VANCOUVER — It was only a couple of weeks ago when coach Rick Tocchet was imploring the Vancouver Canucks to raise their level ahead of the playoffs, and we wondered if they had enough time to prepare for the Stanley Cup tournament.
With 11 regular-season games remaining, we wonder now if there is too much time left. The Canucks look ready for the playoffs.
They fixed the leaks in their team defence that cost the Canucks leads and games last week against Colorado and Washington, and are suddenly playing their tightest, most disciplined hockey of the season.
Their 4-2 win Saturday against the Calgary Flames was the third straight systems clinic the Canucks have conducted. After allowing only 17 shots in wins Tuesday against the Buffalo Sabres and Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens, the Canucks yielded 24 to the Flames. Four of those were in the final three minutes after the game was decided.
On their 85th day leading the Pacific Division, the Canucks pushed themselves back into a tie with the New York Rangers for first-overall in the NHL in points (98) and winning percentage (.690). Vancouver’s plus-60 goal differential is the best in the league.
Including a four-game winning streak that preceded last week’s two-game lull, the Canucks are 7-1-1 in their last nine games and have surrendered more than two goals only once.
Seriously, we’re not sure they can play much better, although they will probably have to next month if they want to win their first non-pandemic Stanley Cup series since 2015. And before then, they will happily welcome back from injury starting goalie Thatcher Demko and important power forward Dakota Joshua.
Still, another 11 games is a long time to wait.
“I would say (regular-season games) 45 to 65 are the hardest time, but it might be now,” Canuck centre J.T. Miller said, smiling when asked if he wishes the playoffs started next week. “This is a fun time of year. Like, this is when we all want to be playing and, you know, right now you don’t just turn it on in the playoffs. We’ve got to be doing the right things for the next 10 games.”
That’s a lot of time to maintain this level of execution, even if Saturday’s win, coupled with the Edmonton Oilers’ 6-3 loss in Toronto, extended the Canucks’ lead atop their division to 10 points. Connor McDavid’s team has played three fewer games.
Satisfaction is a dirty word around the Canucks, but it’s obvious how much players like Miller, who have suffered through the last three seasons of chaos, are enjoying this playoff drive.
“When we laid an egg or didn’t play to our staples or standard, we watched video, got humbled and came to work and had good practices,” he explained of the Canucks’ reaching another level. “And we played good hockey after that. You know, you’ve got to be coachable and you have to understand when it’s time to learn. You have to respond in situations like that. And I think that separates the good teams and bad teams. . . those lulls. Ours are short, and we fix it.”
Six games into their nine-game homestand, and with Western Conference contenders Los Angeles and Dallas the next to visit Rogers Arena, starting Monday, Vancouver looks like a four-line team again.
But no line was better Saturday than the recently-formed trio of Nils Hoglander, Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland. Garland’s move up from the third line seems to have turbo-charged Pettersson. Hoglander has been playing at top speed for a while.
After spending the final two-thirds of last season in the American Hockey League, enrolled in Pro Hockey 101, Hoglander scored his 21st and 22nd goals of the season as the Canucks won wire-to-wire against the Flames.
On the first goal, just 48 seconds into the game, the 23-year-old redirected Pettersson’s pass into a semi-open net after outstanding execution on a three-on-two rush that began with Carson Soucy’s bank pass to Garland.
On the second, which made it 2-0 at 8:16 of the second period, Hoglander beat former teammate Jacob Markstrom with an all-world deke on a breakaway after Garland spun away from Nazem Kadri in the defensive zone to send Pettersson and Hoglander away on what was essentially a two-on-zero.
No one predicted 22 goals this season for Hoglander, but Garland is not surprised.
“My first day here, I think my first interview, I couldn’t believe how good he was three years ago,” Garland told reporters. “And I think he’s just really found his game all around the ice. It’s hard when you’re younger and there’s not really much structure in place and you kind of just try to feel the game out. Now, we’re a very structured team. We play a hard style of hockey. It’s coming along for him. He’s going to be a good player in this league for a long, long time.”
Garland said he called Hoglander when he was demoted by the Canucks 25 games into last season after the winger had exasperated previous coaches Bruce Boudreau and Travis Green.
“I told him: ‘You’ll look back in five years and think this was the best thing that ever happened to you because you’ve got to learn how to play pro.’ We weren’t really a team that was best for guys that were trying to learn how to play the pro game last year. You can see he’s just an all-around good player. He plays with energy, knows what makes him effective and has a really good nose for the net.”
“Maybe it’s just learning the game more,” Hoglander said of his ascent. “Learn that I’ve got to be in the right position every night and in every little detail. I mean, I think before I was up and down because I didn’t really know where to be, and now I feel like I know where I’ve got to be. So it’s easier.”
After Rasmus Andersson scored for Calgary on an outnumbered rush to make it 2-1 at 18:31 of the second period, Miller clinched it on a power play when he worked a give-and-go play with Brock Boeser and blistered a one-timer past Markstrom at 16:42 of the third.
The scoresheet was filled out by Elias Lindholm’s empty-netter (against his former team) at 18:50 and a meaningless goal by Flame Joel Hanley with 18 seconds remaining.
“The coaches have been stressing the importance of playing the right way and doing the right things, and just playing smart hockey,” Canuck goalie Casey DeSmith said. “You know, we have the most skill in here. It’s a very skilled team and we have a ton of good players. It’s just, when we play the right way, that’s the key.
“We’ve really dialled it in (defensively). I think a lot of teams try and do that when playoffs approach because playoffs, it’s different. It’s a different brand of hockey and you have to win those tight, low scoring games and hold on to leads the way we have. That’s a good omen going into playoffs.”
Alas, those are still four weeks away.