It’s Christmas, and we here at CanucksArmy thought it’d be fitting to give our ideas of what might be on the Vancouver Canucks’ Christmas Wishlist, whether that be to Santa Claus or, in this case, for the hockey gods to give the team to have more success in Rogers Arena…pretty please.
The Vancouver Canucks’ start to the season on home ice has been nothing short of disappointing. The club holds a record of 6-7-5, giving the team a .472% points percentage, which ranks 17th in the NHL. On the other hand, their away record is 10-3-2, giving them a .733% points percentage, making the Canucks the second-best team in the league on the road only behind the Washington Capitals.
Canucks fans spend a lot of money to watch their favourite team play in Rogers Arena. And so far, the product provided to fans has been very underwhelming.
Of the Canucks’ 18 home games played, only three come to mind as being outstanding efforts up and down the lineup for a full 60 minutes.
The first is the team’s second game against the Calgary Flames on November 12, 2024. The Canucks won that game 3-1 and had a dominant performance over the Flames. Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller each had two points, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 28 of 29 shots. This game was following the blowout loss to the Edmonton Oilers at home, where the Canucks fell by a score of 7-3, and was seen as a sign the team may be turning things around on home ice.
The second great game at home didn’t come until a month later, on December 12, 2024, against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers. Lankinen stopped all 27 shots, while Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller each had 2 points in the team’s 4-0 victory over the Panthers.
The third game was the win over the Colorado Avalanche on December 16, 2024. In the 3-1 victory over the Avs, Demko made 30 saves and looked like he was finding his elite level of play after returning from injury. The team finally hadn’t hung him out to dry, with the Canucks playing a very string defensive game. Kiefer Sherwood, of course, had his first career hat trick in that game, including the first short-handed goal of the season for the Vancouver Canucks.
Now, there is an argument to be made that the team has played more than 3 great games at home this season, but that number certainly isn’t much higher than 3.
The biggest issue with the Canucks play at home has been how they’ve started games. Playing a full 60 doesn’t mean domination over their opponent for an entire game, but sticking to their systems, playing a good defensive game and playing fast and hard for the entirety of the game.
Naturally, the first thing this team needs to improve on is their starts to home games.
The Canucks have given up the first goal of the game in 10 of their 18 home games this season. The Canucks struggles out of the gate make building momentum early so much more difficult. Coaches at every level of hockey teach their players that the first five minutes of the game are so important. If you are able to have some jump through those first five minutes, you’ll get some pressure on the other team’s defence. This will result in not allowing good chances defensively and gets the team into the game as well as the fans. Creating that ‘buzz’ in the arena gives players more energy for the rest of the game.
The Canucks also need improvement from their stars on home ice.
Quinn Hughes has been excellent all season, whether at home or on the road. However, even his numbers at home are worse than his numbers on the road. Hughes has 18 points in 18 games on home ice versus his 22 points in 15 games on the road. Not to say that Hughes has by any means struggled at home; he’s been the best player for the Canucks. His disparity in point production between home and away is more than likely a product of the other star players’ lack of production. That being said, there is still room for improvement from the Canucks captain on home ice.
Elias Pettersson has also been better on the road than at home. Pettersson has recorded 13 points in 18 home games and an equal 13 points in 15 away games. Not only are his point totals low, but his plus-minus at home is an uninspiring minus-seven, but on the road, he’s a plus-two. It’s no secret Petey has struggled this year; he hasn’t quite looked like the 100-plus point player he was a couple of seasons ago. He’s shown flashes that that player still exists in him, but hasn’t been able to play like that consistently, especially on home ice.
Jake DeBrusk has also struggled at home in Vancouver this season. He didn’t score his first goal on home ice until December 6, 2024, against Columbus. He has scored eight points in 18 home games and has doubled his point total on the road with 16 points in 15 away games. Of course, DeBrusk did struggle out of the gate this season and has recently really picked up his game at home specifically, however the disparity in his point totals was too much to ignore.
Now, we won’t go through the entire roster, but overall, the team needs to be better and produce more at home.
Special teams have also been an issue on home ice. At Rogers Arena, the Canucks power play percentage is 18.8%, and their penalty kill is 79.2% versus their 26.7% power play and 83.3% penalty kill on the road.
Of course, scoring power play goals brings life into the crowd, but killing off penalties also brings juice to the team and the stadium. Special teams can be the difference maker between winning and losing games and the Canucks percentage on the road and at home displays how big of a difference special teams can make.
The Canucks have the star power to put out one of the top power plays in the NHL, but again, it’s about those stars finding a way to produce.
Speaking of star power, the Canucks have lost five games in overtime or shootout at home this season.
The Canucks have star forwards; J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk and Conor Garland to choose from for overtime as well as the biggest X-factor Quinn Hughes on defence.
Despite having these high-end talents to put forth for overtime, they have really struggled to close out games in that extra frame.
The team seems to get caught out for extended shifts during overtime, leading to breakdowns defensively and goals against. The Canucks have the forward depth to cycle through during overtime and maintain fresh legs, so these breakdowns don’t happen. Defensively, it is a bit of a different story. However, if Hughes shortened his shifts in overtime, he wouldn’t need an extended rest and could play at his very best.
All this to say, all we want for Christmas is two (points in a home game).
The Canucks do have a real opportunity to turn this around, which could, in turn, really turn their season around. The team is still in a wild card position to this point; however, being a Wild Card team wasn’t the expectation.
The Canucks have 23 home games remaining, and if they want a real shot at being a top-three team in the Pacific Division, they need to find a way to win a larger majority of those games and can’t be under .500 at home this season.
Merry Christmas from all of us here at CanucksArmy!
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