With the month of October now behind us, it’s a good time to take a step back and have a look at how Vancouver’s opening 10 games of the season went. The Canucks may have gone 7-3-0, but there is still lots of room for improvement.

Read past the jump for a look back on the month that was.

The Competition

The Canucks started their season with six new players on the team (Nick Bonino, Linden Vey, Luca Sbisa, Ryan Miller, Radim Vrbata, and Derek Dorsett) and a new head

coach in Willie Desjardins. With the lack of familiarity with each other and

the coach’s new system, the Canucks couldn’t have asked for a friendlier

schedule than what the hockey gods gave them for October. Four of the ten games

they played were against teams who are legitimate contenders in the Connor

McDavid derby (Calgary, Edmonton x 2, and Carolina).

These were games they

needed to win, and they did. Their other wins came from an injury and flu

ravaged St. Louis Blues team, a Washington Capitals team which failed to make

the playoffs last year, and a very convincing win against the Montreal

Canadiens. The losses against Dallas,

Colorado, and Tampa weren’t pretty, but considering the learning curve with the

new systems and faces, they have to be happy to exit October with a 7-3-0

record.

The Goaltending

The table below shows the trending save percentage for

Miller and Lack throughout the month.

Ryan Miller has met expectations in the first month of the

season. His performances in the Carolina and Montreal games was enough

to push his save percentage slightly higher than league average, which is a

reasonable expectation for him this year. He had some very strong games against

St. Louis, Carolina and Montreal, and only had one terrible outing in Dallas.

Miller isn’t going to win the Vezina this year, but he’s been good enough to

keep the Canucks in it most nights.

Granted, Eddie Lack only played 2.5 games in October, but he

has to be disappointed with his play, especially his starts against Tampa and

Colorado. There were many, myself included, who expected Lack to make a big

push for playing time, just as he did in the first half of last season. It

hasn’t happened yet, and the Canucks will definitely need more than his current

.862 save percentage as he’ll be needed to start 20-30 games this year.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The Defense

The table above looks at cumulative five-on-five corsi for

throughout the opening month of October, so as more games, the sample size

increases and we start to see the trends emerge more clearly as cumulative corsi-for% (CF%) moves closer to 50%.

On the positive side, for 83% of Edler’s five-on-five

minutes he has been pared with Chris Tanev, and the duo have performed

exceptionally well, posting a 55.6 goals-for % (GF%) and 54.6 CF% when on the ice together.

This is exactly the type of numbers you hope to see in your first pairing, and

especially encouraging considering this pairing wasn’t used much by Tortorella

last season.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Hamhuis/Bieksa pairing

had a very slow start to the season. In October, 66% of Bieksa’s shifts have been

with Hamhuis. When paired together, the Hamhuis/Bieksa combo posted a 49

CF% and a shockingly poor 16.7GF%. It’s so early in the season that it’s impossible

to say whether what we’re seeing is growing pains from adapting to a new defensive partner

that will solve itself over time (last year Bieksa played with Edler and

Hamhuis played predominantly with Tanev or Garrison), or more of a long-term systemic issue. In either case, they’re

clearly not playing up to their capabilities, and their production is not nearly

good enough for a top four pairing. Desjardins has to be keeping a close eye on

this tandem, and with Ryan Stanton close to returning from injury, this may be an

area where he decides to shuffle the deck.

Advertisement - Continue Commenting Below

The Canucks third pairing of Weber/Sbisa is a paradox. When

on the ice together, they posted a 53.8 CF%, and 63.6 GF%, both

of which are exceptionally good figures for any defensive pair, let alone a

third pairing. That said, I can’t think of a pairing more prone to highlight

reel plays for the other team. In the first short month of the season, we have

been treated numerous instances of blown coverage and defensive miscues that

have ended up with the puck in the Canucks net, drawing the ire of Vancouver

fans. That said, the Canucks have consistently outshot and outscored the

opposition when this pairing is on the ice. Time will tell as to whether their strong numbers are a statistical anomaly driven by small sample sizes, or whether they

really are as bad as they look.

The Forwards





In Radim Vrbata, the Sedin’s appear to have found a time

machine to take them back to 2011. In the first 10 games of the year the Sedin

line has contributed 6 even strength goals and another 6 on the power play, with a little help from Linden Vey. I’m especially impressed by how effortlessly

Vrbata has adapted to the Sedin’s style of play, which is something I had

concerns about based on his style in Arizona. We can see from their estimated line CF% (calculated using pairing with-you CF% from stats.hockeyanalysis.com), that this line dominated their competition in terms of possession.

While I’m impressed with the play of the Sedins and Vrbata

so far, I’m actually more impressed with how well the Burrows/Bonino/Higgins

line has come together. As one of the few vocal proponents of the Kesler/Bonino trade, I’m not surprised by Bonino’s strong output, but I am encouraged by how quickly he’s found chemistry with his new linemates. Not only are the dominating their

opposition from a possession standpoint (est. line CF% of 54.2), but they are also scoring at a higher

rate at even strength than the Sedins/Vrbata line (7 even strength goals in 10

games). Granted, this is due to a very high on-ice shooting percentage of 10.1% which

will likely regress, but at this point the this line is a legitimate secondary

scoring threat which will help to take a bit of pressure of the top line.

While the first two lines have exceeded expectations with

their play, the bottom two lines need work. When playing together, the third

line earned an estimated line CF% of 49.1%. This isn’t a terrible result for a third line, but its likely that the Canucks could have had much better results if Kassian wasn’t anchored by Shawn Matthias and Brad Richardson. In their

time apart from Kassian, Richardson and Matthias earned CF%’s of 37.5%

and 31.2%, respectively.

While Linden Vey has impressed so far, especially with his

play on the power play, his 40.5% faceoff percentage isn’t good enough to

center a third line longer term. Vey played 34% of his even strength shifts with

Kassian in October, and in this time the duo posted a 50.0 CF%. Bo Horvat was

called up from his conditioning assignment in Utica this weekend, so it’ll be interesting

to see if he replaces Richardson’s spot on the third line, with Vey and

Kassian as his wingers, which would leave some combination of Matthias, Richardson, Dorsett, and Hansen on the fourth line.

Conclusion

With all the new faces in the offseason, the coaching staff has done a very good of helping players find chemistry early, enabling them to capitalize on a very weak schedule and exit October with a solid 7-3 record. November will be a significantly harder month as the Canucks will have to play San Jose, Anaheim twice, Los Angelas, Detroit, Chicago, a Nashville team which has surprised early, and a Colorado team which handed the Canucks their most humiliating loss of this short season.

In order to be successful in this month, the Canucks will need better play from Bieksa and Hamhuis, improved play from their bottom six, and consistency from Eddie Lack, when called upon.

While the play of the Sedin line and Bonino line has been a ton of fun, now that we’ll be facing the leagues stiffest competition this will be a month were we get a glimpse into just what type of team the Canucks really have.





