It’s a new year and a new edition of the roundtable after a long holiday-induced hiatus. The Canucks are now just past the halfway point of the season, which makes now as good a time as any to take stock of how they’ve performed so far and what we can expect heading into the remaining 41 games of the season. Do you think the Canucks will be better or worse than they’ve been over the first half of the schedule
Ryan Hank
We’ve been given a large enough sample to work with to see they won’t be worse than what we see currently and that basically would mean they’ll get better. The play of Jacob Markstrom has been unreal and he’ll have a hefty pay day after this season.
Pettersson has put this team on his back and Quinn Hughes now has a shot to realistically challenge for the Calder. This team has a lot going for it but the hard games are just starting and it’s not time to take the foot off the pedal yet.
I said this team would be a playoff team when they played their first Skate jersey game and I still believe they are.
I don’t think they’ll storm the West but they’re going to be the annoying cousin that won’t go away.The suffering isn’t over but the wound is almost healed.
Danielle Huntley
Their second half of the season will be a lot like the first. They have been streaky at times but have maintained a positive goal differential that is currently third in the Pacific Division at +9.
Key factors to keeping up their pace will be Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko continuing to play spectacularly, covering up defensive lapses and stealing games for the Canucks. They will need their secondary scoring to continue from the second and third lines. Of course, they will need to avoid injuries to key players like Alex Edler. Since Edler has returned from injury the Canucks have only allowed one goal 5-on-5 with him on the ice.
If they can ride one of their hot streaks into the playoffs, they might be able to steal a series.