On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal previewed tonight’s matchup against the New Jersey Devils and discussed the Canucks’ performance through the month of November.
The Canucks face off tonight against the New Jersey Devils at 7 pm, with all three Hughes brothers competing against each other for the first time. Former Canucks’ Head Coach Travis Green makes his return to Rogers Arena tonight for the first time as an assistant coach for the Devils.
Rink Wide’s Jeff Paterson joined the show to talk about the latest around the team, including Green’s return:
“He had five good years, plus all the years with Utica in the system. He put in the years, earned an opportunity which obviously didn’t go the way he or the club wanted. He’s back, not in a head coaching role, but I think he put himself in a pretty good situation there with New Jersey. I think if you’re the Canucks, the right thing to do is acknowledge his return to the building, thank him for all his years of service, and get on with the game.”
The guys moved on to discuss how the Canucks looked different compared to last year at this point in the season.
Harm: “This team is different. They found ways to collect points during a stretch where they had things go wrong, and they didn’t play their best hockey. They had a heavy schedule with 13 games in 22 days; Pettersson struggled, and Kuzmenko has been fighting it. The top six didn’t win their five-on-five matchups… The blueline looked overwhelmed at times, and yet they were 7-6-0 since the eastern swing that started in Ottawa during the second week of November.”
Quads: “Are you worried at all about the penalty kill?”
“Yeah, it’s concerning,” Harm replied. “If you look at J.T. Miller’s penalty-killing results over the years, his goals-against rate is one of the best among all NHL forwards, but the problem is if you don’t have him first over the boards, do you have another centerman who can consistently win faceoffs on the penalty kill?”
“The Canucks’ clearing ability on the penalty kill is apparently one of the worst in the league, so hopefully, they can clean that up,” Harm continued. “Obviously, you’re looking for Zadorov to make an impact there as well. Cutting out those back-door cross-seam plays would be massive. As long as Demko is facing the shot, I’m confident in his ability, but they’ve been giving up too many of those east-west passes lately.”
The guys finished the show with some more poll questions.
You can watch the full segment with JPat in the video below:
