Led by the shifty Elias Pettersson, the Canucks are the best team in the league at drawing penalties. They lead the NHL in power play opportunities, with 181. Compare that to the last-place New York Islanders, who have had just 113 power plays this season.
The Canucks’ ability to draw penalties extends to when they’re already on the power play.
No team in the NHL has drawn more minor penalties while on the power play than the Canucks. They’ve drawn 12 minor penalties while on the power play, followed by the Nashville Predators with 11. There’s a big difference between the two, however: the Canucks have only taken 4 minor penalties while on the power play; the Predators have taken 10.
In other words, the Canucks are exceptional at giving themselves a two-man advantage, while avoiding taking themselves off the power play.
Unsurprisingly, that means the Canucks also lead the league in 5-on-3 opportunities, tied with the Predators with 12. There’s just one problem: they might not be as bad with the two-man advantage as the movie White Chicks, but they’re close.
You’d think it would be easy: with two extra players on the ice, it should be simple enough to open up the passing and shooting lanes. Too often, however, the Canucks look directionless on 5-on-3s and have let several long opportunities with the two-man advantage pass them by.
Admittedly, the Canucks have three 5-on-3 goals this season, which is tied for the league lead with the Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals. The five teams haven’t all gotten to three 5-on-3 goals in the same way.
The Canadiens are an average team on a 5-on-4 power play, but when they get a two-man advantage, it’s automatic. They’re 3-for-3 this season at 5-on-3.
The Capitals are 3-for-8 — still efficient, but nowhere near the Canadiens — while the Avalanche are 3-for-10. The Predators, like the Canucks, are 3-for-12, but have had a 5-on-3 power play for a full minute less than the Canucks, who lead the league in that statistic.
In other words, the Canucks are the least efficient at 5-on-3 compared to these other teams. They could be worse — the New York Rangers are 1-for-9 and the St. Louis Blues are 0-for-6 — but they could also be a lot better, and it could make a difference in the second half of the season.
There are a few issues with the Canucks at 5-on-3. One is a lack of urgency.
Most teams, when they get a 5-on-3, immediately set to creating a scoring chance as quickly as possible. There’s generally a limited amount of time with a two-man advantage, so they don’t want to waste any of it.
For example, the Canadiens average 5 shots on goal per minute at 5-on-3, though that’s extreme. Perhaps that explains why they’re so successful. They don’t waste any time, but just get the puck to the net as much as possible.
The Capitals and Avalanche are a little more reasonable: the Capitals average 1.73 shots per minute and the Avalanche 1.78 shots per minute at 5-on-3.
The Canucks average 1.03 shots on goal per minute at 5-on-3. That shot rate is 23rd in the NHL. Essentially, given a minute-long 5-on-3, you can only expect them to get one shot on goal.
That’s less than ideal and it speaks to how the Canucks have played. You can see an odd mix of freneticism mixed with a lack of urgency in this clip from a long 5-on-3 against the Calgary Flames. While the Canucks create a flurry of activity off of a missed Brock Boeser one-timer, but there are also long periods of waiting, milling around while J.T. Miller rotates to the top of the zone.
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This also highlights another issue: the 5-on-3 power play seems set on creating shots from distance, particularly one-timers for Boeser. That’s a problem for a couple reasons, one of which is that Boeser’s one-timer is average compared to that of Elias Pettersson or compared to his own snap shot or wrist shot.
Boeser hasn’t scored a single goal with a slap shot this season, but the Canucks keep feeding him slap shot opportunities.
You can see it here in this 5-on-3 against the Wild. Instead of working the puck down low, Boeser and Quinn Hughes just trade one-timer opportunities, which miss the net or are blocked.
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It’s a similar story on this 5-on-3 against the Dallas Stars: the Canucks move the puck around the zone with some speed, but at no point make a simple play to get the puck on net.
Even when they do work the puck down low, it just leads to a long one-timer from Boeser that the goaltender can see coming all the way and easily saves.
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Perhaps the Canucks’ top unit can take a lesson from the second unit in how they create these shots. When the second power play unit got an opportunity ona 5-on-3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they created a one-timer goal similar to what the first unit tries to set up regularly for Boeser.
The key difference is the amount of movement prior to the shot. The Canucks’ first unit moves the puck, but the players themselves are too often standing still or, if they do move, it’s easily predictable movement that a penalty kill can track and adapt to.
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The movement prior to this Jake Virtanen rocket of a one-timer, however, is a lot more chaotic. Prior to shooting, Virtanen comes all the way across from the right point to the left faceoff circle at the same time that Tyler Myers skates from the left point to the middle of the ice. The crossover movement forces the penalty killer at the top to follow Myers, leaving Virtanen wide open.
Another issue is the Canucks don’t move the puck down low enough on the 5-on-3, preferring to create from the top of the zone. Not only does that limit touches for Pettersson, their most creative playmaker, but it’s easier to defend.
Look at how the Candiens created one of their three goals. They start up high, but move the puck down low, where Jonathan Drouin makes a move to find a better passing lane, Max Domi opens up the lane with some stickwork, and Joel Armia calmly finishes off the backdoor pass. It’s not a complicated play, but it’s quick, efficient, and effective.
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Compare that to how the Canucks over-complicate this down-low play against the Wild, forcing passes through and trying for wild backhand passes when a simpler play would do.
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If the Canucks can keep drawing 5-on-3 power plays, that should be a significant advantage in the second half of the season, but they need to be more effective with the two-man advantage. That means more urgency, but not urgency without a purpose: they need to get the puck on net quickly and efficiently and use their extra manpower to quickly win the puck back and do it again.
If they’re going to look for one-timers, they need more than just quick puck movement — they need unpredictable player movement to open up shooting lanes to prevent blocked shots.
And sometimes they just need to simplify: get players and pucks to the net.
Take this Canadiens goal as an example. Max Domi takes a similar route to the top of the zone that we’ve seen from J.T. Miller. The difference is what it leads to: a hard pass down low to one of the two players set up around the crease.
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The Canucks power play in general has struggled of late. Finding a way to be more effective at 5-on-3 could provide a jumpstart.
