Embed from Getty Images When the Canucks resume their regular season schedule on February 4th, following the completion of the All-Star break, there will be two pairs of games being played in Vancouver for essentially the duration of February and they aren’t mutually exclusive. On the ice, they’ll have 11 chances to continue their season-long rock fight with their…
Embed from Getty Images The Canucks went into Boston and took another two points on the road with them on Thursday night, continuing what’s ultimately been a largely successful trip through the Eastern Conference results-wise. Despite having been routinely outshot along the way, they’ve now gained at least a point in 7 of their past 8 games, allowing…
Embed from Getty Images Jim Benning took some time from his busy schedule during an off-day in New York to sit in a cushy looking chair and chat with Matt Sekeres and Friend Of The Blog Blake Price this morning. In his 1040 hit he discussed the team’s direction as the trade deadline approaches and the activity picks up across…
Embed from Getty Images It’s a new day, which means there’s a new defenceman on waivers that raises the question of whether or not the Vancouver Canucks should theoretically be interested in their services. First it was David Rundblad, who despite seeming like a pretty obvious candidate for the team to take a low-risk flier on,…
I’d like to say that the Vancouver Canucks hit something of a rock bottom on Tuesday night in Minnesota after yet another embarrassingly listless showing. But given the way they’ve been trending of late, it’s an all too realistic possibility that a statement like that is deemed outdated the moment they step back onto the…
View image | gettyimages.com The Canucks have made a bad habit of leaving points on the table thus far this season. Last night in Los Angeles they padded their league-worst overtime record, adding yet another discouraging late game result to what’s becoming a rapidly growing list of such outcomes. It’s more than just a worrisome trend to keep an eye out for by now, for a…
Photo Credit: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports The Vancouver Canucks have embraced a youth movement of sorts in the early stages of this season. To the organization’s credit, they’ve managed to at least make an initially successful foray into bridging the gap from one era to the next by getting a handful of their notable prospects some NHL reps. And they’ve done while remaining…
View image | gettyimages.com About a month ago now I introduced a project I’d undertaken this season which involved monitoring how defencemen were impacting the territorial battle that’s fought in the neutral zone. As a refresher that involves both their ability to defend their own blueline against incoming attackers, but also how effectively they’re able to transition the…
View image | gettyimages.com There has seemingly been a lot of chatter floating around lately about how the NHL as a collective is getting younger. Whether it’s due to salary cap restraints or a changing game that generally demands more athleticism from its players than ever before, the fact of the matter is that teams are divvying…
Photo Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports When the subject of ‘luck’ in hockey is broached in analytics conversations it generates a high rate of skeptical eye-rolls per 60 minutes. Maybe it’s blissful ignorance or a desire to believe that hockey players have more control over highly variable outcomes, an illusion that I’m sure we’d all like to believe applies to…
As soon as news of John Tortorella’s hiring by the Blue Jackets broke we had Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy join the show to share tales of the last time the coach was seen behind the bench, during his lone and very turbulent season in Vancouver. While having him on the line, the current edition of the…
View image | gettyimages.com As a hockey community, there’s no denying that we’ve come a long way over the past couple of years in our ability to evaluate the on-ice product. The advancement of possession metrics in that time has provided us with a more nuanced and sustainable way to differentiate between what’s important and what’s ultimately…
