How Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser powered Canucks past Ducks: 3 takeaways
ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Vancouver Canucks were inconsistent in October.
They collected points and successfully navigated key injuries to Thatcher Demko and Dakota Joshua , but the process never looked convincing. There have been clear growing pains — the odd-man rushes against, Elias Pettersson 's struggles, the power play's tepid start, the bottom-four defence's puck-moving concerns — but November profiled like the perfect antidote to solve some of those problems.
Only three of Vancouver's 13 games in November are against teams that finished top-10 in the NHL standings last year. It's a paper-soft schedule with many opportunities for the Canucks to iron out their kinks against mostly bottom-feeder opponents.
The Canucks took advantage of that margin of error by collecting 2 points against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday despite putting in a middling performance. Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks , their game was way more polished and complete. Vancouver was operating at another level compared to Anaheim. The Canucks effortlessly controlled play for the most part and cruised past the home side with a 5-1 victory.
Here are three takeaways from the club's performance at the Honda Center.
Boeser snaps Canucks' power-play drought
It took only about a minute for the Canucks to pump two goals and flip the story of the first period.
For the first 10 minutes or so, they were scuffling. Breaking out the puck was a challenge, they couldn't connect plays in the offensive zone, and the forecheck wasn't applying enough heavy pressure on the Ducks' defencemen. The Canucks were listless on their first power-play opportunity. Anaheim was equally sloppy so it wasn't costing the Canucks beyond an early 1-0 deficit, but a better opponent could have done more damage.
Finally, the Canucks' power play, which went to work for a second time in the first period, changed the tide. Getting set up has been the biggest challenge for the first unit, so it all started with J.T. Miller cleanly winning a faceoff. From there, Quinn Hughes flashed his elite vision by firing a bullet pass perfectly onto the tape of Brock Boeser 's stick for a redirect goal.
Boeser has been by far the Canucks' most dangerous shooting threat on the power play this season. He's already up to three goals on the man advantage and is piling up shots and chances at a far superior rate than the rest of the first-unit forwards. Before the game, Boeser had registered 13 scoring chances on the power play, seven more than the next-highest Canucks player. Even before he scored, Boeser had a terrific one-time opportunity from the bumper.
Boeser is firing on all cylinders. Now it's up to the Canucks to find ways to generate more offence from the flanks on the man advantage.
Hughes' dominance leads tidy Canucks defensive effort
It's amazing how effortlessly Hughes is dominating games.
Vancouver's captain authored another signature performance Tuesday. Through the first two periods, the Canucks throttled the Ducks 18-3 on shot attempts and controlled 93 percent of expected goals at five-on-five. Hughes blasted over 10 shot attempts and picked up 3 points.
This isn't just an elite defenceman; we're witnessing a borderline generational talent.
With Hughes leading the charge, the Canucks defended much better as a team. They surrendered just one high-danger chance against at five-on-five through the first 40 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. They weren't fully dialed in for the first 10 minutes, and Carson Soucy made gaffes throughout the game, but Vancouver was sharp and efficient in front of Kevin Lankinen for the most part.
Sherwood and the third line's rush goals
When you look at the Teddy Blueger , Kiefer Sherwood and Danton Heinen line on paper, there are areas where you'd expect them to thrive.
You'd expect them to be hungry on the forecheck. You'd expect them to be reliable defensively. You'd expect them to win battles and excel in all the little systems details the coaching staff seeks. In other words, they should be a humble, hardworking, trustworthy trio.
What you might not expect, however, is for them to create chances and goals off the rush consistently. They've been surprisingly effective at providing secondary offence in transition since coming together as a line.
The first time their success off the rush stood out was against the Pittsburgh Penguins . They created transition chances in bunches in that game, including Sherwood's electric one-timer goal that was part of Vancouver's wild second-period comeback.
They thrived on the counterattack against the Ducks on Tuesday night. Sherwood's one-time blast stands out, but they created a lot of dangerous looks in the second period too. Blueger was sprung by Sherwood for a breakaway after Soucy forced a Ducks turnover at the blue line. Less than a minute later, Blueger made a neat pass to Soucy streaking in from the weak side. Soucy drew a penalty on the scoring chance.
Why is this third line dangerous on the counterattack? They're quick at getting up the ice after the opposition turns over the puck, but they also support one another on the breakout well. Nobody is left on an island; they're all positioned close enough to one another that they can make easy, clean passes through the neutral zone to enter the zone with control rather than dumping it in every time. Sherwood's goal against the Ducks started with Heinen making a poised play on the breakout. As a side note, Erik Brännström also deserves credit for activating on the weak side to turn it into a three-on-two.
(Photo of Quinn Hughes and Brock McGinn: Sean M. Haffey / )
