We have reached the midpoint of the Vancouver Canucks’ five-game road trip, and they are back in action on Friday night in game one of a back-to-back weekend set.
The first two games have brought points in the standings, but the team is focused on getting their first win of the trip and will have a chance to do so on Friday evening against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Quinn Hughes has picked up three assists in his last two games after returning from an injury.
Conor Garland leads all forwards in ice time over the past 10 games. He has averaged 19:40 of ice time through that stretch.
The Canes come into Friday’s game on the second night of a back-to-back of their own, they play the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night and that game kicks off a three-game homestand for the Rod Brind’Amour-coached club.
Carolina currently sits third in the Metropolitan Division and are 24-15-2 on the season. They have been much better on home ice this season as indicated by their 15-5-0 record at the Lenovo Centre.
No team comes close to the Hurricanes when it comes to firing shots toward the net. The Hurricanes average a shot attempt every 51 seconds at five-on-five and allow the least shot attempts against per minute at five-on-five.
Though they heavily control the shot share at five-on-five, the Hurricanes have only controlled 50.9% of the goal share – scoring 87 goals and allowing 84 through 41 games.
24-year-old Andrei Svechnikov is the team leader for shots on net this season. He averages 8.83 shots on goal per 60 minutes at five-on-five and is leading the Canes with 118 shots on net this season.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour is in his seventh season as the Canes’ bench boss. He is the fourth-longest tenured coach in the NHL.
- Martin Nečas and Sebastian Aho are the two players who are over a point-per-game for the Canes. Nečas leads the team with 15 goals and 32 assists for 47 points while Aho has 13 goals and 30 assists for 43 points.
- The Canes’ power play ranks 12th in the league and is clicking at 23.4% through 41 games. Their leading power play goal-scorer is Svechnikov with eight goals. Nečas leads the team with 20 power play points (7g-13a).
- Their penalty kill is the top-ranked shorthanded group in the league and have killed off 84.9% of their penalties. Seth Jarvis, Jordan Staal, and Aho each have a shorthanded goal this season.
- William Carrier is the energy guy for the Canes and leads the team with 136 hits this season, but he is listed as day-to-day and was ruled questionable against the Leafs on Thursday.
- The Canes have alternated between wins and losses since the holiday break and if they keep that streak and win against the Leafs on Thursday, that could bode well for the Canucks on Friday.
- Pyotr Kochetkov leads the Canes in net and has started 26 games this season. The Hurricanes have had four different goaltenders start a game for them this season and Kochetkov holds a 15-9-1 record with a .902% save percentage, a 2.50 goals-against average, along with one shutout. Kochetkov is scheduled to start against the Leafs on Thursday night, so it is unlikely that he will start two days in a row, but it is still possible.
- Dustin Tokarski is currently the backup and has made four starts this season. Tokarski has a 3-1-0 record with a.894% save percentage and a 2.49 goals-against average.
The Story: Building On a Recent Play
Head coach Rick Tocchet believes that his team is playing some better hockey of late and needs to continue buying into their system and structure to get some wins in the near future.
“We played a good hockey game; that’s a top team in the league and I thought we did a nice job. Guys worked hard,” said Tocchet after Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals.
The Canucks outshot the Caps 31-18 on Wednesday night, and it was the 12th game of the season where the team has allowed two or fewer goals.
They outshot the Caps 21-5 in the second period and Tocchet believed that was from the group being connected and it helped that the team spent a couple of days discussing the identity that they have to play with right now.
At five-on-five, Hughes was on the ice for 18 shots for and six shots against on Wednesday and the line of Nils Höglander, Max Sasson and Phil Di Giuseppe outshot the opposition 5-1 in 6:40 together.
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
J.T. Miller: 2g-6a-8p
Brock Boeser: 3g-1a-4p
Jake DeBrusk: 2g-2a-4p
Conor Garland: 2g-0a-2p
Jonathan Lekkerimäki: 1g-1a-2p
Tyler Myers: 1g-1a-2p
When and Where to Watch
Wednesday’s game is a 4:00 p.m. PT start, and you can watch it on Sportsnet or listen along to the radio call with Brendan Batchelor on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.
