The Numbers

Quick Hits

• If one was to look solely at the shot clock, they might leave with the impression that the Canucks played poorly and got away with one tonight. That’s hardly the case, though. Firstly, the gap between the Canucks and Canes shrinks, if only slightly, when one runs score adjustments on all the five-on-five shot attempts. When you look at the scoring chances according to NaturalStatTrick, they’re about even, whether by the normal or high-danger variety. Just looking at the shot plot, it’s fairly clear the Canucks did a good job of limiting the Hurricanes.
• How about Derrick Pouliot? There’s no way he’s leaving this lineup when Erik Gudbranson is healthy (whether anyone should is a question worth asking, really). It’s not just that Pouliot is good. It’s what he’s good at that matters in this instance. Pouliot is probably one of the best Canucks defenceman in transition, and he’s definitely their best in the offensive zone. Tonight those skills were on full display. Pouliot’s goal was created by the speed he generated through the neutral zone; his secondary assist by manipulating the penalty killers to create passing lanes. It’s not going to be like this every game. Sometimes Pittsburgh Pouliot is going to make an appearance, and the Canucks are going to have to learn to live with those mistakes and gaffes as they occur. Nights like these are always going to outweigh those moments. And even when he’s not scoring, Pouliot brings things that this team needs from the back-end that aren’t otherwise available to them.

• Bo Horvat left tonight’s game late in the third period after taking a hit in the Canes zone and catching a divot in the ice that tweaked something. Horvat didn’t return to tonight’s game. According to Travis Green, it was a “small injury” though, and it doesn’t sound serious. Hopefully, Green’s optimism is warranted. This team can’t go without Horvat for long and keep this up.

• Jacob Markstrom got a shutout! Jacob Markstrom got his first career shutout! I’m honestly really happy for the guy. I don’t know — I’m an empath and seeing others as happy as Markstrom evidently was after earning his first shutout victory was contagious as all hell. I know I’ve mentioned it a hundred times before in this recap, but would the comments section have really let me get away with it if I didn’t give him some love in the quick hits section, too?
• Brendan Gaunce played a lot tonight. His 16.3 minutes at five-on-five led all Canucks forwards. I thought Gaunce would get a fair shake when Green got the Canucks coaching job, but I didn’t expect this level of commitment. If we want to look at tonight’s game in isolation, he was certainly one of the Canucks best forwards. Gaunce was active on the forecheck, threw the body and even had a couple good chances. His two-way results weren’t great, but the same goes for most Canucks tonight. He hasn’t scored yet, but in a world where Markstrom can blank the opposition, I want to believe that Gaunce has a chance at lighting the lamp. Maybe that’s the next milestone of the Canucks season?
• So, there wasn’t a post-game report for the Canucks game on Saturday against the Maple Leafs. I’ve heard about it in every article I’ve written, and some I haven’t, since. I get it — the expectation is CanucksArmy will have a recap for every game, and save that game we’re 27 of 28 on the year. All in all, we’re doing a pretty good job, I’d say. By that same token, I will still apologize for not having one on Saturday for the sole reason that I said I would do one on the CanucksArmy Twitter. I always try to have a recap up. Saturday was just tough for me timing wise. I had the Nation Network Radio show to do, and we did a great job recapping the night’s action there, I thought. By the time I made it home, it was 11 and my girlfriend had people over. I get what the expectations are; I apologize for not having a recap live on Saturday. I’d also ask for a little understanding on this front, rather than berating me for not having a recap live for one of the season’s games.