VANCOUVER -- J.T. Miller has set an NHL career-high with 35 goals and has a chance to reach 100 points for the first time, but the forward won't point to scoring as the key to the Vancouver Canucks' remarkable turnaround this season.
Neither will Quinn Hughes, who leads NHL defensemen with 81 points (13 goals, 68 assists) in 73 games and has a chance to be the first Canucks player to win the Norris Trophy as the League's top defenseman.
Nor will forward Brock Boeser, who has reached 30 goals for the first time in his eight NHL seasons, and with 37 in 73 games, still has a chance to reach 40.
No, for all the individual offensive milestones and attention that comes with them, including six Canucks playing in the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, the real key to Vancouver's success this season, and the reason they have a chance to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four seasons when they play the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; SN360, SNP, TNT, MAX), is a vastly improved commitment to defending under coach Rick Tocchet.
"We've come a long way in a sense of making the goalies play half the net like Rick always talks about," said Miller, a reference to reducing the number of scoring chances they give up off plays and passes across the middle of the ice. "We give up a lot more manageable chances than we had in the past and I think that just comes from good structure and committing to that structure."
That certainly wasn't the case in previous seasons. When the Canucks went on a 32-15-10 run two seasons ago after hiring coach Bruce Boudreau on Dec. 6, 2021, it was driven largely by skilled offense and exceptional play from goalie Thatcher Demko.
But even during that strong finish to the 2021-22 season, the Canucks ranked 17th in shot-attempt percentage (49.3 percent), and when the next season started the defensive deficiencies were too much for even Demko to mask before sustaining a groin injury Dec. 1 on one of many rush chances that included the side-to-side plays Miller mentioned. He played 17 of the final 58 games.
By the time Tocchet was hired to replace Boudreau on Jan. 22, 2023, the Canucks were allowing the second most goals per game (3.96) and the ninth most shots on goal per game (32.2), and were tied for 24th in SAT% (47.2 percent).
Under Tocchet this season, Vancouver is tied for 13th in SAT% (50.7 percent), fifth in goals against per game (2.64), and sixth in shots on goal allowed (28.8), while also reducing odd-man rushes and dangerous chances against.
"We're defending really well," said Miller, who leads the Canucks with 92 points in 73 games and has an NHL career-high plus-29 rating after he was minus-7 in 81 games last season. "We're not giving up a lot of high-danger chances. Since Rick got here last year we made a lot of big strides in that department. We're not where we want to be yet because we have a high standard and obviously playing good structural defense is a big part of that."
Tocchet has talked a lot about the habits that go into playing with that structure and it goes beyond defending hard. It includes everything from shift length and line changes to play along the boards, forwards tracking back through the neutral zone and, perhaps most important given how much of an issue it was in previous seasons, not turning the puck over in areas that lead to odd-man rushes.
"We've set a standard and raised the standard," said Boeser, who has set personal bests with 68 points and a plus-23 rating this season after he was a minus-20 in 74 games last season. "We've learned a lot this year and proven we can be a good team and now it's just about finding consistency with it."
Getting a commitment to the new standard from top players like Miller was key.
"You've got to get your players to buy in and that's a big thing, guys like [Miller] or whoever buying into what we're doing and driving play," Tocchet said. "That's the big thing for us and I think a guy like [Miller], for me, where he takes it personal if he's not driving play. That's the attitude of [Elias Pettersson] or Quinn, our star guys, our leaders. There's going to be times when we're going to need them to drive the play if the game's not going our way. I don't mean taking the puck and skating through the whole ice and trying to deke everybody. I'm saying just drive play, taking over a game and I think that's when [Miller] tells you after a game if he doesn't feels like he played well, he'll tell you because he didn't drive play. I love when he has that attitude for us."
The improved defensive foundation has helped the Canucks compete even as the offense has dried up since the All-Star break. Since Feb. 6, Vancouver is 27th in the NHL with an average of 2.75 goals per game, but they have gone 12-9-3 even with Demko missing seven games since sustaining a lower-body injury March 9, and remain atop the Pacific Division, six points ahead of the second-place Edmonton Oilers.
Miller thinks those new staples also bode well for their return to the postseason.
"Obviously if you [stink] at defense, you're not going to win playoff hockey, that's a fact," Miller said. "But a lot of it is taking care of the puck. You don't have to necessarily be on defense the whole time. If you limit odd-man rushes the other way and you have a good [third forward] on the forecheck, that's a good defense too and our team's been doing a lot better job of that. We know the structure, we're fully committed to it and very rarely do we have a big breakdown."
