The first team is 9-2-1 and has scored an NHL-high 54 goals in 12 games. The second shows a 2-8-1 record with just 29 goals in 11 games, for 28th in the National League.
At the dawn of the season, Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers were hearing a significant number of experts predicting the Stanley Cup for them, after a 109-point season and with a devastating offense, almost four goals on average per game, a top in the league.
Uncertainty reigned 1,159 kilometers to the west, among the Canucks, after a third consecutive exclusion from the playoffs, a seventh time in eight years, and uncertainty about their star attack Elias Pettersson, still not decided to get along long term with the team. The contract buyout of defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson, a whopping $12.5 million, reminded us of the blunders of the former administration.
If we were asked to bet, who would have put the Canucks among the top teams and the Oilers in the cellar after a dozen games?
Vancouver handed Edmonton a third consecutive defeat on Monday night, with a clear result of 6-2, a fourth victory in a row for the Canucks.
Two of the Canucks’ young stars, Pettersson and defenseman Quinn Hughes, both 24, are operating at full capacity. Pettersson, the fifth overall pick in 2017, has 21 points in 12 games this season, one fewer than NHL leader Nikita Kucherov.
Quinn Hughes, the seventh overall pick in 2017, added four points to his record against the Oilers to bring his total to 20, a league high among defensemen. His closest rival, Cale Makar, has 14.
Second center J. T. Miller, 30, follows the wave with 18 points, including 7 goals, and he is responsible for taking on the opposing big offensive trios when the coach has the opportunity to do so. His winger Brock Boeser, 26, associated with a thousand trade rumors over the past year, already has 10 goals in 12 games.
The Canucks would not be in this favorable position without their goaltender Thatcher Demko, back in shape like in his heyday. Monday against the Oilers, he received 21 shots in the first period, surrendered only once, and gave his teammates time to regain their composure.
Plagued by injuries last year and limited to 32 games, Demko is 7-2 with a 1.61 GAA and .948 save percentage since the start of the season. Obtained from the Canadian for Tanner Pearson, his backup Casey DeSmith started three games, won two and allowed ten goals.
The departure of captain Bo Horvat, traded to the Islanders last January to avoid losing him on the free agent market without getting anything in return, even pays dividends.
Canucks general manager Patric Alvin, a former Canadiens scout, used the 2023 first-round pick, 17th overall, to acquire 25-year-old right-handed defenseman Filip Hronek from the Red Wings (Vancouver also gave up a second-round pick to Detroit and the Wings sent a fourth-round pick in exchange).
Hronek isn’t the biggest at 6 feet, 190 pounds, but we’ve stopped insisting on pairing a giant in Quinn Hughes on the top pair and the Canucks’ new acquisition has allowed Hughes to flourish even more so, even if the two have a seemingly similar style. The Canucks have scored 18 goals and allowed just 3 at even strength when Hughes is on the ice.
Quinn Hughes thus shuts down those who criticize him for his lack of defensive reliability, a perception associated with smaller players.
The young man recently took the liberty of correcting a colleague from Vancouver who asked him if he was more comfortable with a skilled partner than a more defensive colleague. “I think I’m a defensive player,” Hughes responded. The opponent doesn’t often score against Filip and me. It allows me to have at least three or four more touches per match. He finds me on the ice. The more we have possession of the puck, the more our chances of scoring increase. »
The Canucks showed great promise with Demko, Hughes, Pettersson and Boeser in 2020. They even moved ahead of their reset schedule by participating in the playoffs, before losing in the second round in seven games to Vegas with a very young team . How can we explain this three-year slump? Coaches, Travis Green, then Bruce Boudreau, unable to find cohesion? Demko’s struggles? The inability to find the right partner for Hughes? Or how much time Pettersson and Hughes still lacked before reaching full maturity?
Ironically, it is with Rick Tocchet, a coach renowned in Arizona for favoring a defensive system of play that is stifling for forwards, that the Canucks now terrorize opposing goalies. Tocchet probably realized with the Coyotes that he wouldn’t win games with the current personnel without simply limiting the damage…
New Flames coach Ryan Huska had seen enough on Tuesday and benched his highest earner, Jonathan Huberdeau, for the entire third period. The strategy paid off as Calgary scored three unanswered goals to win 4-2 against the Nashville Predators.
“He didn’t have a good night and I wanted to go with players who were more leggy,” Huska simply told journalists after the match. He is correct. Everyone is going to have their bad games.”
After 12 games, Huberdeau had 6 points, including 2 goals, with a record of -12. At 30, he is entering the first year of an eight-year contract at an annual salary of $10.5 million. This is no longer the problem of Brad Treliving, now GM in Toronto despite his poor management in Calgary.
1- Guillaume Lefrançois took advantage of his trip to Switzerland to visit the former Canadian goalkeeper, Cristobal Huet.
2- From the Molson Cup to the stool. This is the fate of goalkeeper Jake Allen on Tuesday evening. Richard Labbé tells the story in his own style.
3- Ignored in the draft despite a splendid season with the Remparts de Québec, Théo Rochette went into exile in Switzerland in the hope of being discovered… in America. Guillaume Lefrançois spoke to him.