Canucks Army GDT #30 – Canucks vs. Rangers

The Canucks play their first home game since returning from a 3-3-1 road trip tonight as Alain Vigneault brings his New York Rangers to town. AV’s club isn’t as dangerous as the squad that won the East just earlier this calendar year, but the lights-out play of Rick Nash has helped mask their deficiencies somewhat.

What’s more is that the rest of the Pacific division has quietly begun to reel in the Canucks, so tonight’s two points are crucial for getting back on track. Read past the jump for a preview.

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM

TV: CBC

Radio: TSN 1040

Coming off their longest road trip of the season, the Canucks begin a four-game home stand that will take them into the Christmas break. Having now played more road games than any other team in the NHL, the relatively slack schedule (just four games between today and December 27th) is a welcome break, and one that Vancouver will surely be looking to take advantage of. The Rangers too are well rested though, as they last played on Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins – a 4-3 overtime win.

Rick Nash had a goal and 5 shots in the victory, which has been pretty much par for the course for Nash this season. Nash has been on fire with 18 goals, good for second in the NHL behind Tyler Seguin. His 14 even strength goals are 1st in the NHL, he’s T-20th in the league in total shots, and he’s inside the top-10 in even strength shots on goal/60 too.

Nash’s performance has gone a long way towards patching some of the holes left by Anton Stralman, Benoit Pouliot, and Brian Boyle. After being a top-end possession team and going on a Stanley Cup run last season, the Rangers’ depth eroded over the summer and they’re simply not the same team as the one that won the East in 2014. The Rangers rank 18th in the NHL in score adjusted Corsi at 49.5%, just below Vancouver who sit 17th at 49.9%. Gone is their impressively effective depth, and the top end of their roster has struggled to control play at even strength. Especially disappointing are Derek Stepan and Dan Girardi, who both have a Corsi% slightly over 45%.

Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out the connections between these Rangers and the Canucks. Most notably, Alain Vigneault makes his was back to Vancouver after that ill-fated coaching swap in the summer of 2013. John Tortorella was a pretty huge disaster for the Canucks and we know that the Rangers brass had to be pretty pleased with 2013-2014 from there end, but this horse has been beaten to death already.

New father Derek Dorsett will play his first game against his former team though, as he carved out an effective role for himself under AV last season. He played in a very defense-oriented deployment on Vigneault’s specialized fourth line, and controlled just above 50% of the shot attempts. Although he’s produced offensively – a 30 point pace is massive for a 4th liner – he hasn’t seen the same two-way success. For example, his on-ice shots against are up by more than 7 per 60 minutes this season despite a dramatically higher offensive zone start rate, but some of this may be attributed to having to babysit a rookie centre at all times.

Even though the Canucks were recently the first place team in the NHL, the standings can change in the blink of an eye. A short road slump was enough to bump them down 7 places in the NHL standings, and they’re now closer to falling out of the playoff picture than they are to keeping pace with the Anaheim Ducks. They’re just three points ahead of the L.A. Kings for the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division, though Vancouver has a game in hand. The West is as cutthroat and unforgiving as ever, especially with Nashville, Winnipeg, and Minnesota emerging as legitimate threats to take the wild card crossover spot.

All this is to say that the Canucks can ill afford to have a prolonged slide here, and they have to keep winning games to stay clear of the surely brutal race for the final few playoff spots. Taking advantage of their favourable home schedule, starting tonight against the Rangers, will help them immensely.