The 2024–25 Vancouver Canucks didn’t lead the league in many statistical categories, but one number clearly stood out to the coaching staff heading into this season: the Canucks’ league-leading 14 losses after regulation.

12 of those losses came during 3-on-3 overtime, and two came in the shootout. The Canucks won seven games during 3-on-3 OT, and added three shootout wins, giving them an overall record of 12-14 in games that were decided after regulation time expired.

Now, this is likely an oversimplification, but it seems to be the way the Canucks’ new coaching staff viewed things: The Canucks left 14 points on the table in the standings last season. Having finished with 90 points, turning half of those losses into wins would have landed them in a playoff spot.

So far this season, the Canucks have been perfect in the four games they’ve played that have gone to overtime. This has come in the form of two shootout wins, along with two wins during 3-on-3 OT. The most recent OTW came on Monday against the Nashville Predators, when Brock Boeser scored with less than two seconds remaining on the clock after a nifty pass from Elias Pettersson.

In all four of the Canucks’ OT frames so far this season, there’s been a common theme — keep the puck. Now, this is nothing new. Teams always try to hang onto the puck in 3-on-3 OT, often skating out of the offensive zone to regroup if they don’t like what they’re seeing in the other team’s end. But what the Canucks seem to be doing differently than before is putting an even greater emphasis on possessing the puck until they get a truly great opportunity to score. There have been few shots from distance, as there’s a high chance that those shots simply turn into a change of possession — whether that be from a save or an errant shot that rims hard around the glass and springs the opposition on an odd-man rush the other way.

The Canucks’ focus on possession during 3-on-3 was especially apparent Monday night in Nashville, when the Bridgestone Arena crowd rained boos down on the Canucks every time they regrouped with possession. Again, that’s nothing new, but passing up opportunities to shoot from spots that they may have pulled the trigger from in years past, instead choosing to loop back and look for an even better chance, is a bit new.

At Wednesday morning’s skate, we asked captain Quinn Hughes and assistant coach Brett McLean about what looks to be a heavy emphasis on possessing the puck during overtime.

“There’s more of a mindset of not giving the puck away and making sure that if we’re getting a look, it’s got to be a grade-A,” Hughes said. “Maybe a little bit more patient. But in saying that, I think a lot of those things are just bounces sometimes. And when we scored last game with two seconds left… I can’t remember the other overtimes, but I can remember last year, where we had a lot of looks to score, and maybe it didn’t go in, and then they come down and scored the other way. And then some nights where we probably just didn’t manage the puck well.”

Assistant coach Brett McLean talked about the Canucks’ preparation for overtime, and applauded the players’ level of buy-in to what the coaching staff was saying.

“We spent a lot of time on it this summer. The Sedins spent a ton of time on it. We spent a couple days on it in training camp, had a big meeting on just that subject. And we presented the facts of last season and how we lost quite a few points in shootouts and overtime. We’ve really focused on it, and we’ve got a strategy for it, and really appreciate how the guys have bought into that, and again, getting those points that we have in this early season has really helped us get to a good spot in the standings. We wanted to stress how important those points were. And so far, it’s worked well.”

Really, who better to work on a strategy centred around keeping possession of the puck while trying to create a grade-A scoring chance than Henrik and Daniel Sedin? It’s certainly a fascinating early development for the Canucks, and one we — along with teams around the league doing their gameplanning on the Canucks — will be keeping an eye on throughout the season.