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There are, however, several observations to be pulled from this exercise.

I thought maybe you would see him favour one side of the body. And most of the hits are with his right shoulder.

The ones which he turns to his left side all do look awkward0.

I would say, to varying degrees, he lets up on hit Nos. 1, 5, 7, 8 and 10.

He gets really good wood on just two of the hits, No. 9, and 12. So it’s definitely still in him to pound guys even if we’re not seeing it with regularity.

You can see him adjust on hits 1, 5, 6 and 7. These are all hits where he’s at risk of either a penalty or a possible suspension and he changes his angle.

This, of course, is a smart thing.

I wonder how much his suspension late last season is a factor. I went back and looked at a few of his hits after the suspension and they did look a lot like the ones this year do.

Then again, whacking Nordstrom’s head into the boards with your hand is not the act of someone overly concerned about a suspension.

It is startling to see the brute force of that hit on Polak, the one that got him suspended at the end of March.

We all know it was late, and Polak caught unexpectedly, but the way Virtanen leans into that hit is just not something we’re seeing a lot of this year.

Here are all of Virtanen’s hits this season:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

BEST HISTORY LESSON

Much discussion has been invested this week into the 2014 draft.

Some have suggested the Canucks pick at No. 6 was a slam dunk, popular and wonderfully received by the locals.