Welcome back to Stars of the Week here at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
With three games on the books this week, the Canucks once again saw more success on the road than they did at home. Yes, the perpetually unlucky Preds were due for a win befitting of the talent on their roster. Regrettably, this happened to come against Vancouver in a 5-3 loss. They simply couldn’t get it done again versus Rangers on Tuesday, but it was not for a lack of trying. Dropping 4-3 isn’t shameful, and it was a much more respectable loss than they’ve suffered recently. They fought back. Now missing J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, and Thatcher Demko, along with intended Ian Cole lookalike Derek Forbort, a group that was already struggling is now depleted even further. Last night’s 4-3 win in Ottawa was an easy 4-1 lead until the final five minutes, not ideal, but they held on for a chaotic win in one heck of a chaotic game. 
The Canucks have been floundering on home ice like a depressed goldfish rather than a mighty orca. Considering their away record sits at 6-1-0, a successful road trip might be what they need for a hard reset. Have they tried turning the whole team system off and on again? The game cartridge might be dusty.
Kiefer Sherwood
If it appears as if I’m playing favourites, it’s because I am. If Kiefer Sherwood wanted to stop getting a star of the week, he could simply stop playing as if he deserved one. If any hockey Gods are listening, that is a joke. 
Sherwood is quickly looking like the best new acquisition for Vancouver, already going above and beyond his two-year contract and $1.5 million cap hit. He is currently on a four-game point streak this week. He once again slotted onto the top line last night alongside Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson, which saw massive success last night against Ottawa. He leads the entire NHL in hits with 125, and they’re not without purpose, either. He’s a rebel with a cause. Sherwood is brutal on the forecheck without playing dirty, and he isn’t afraid to throw himself around like a tornado to keep the team dominant on the ice. If you’re an opposing defenceman, you probably see him in your nightmares. If you’re Quinn Hughes, however, you’re excited to have him on your team, even after getting absolutely laid into by him mere months before. 
All of this makes you wonder why the Nashville Predators let him walk in the first place. In their match-up last weekend, he made sure they would be left asking themselves that very question.
Well, first he had to do something silly, because it wouldn’t be a Canucks home game this year without that. He almost got a breakaway revenge goal against his former team but whiffed it at the last minute, which, admittedly, was as funny as it was unfortunate.
Pay no mind, however, because he more than made up for it with a goal in the final frame, continuing his point streak throughout the week.
This former AHLer being elevated to first-line status is an example of moving up the food chain, even if he is no longer a Predator. He’s deserving of it. Sherwood has had easy chemistry with the forward group as they continue to cycle in and out of form. He’s been as solid as a rock while consistency has been severely lacking up and down the roster. Kiefer Sherwood doesn’t look a step out of place on this team, and that is something that’s needed more than ever.
Elias Pettersson
Pettersson returns to the list this week, and for good reason. With a four-game point streak of his own and the responsibility of the top-line centre role in J.T. Miller’s absence, his game elevated yet another level to compensate for the loss of another key forward. I’m aware correlation doesn’t equal causation, and whether Pettersson heating up right now is coincidental or not, it has never been more crucial.
Pettersson taking on a line-driving role is clear, though he is completely unlike Miller in method, all that matters is results. There is an unfair assumption that Elias Pettersson doesn’t tap into emotion in the way his teammates might. I would argue Pettersson is one of the more emotion-driven players present, yet it is internalized rather than externalized, and therefore largely ignored. 
Take his Tuesday night performance against the Rangers, where the team was taking on J.T. Miller’s former team in his absence, his indefinite leave announced earlier that morning. The team was not visibly forlorn, but yet another loss to their roster was a motivational push, especially for Pettersson. He logged two assists and a 63.64 CF% to reflect his 5v5 dominance in a game that felt like he was doing the heavy lifting for maybe half of the entire forward group. His two assists Saturday night in Ottawa reflect that he is finally returning to a place of pulling the best offence from his teammates, rather than dragging behind them. Sherwood and DeBrusk seem like definitive linemates of his until Miller and Brock Boeser fit back into the equation, but until then, I hope to see Elias Pettersson continue to return to form. 
Filip Hronek
Filip Hronek has been more subdued as Quinn Hughes’ dependable and literal right-hand man this year. He hasn’t been quite a power play juggernaut in Vancouver as a whole, but his 5v5 game remains consistent, his average CF% this year currently sitting at 57.4, second only to Hughes at 60.9%. It goes without saying that anyone is massively elevated by playing with Hughes, but don’t let it fool you entirely. Finding and keeping the perfect RD for your Norris winner is easier said than done, and the Canucks office knows what they have in Hronek. 
Take Hronek’s ability to step up after Hughes’ game misconduct last night, which shows that he can hold the line with or without the Hughes boost. Down a defenceman in a particularly rough-and-tumble contest, Hronek took over Hughes’ typical “tired college student barista working doubles” role and ended up leading the team in ice time at 27:38, walking away as a near-number-one performer. 
Until a new top-four defenceman magically appears and the Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers pairing is mercifully taken out to pasture, the first pairing will be bearing the structural weight of this team’s defence like a joist. Hronek, hopefully, is looking more than capable of backing up his captain.

Honourable Mentions

Max Sasson
I have to include a nod to the Abbotsford Canuck forward, who picked up his first NHL assist in his first NHL game last night. If he continues to play as he did, a more consistent bottom-six role could be on the horizon, even. This undrafted 24-year-old had a solid night, and his father even wept upon learning of his son’s NHL debut. What’s not to love? 
Conor Garland
Must-have-mention for becoming a first-time Dad to son Quinton (no relation to Quintin Hughes, who is the baby’s godfather, full relation to Steven Spielberg’s seminal classic film Jaws). If that wasn’t fun enough, scoring against the Rangers shortly before heading to the hospital is one way to celebrate fatherhood. Congratulations to the Garlands!
Sponsored by bet365