The New Pacific Preview: Vancouver Canucks

2013 Stats

The Canucks were a pretty unimpressive team last year despite winning another division title. They were 19th in the league in total offense, throwing up a pedestrian 2.54 goals a game. However, the Canucks managed to keep other teams off the scoreboard finishing 10th with a 2.40 GA/G.

Record: The Canucks were once again atop their lackluster division, finishing with a 26-15-7 record. They probably won't be stringing together division titles anytime soon, as they take up residency in the new pacific. Going 1-2-0 against the Ducks, as they did last year, won't be a good start.

Leading Scorers: The Sedins activated their Wonder Twin powers to lead Vancouver in scoring. Henrik and Daniel posted 11+34=45 and 12+28=40 points respectively. Dan Hamhuis was their top scoring defender with a 4+20=24. The Sedins also led the way against the Ducks last year recording an identical 4 points.

Goalies: Cory Schneider was the sort of man between the pipes for Vancouver. He appeared in 30 games compared to Roberto Luongo's 20. He also was tops in GAA and SV% at 2.11 and .927, respectively. It's hard to say who was the better goalie against the Ducks. Schneider and Luongo split an awful performance to start the season against Anaheim. Schneider bounced back to pitch a shutout a few days later, and Luongo stopped more than his fair share of shots in a 3-1 loss later in the season. One of those was an empty netter. Of course, now it doesn't really matter how well Schneider played against the Ducks, at least it doesn't matter to Vancouver

Power Play: In yet another sign of their dwindling offense, the Canuck power play finished 22nd in the league at a rather non-threatening 15.8%. When they played the Ducks, that number ballooned to an almost inconceivable 50%. However, that number is a little soft when you take into consideration that it is buoyed by two early performances against the Ducks before the PK had been worked out.

Penalty Kill: Speaking of killing penalties, The Canucks were pretty good at it. They stopped 84% of would be PP scoring teams, good for a shiny 8th overall finish. Against the Ducks, they had a little less luck. they gave up 5 PP goals in 8 opportunities. That PK number shouldn't even be written as a percentage.

Key Additions: The Canucks didn't really make any key acquisitions, unless you count that Tortorella guy. It seems the Canucks are more interested in adopting a new philosophy than new players. This Tortorella thing should work out though. I'm sure the Canadian media will love him. That first press conference after Daniel Sedin breaks his hand blocking a shot is going to be priceless. Other than that, the Canucks are pretty focused on filling the roster out with youth. Bo Horvat will probably be the subject of a lot of conversation, but that Shinkaruk kid might turn a few heads too.

Key Losses: I don't know if the Canucks lost anyone important this summer. Mason Raymond was the fifth leading forward in scoring, but his 40 point pace wasn't turning enough heads in Vancouver to warrant a contract with a shrinking salary cap and now he's on a PTO with Toronto. Ministry malcontent Keith Ballard was bought out and subsequently signed with Minnesota. Oh yeah, and I hear they shipped off their back up goalie to New Jersey. I bet we won't hear anything about that for the rest of the year though.

Season Series:

Sun. Nov. 10 vs. Vancouver 5:00 pm, Prime Ticket

Sun. Jan. 5 vs. Vancouver 5:00 pm, Prime Ticket

Wed. Jan. 15 vs. Vancouver 7:30 pm, Fox Sports West

Sat. Mar. 29 @ Vancouver 7:00 pm, KDOC/CBC

Mon. Apr. 7 @ Vancouver 7:00 pm, Prime Ticket (for some reason, not listed on the main schedule, maybe an NBCSN flex scheduling option?)