With the numerous injuries the Vancouver Canucks have dealt with through the first quarter of the season, first-year head coach Adam Foote has had to play around with his forward lines.

Though “play around” might be a bit of an understatement. Foote has experimented with 30 different forward combinations that have all played at least five minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together. With so many different combinations, it shows that Foote hasn’t found many pairings with staying power.

Evander Kane and Elias Pettersson have been glued together for some time now, usually with Conor Garland on the other flank – when he’s healthy. The “Abby Line” spent most of their time together, but have since split, with Arshdeep Bains spending the past few games in the press box. But there’s another duo that has silently been one of the best pairings at 5-on-5: Aatu Räty and Drew O’Connor.

The two started the season together, playing in the team’s bottom six with Kiefer Sherwood as the third member of the line. They were then separated for the third game of the season, but Foote put them back together a few games later, and they’ve rarely been apart since.

“There’s been a lot of guys that I’ve enjoyed playing with,” O’Connor shared with CanucksArmy. “Obviously, playing with Woody [Sherwood] a lot, which was great. I’ve been with Rats [Räty] for most of the season. We’ve kind of built some of that chemistry. And more recently with JD [Jake DeBrusk], it’s been really good. He’s been awesome to play with.”

O’Connor is right. He and Räty have built chemistry this season. Looking into their underlying numbers at 5v5, no matter who the third is on their line, they are producing some of the best shot share percentages on the Canucks this season.

Of the 12 forward lines to play at least 20 minutes of 5v5 ice time together this season, Räty and O’Connor are on three of the Canucks’ top four lines that have controlled the highest percentage of shot share this season:

Look at all that green.

The fact that they have such impressive numbers with three separate linemates shows that something is clicking between the pair right now. So what exactly do they think is leading to the duo’s success?

“I think we’re both playing really simple and we’re making the quick and easy, simple play,” Räty told CanucksArmy. “So it’s pretty easy to read off each other when it’s always going north, and it’s always just going to be a simple play. And even though it’s like that, it’s not easy for the opposing team to read that. I mean, it sure as hell frustrates them when we’re not turning it over, and we’re just advancing the play, and slowly chipping away. He [O’Connor] is finding the back of the net a lot right now, so it’s great to be playing with him, especially as of late; he’s been so good.

“We both want to be hard on the forecheck and play hard and fast. I don’t know if there’s anything crazy that would be a link. I think we’re both just kind of buying into what we’re doing as a team right now.”

Their head coach shared a similar sentiment:

“I like when they’re going,” Foote said. “I feel like they can create offensively. I think O’Connor’s speed and how he holds pucks help Räty. Räty’s been smart in finding holes, and when O’Connor is going, he can hold pucks, and there’s an advantage for Räty.”

It should also be noted that Räty and O’Connor haven’t always drawn the hardest matchups, often facing the opposition’s bottom six. However, when the Canucks returned home and Foote could control matchups, he chose to linematch them against the Stars’ top line: Sam Steel-Wyatt Johnston-Mikko Rantanen.

And yet, that did not slow them down.

The line of DeBrusk-Räty-O’Connor controlled 70% of Corsi (CF%), 98.18% expected goals for (xGF%), while outshooting them 2-1, outchancing them 3-0 and one of which was considered high-danger.

“I thought we handled it well,” Räty explained. “Obviously, sometimes there’s a lot of bounces and whatever, but I feel like tonight we had the puck a lot. So I feel like it was pretty, pretty easy. Which, I guess, is the best way to defend: play some good offence. So I think we were able to have some pretty good O-zone time and just control the play. So that’s a big thing. I feel like Rantanen and that line, or whoever team’s top six, they’re always so dangerous when they can dictate the play and have the puck. So I think that was the key today for our line playing good.”

One of their regular linemates, especially as of late, has been Jake DeBrusk. He touched on what he’s seeing from his linemates’ chemistry as of late and how well the trio played when they drew the hard matchup last game against the Stars.

“I feel like they just play those simple games; they play the right way,” DeBrusk told CanucksArmy. “They know where each other are on the ice. OC is pretty good at kind of carrying the puck up the ice. Rats is usually in a good spot defensively, and they don’t mess around with it. They get deep. They make you make a mistake. They’re in the right positions to get pucks back. And that’s a solid third line. That’s a solid line. I mean, the game against Dallas, I don’t even think we sniffed our D-zone. I think there was one shot, it was from the point that we allowed, and, you know, those are fun games. But I think that’s why they play well together, it’s because they think the game similarly, and they both kind of read off each other in terms of roles really well.”

It’s not just the coach or his linemates who are noticing the chemistry between the two, but the numbers back it up.

Here are their respective 5v5 numbers when they’re on the ice together, compared to when they’re not:

When the duo is on the ice together at 5v5, they are controlling more than they’re allowing across these important underlying metrics. But when they’re separated, the on-ice results are night and day. As each game goes on, the duo continues to build chemistry and show Canucks brass they’re deserving of more minutes and tougher matchups.

Räty and O’Connor’s play style truly complements each other, which is why the Canucks need to give them more runway at 5v5 moving forward.