Saturday night presents another opportunity for the Vancouver Canucks to get back to their winning ways on home ice with the Chicago Blackhawks coming to town.
It will be Connor Bedard’s first NHL game at Rogers Arena and somewhat of a homecoming for the local kid who was selected first overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
Head coach Rick Tocchet knows how important this upcoming weekend is for his club and believes that a strong start is necessary after he thought his team looked light in Thursday’s game against the New York Islanders.
“It’s on me, I’ve got to get this team to play harder in the first period,” said Tocchet following Thursday’s game.
“We’re going to have to change pregame skates or something, we’re going to have to do something different. We cannot play light. We are too light of a team. You cannot guess where the puck goes.”
He wants to see the club bring structured physicality to their game and be able to play to his system that requires strong positioning and knowing your job on every shift.
The Blackhawks will be playing their second and final game of a short road trip that saw them fall to the Seattle Kraken by a score of 3-1 on Thursday night.
On the year, the Hawks are 6-10-1 and have a 4-6-1 record on the road. Their leading scorer is Connor Bedard with 13 points (3g-10a) through 17 games played. In terms of goal scoring, Ryan Donato leads the team with eight tucks in 15 games.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- Seth Jones is the leading man on the defence. He is averaging over 25 minutes a game and has picked up two goals and eight assists this year.
- Jones has been paired up with veteran presence Alec Martinez on their top pairing but 23-year-old, 6’6” left-shot defenceman Alex Vlasic is second in average ice time on the Hawks and will see lots of time on the penalty kill.
- The Hawks have middle-of-the-league special teams. Their power play ranks 13th in the NHL with a 20.4% conversion rate and their penalty kill sits in 19th, killing off 78.4% of their penalties this season.
- Newcomers to the Hawks this season, Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi lead their club with three power play goals each. Bedard leads with six power play assists.
- In net, Petr Mrazek has started 13 of their 17 games and he holds a 5-8-0 record with a .906% save percentage and a 2.79 goals-against average. His backup, Arvid Söderblom is 1-2-1 with a .933% save percentage and a 2.27 goals-against average in four starts.
- The Hawks are 5-1-1 when scoring first and 1-9-0 when their opposition scores first.
- Chicago and Vancouver played on October 22nd and the Canucks picked up a 6-3 win at the United Centre.
The Story: Balancing Being Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
Since the beginning of the season, Tocchet has wanted his team to embrace feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable. This is a tough task as the head coach looks to balance pushing his group versus making them feel comfortable in his system.
“Sometimes you get a little comfortable, and that's my job. I want these guys to feel comfortable but play uncomfortable, and that's a sweet spot we're trying to find right now. We just cannot accept these home game efforts,” said Tocchet.
“I think I’ve been too soft this year, and I think that’s the first time I’ve ever said that, and it wasn’t even that bad. Our efforts aren’t good at home. Accept it and move on. That’s why we worked hard in practice today. We will focus when it’s time to focus tomorrow. We’ve got two games in 48 hours and a lot of things can change.”
Tocchet later said that he had some good talks with players at Friday’s practice and that he needs his players to have good energy on Saturday because they have a hard-working Hawks team coming in for their first of back-to-back games.
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
Quinn Hughes: 1g-6a-7p
Elias Pettersson: 3g-2a-5p
J.T. Miller: 1g-4a-5p
Jake DeBrusk: 2g-2a-4p
Danton Heinen-Erik Brännström-Filip Hronek: 1g-2a-3p
When and Where to Watch
Saturday’s game is a 7:00 p.m. start time and can be watched on Hockey Night in Canada or you can listen along with Brendan Batchelor as he has the radio call with Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.
