemed almost offended that Höglander had dared to trip someone. You'll need the sound on for the clip below:
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- As per usual, Thatcher Demko was outstanding in this game. He frequently had to be as the Canucks’ power play wasn’t just ineffective at getting shots on goal, it also gave up two breakaways and a 2-on-1. The latter produced Demko’s most brilliant save of the night, as he somehow got his toe on a Tanner Jeannot attempt as he cut across the crease.
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- In the final seconds of the first period, Boeser tied things up at 1-1. Travis Haamonic found him at the back door with a lovely pass and Boeser faked the shot, then deked right around Saros as the goaltender dropped into his butterfly before tucking the puck in with a bedtime story and a good night kiss. It was a beautiful move.
- “He's a smaller goalie, so you know he might be a little more aggressive,” said Boeser when asked if he had the book on Saros. “But no, I just knew I had time once I got the puck and instincts took over from there.”
- You might think that Höglander would have a lack of confidence with no goals this season, particularly after Saros robbed him on his best chance of the season early in the second period. But five minutes later, he had the puck alone in the slot and, instead of shooting, confidently pulled off the same move as Boeser, deking around Saros before tucking the puck in. The Canucks frequently talk about needing to get the puck behind the defence but it appears they’ve figured out the best way to score is to get the puck behind the goaltender first.
- The Predators quickly replied to re-tie the game at 2-2. Hughes aggressively pushed up in the offensive zone and Boeser covered for him at the point. Unfortunately, as the Predators counter-attacked, Boeser stopped skating and Matt Duchene blew past him in the neutral zone. Mikael Granlund sent Duchene in on a breakaway and the Predators centre made a slick move to the backhand and roofed the puck.
- “I've gotta stay with him,” said Boeser. “He came flying up the ice, I kind of got caught flat-footed. I've gotta stay above him, I've gotta get in front of him, I've got to do something. That second goal's on me.”
- The third Predators goal was again on the power play and it again came from a play below the goal line. Tucker Poolman slid to the ice but was unable to stop a cross-seam backdoor pass from Luke Kunin to Philip Tomasino. Already down in his post-integration, Demko didn’t have a hope of getting across to stop Tomasino — that pass simply can’t get through from there.
- Down by a goal in the third period, the Canucks could only manage six shots on goal. Sure, they only allowed three in return, but that’s not good enough. They had plenty of possession and offensive zone pressure but that final step — getting to the inside to create a scoring chance — just wasn’t there. To be fair, the Predators also blocked a whopping 27 shots but that speaks to how the Canucks couldn’t find shooting lanes.
- The most frustrating part of the loss is that it comes after such an emotional, hard-fought win on Tuesday night against the New York Rangers. It seemed like that game might galvanize the Canucks and be a turning point. Instead, it was just a slightly more exciting version of the same team with the same problems. At some point, something’s got to give.
