![]() The most encouraging sign of the power play, however, has been seeing how much motion, creativity and unpredictability they’re operating with. Vancouver’s power-play goals for rate ranks fourth in the NHL during the last seven games.Īnthony Beauvillier has been successful in the bumper role, showing that he can find tips, redirections and get quick shots off. He’s an elite finisher from the bumper and was by far the Canucks’ most effective scorer, with Brock Boeser’s 22 goals in that span ranking second among the club.Ĭredit to Jason King and the rest of the coaching staff because the Canucks’ first unit hasn’t skipped a beat without Horvat so far. Horvat’s 32 power-play goals since the 2020-21 season rank 11th among all NHL players, tied with Mikko Rantanen and Joe Pavelski. Vancouver’s strong power-play results without Horvat We’re witnessing a special evolutionary stage in Pettersson’s career. He destroyed Jonas Siegenthaler just a few games ago, for example. He’s not getting knocked over easily and has even been throwing his weight around on the forecheck. Pettersson’s playing chess at warp speed while everybody else is playing checkers.Īnother subtle difference in his game this season is how much stronger he’s been at protecting the puck. He’s crushed all of those question marks like a slapshot at the NHL All-Star skills competition.Īs of Monday night, Pettersson leads all NHL forwards with 43 five-on-five points, nearly three times what he had at this stage last year. He was struggling for a second straight season and there were legitimate questions about whether he was really a franchise player. It makes you dream of a day down the line when he can hopefully drive these elite results on the next good Canucks team, whenever that might be.Įxactly a year ago today, Pettersson only had 15 five-on-five points. Arturs Silovs’ quality performance against the Flyers to pick up his first career NHL win is a fuzzy, feel-good story.īut above all, Elias Pettersson’s emergence as an undisputed superstar gives you a reason to keep watching the games. The Canucks have the worst points percentage of any NHL team since Jan 1 which has helped them sink to fifth-last in the standings, boosting their odds of a high draft pick. Vancouver thankfully secured a futures-oriented haul in the Horvat trade rather than targeting a win-now player in their mid-20s like Brandon Carlo as the centrepiece of a package. Management still has a ton of work to do to build confidence in this market, but slowly, the tide has started to shift a little bit. Hope has been hard to come by for Canucks fans. ![]()
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