Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.
The good news is the Vancouver Canucks won both of their games this week. A 6-3 road win against the Chicago Blackhawks (which to be fair, is like taking candy from a baby, a very talented baby from Vancouver who wears #98 on his sweater, but a baby nonetheless) and Saturday night’s 4-3 thriller at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins has seen the team finally get the memo that their season has started. They’ve now won four games straight with a 4-1-2 record to settle them at fourth in the Pacific Division. While they’ve still got some areas to work on – namely letting teams put a little too much pressure on them in the final frame and the power play not always powering nor playing – there is so much to celebrate this week.
The bad news is, since they’ve been rolling out all the stops up and down the lineup, it’s difficult for me to do my job and pick just three players who deserve star status this week. This is an excellent problem to have, but a bit of a predicament nonetheless. 
Quinn Hughes
Well, well, well Quinn Hughes first star, we meet again. If I had a nickel for every time Hughes could be a star of the week, I would have enough in the bank to personally sign Brock Boeser to a handsome contract extension with a bonus to boot. 
Hughes finally saw a game this week where he played less than 20 minutes – 19:49 against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, to be exact. If that doesn’t already tell you about how much he’s been carrying around the rest of the blueliners in every single game, I’m not sure what will. Unless it’s the rest of his stat line from this night. He was not present for any goals against at 5v5 strength, was present for 3 of the 4 Canucks 5v5 goals, and lead the team in CF% at 71.88. What does this mean, very simply? He makes the team better both defensively and offensively just by being on the ice. That is not even to mention his two assists on the night, one on Brock Boeser’s power play goal. You can’t spell dominant without 43.
Kiefer Sherwood
This week Kiefer Sherwood continued to prove that his hit list is longer than Tony Soprano’s. With 12 hits against Chicago and 6 against Pittsburgh, it takes him to 18 hits in two games, and 50 on the season already. 50 hits in 7 games. Has this guy considered boxing? Or maybe taking up a side gig as a human bumper car? Just a thought.
Not only has Sherwood continued to deliver on the physicality front to keep Vancouver sticks on the puck, but he has also stayed consistent with his offensive output. 2 assists against Chicago and a goal of his own against Pittsburgh gives him a 3-point week already, with momentum still growing for the two home games ahead. His goal against the Penguins, some 43 seconds (sick Quinn Hughes reference, Chief Kief) after Elias Pettersson’s much-needed first goal of the season electrified a Rogers Arena crowd already buzzing over a game that was mid-transformation. Sherwood is easily settling into the fan favourite category while still being somewhat understated across the league – but he’s definitely not understated if he is in the middle of laying you into the boards. 
Arshdeep Bains
I just had to go with this pick. It only feels right to give this week’s third star to the player who had every star align for his first NHL goal.
This B.C. boy, who went undrafted in the WHL and NHL, continuing to develop in the AHL, netting his first NHL goal in the black skate jersey against the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin is a narrative so pristine  that you couldn’t write if you tried. Arshdeep Bains has continued to improve since his first appearance for the NHL club earlier his year, and as I indicated the first time Bains was one of my stars, it is never a question of if he will be an NHL regular, but when.
Now, I may be the same age as Bains myself, but after excitedly watching him in Abbortsford for the last two years, seeing him net his first goal in the show gave me a sense of pride like I raised the man myself. The people who did raise him, however, were honoured with his game puck and stick. No, I’m not crying, you are.
Sometimes there are moments in hockey that transcend a scoresheet or a media scrum and remind us what the game is really about. This night and this game was one of them. 

Honorable Mentions

I told you it was going to be hard, wasn’t it? Some of Vancouver’s top players – Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller, especially – have been chugging along impressively, with players like Conor Garland stepping up on and off the ice as a voice for the team in ways we haven’t seen from him yet. I have no complaints on that front, so I thought I would tip my hat to some other notable players this week. 
Elias Pettersson
After a week of dodging literal and metaphorical hits from his teammates and the press, it felt only right for Pettersson to finally notch his first goal of the year. Hopefully, this marks the floodgates opening for him. Even if he’s not quite ready for a breakout yet, it will hopefully alleviate some of the pressure surrounding him and his struggles to produce, even as the rest of his game remains consistent. Have we all considered taking a rest and muting the words Elias Pettersson on every website? Of going outside for a bit of a stroll in nature to centre ourselves and practice mindfulness? I heard the advice of the week was to stay off social media.
Danton Heinen
I don’t think anyone was expecting him to score his first goal in a Canucks sweater and be on hatty watch within the same period, but that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday night against the Blackhawks. He had been flying under my radar up until this point, honestly, but if this is the kind of game we can expect from him every so often, I’d like to apologize for my oversight.
I’ll see you all in a week’s time for our next round of stars, after the Canucks have faced off against the Carolina Hurricanes, the New Jersey Devils in one of the semi-annual Hughesbowl Defencemanmania Extravaganzas, and the San Jose Sharks.
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