On Wednesday night, the Vancouver Canucks did something they previously hadn’t done at all this season — they won a game after trailing two periods. Taking the 4–3 shootout win against the Calgary Flames brings them up to 71 points on the season with 17 games remaining. Two of those games occur this weekend at Rogers Arena, where the Canucks will play the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday and Utah Hockey Club on Sunday. While Chicago is pretty much a shoe-in for a top-three draft pick this year, Utah is sneakily only two points back of Vancouver. Let’s take a look at what this weekend could have in store for the Canucks.
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Vancouver’s first matchup this weekend comes against Chicago, who are currently sporting a 20–37–9 season record that puts them second-last in the Western Conference with 49 points. Only the San Jose Sharks have a lower point total than them. Despite their abysmal record, Vancouver can’t approach this game with the expectation of automatically gaining two points.
Chicago’s most dangerous factor coming into this game is the newly-acquired Spencer Knight, who is sporting a 2.24 GAA and .928 SV% in his three games with the Blackhawks so far. Knight has led the Blackhawks to a win against Utah and the Los Angeles Kings. In his two losses against the Colorado Avalanche and Sharks with Chicago, he only let in two goals and three goals respectively, still posting save percentages of .900% and .875%. Prior to being traded, he registered two shutouts and a 2.40 GAA with the Florida Panthers.
Another thing Vancouver should also be aware of is Chicago’s strong special teams. Their power play currently sits at fifth in the NHL with an effectiveness rate of 24.8%. Notably, they have scored five power play goals in their last 10 games. Their penalty kill has been steady as well, posting a killing percentage of 80.9% — 11th in the league.
Vancouver and Chicago are the bottom-two shot producers in the NHL. They’re both also towards the bottom of the standings in goals-for. While it’s likely that this game could be a low-scoring affair, since the start of March, Vancouver has seen a significant increase in shots-for, while Chicago has not. In this case, the key to securing two points against the Blackhawks will be to play the same way they did at the end of their match against the Flames. They’ll need to control play and keep applying pressure (or should I say, meet pressure with pressure?).
Utah has been a surprise team for many this season. A rebranded version of the Arizona Coyotes, Utah wasn’t expected to perform too well given the circumstances. However, they’ve put on quite the show for their new fanbase and have climbed up to a 29–25–11 record. This puts them at 69 points with 17 games left in their season, only a hair away from reaching Vancouver’s current position. Utah has had Vancouver’s number in both of their season matchups so far, taking both of their victories by only one goal.
As it stands, Utah has two players at the 50-point mark and above, and five who have more than 40 points. Vancouver’s lone player with more than 50 points is Quinn Hughes, who has 61 in 51 games played. Next in line are Conor Garland and Elias Pettersson with 39. For reference, Clayton Keller (74), Nick Schmaltz (50), Dylan Guenther (48), Logan Cooley (47), and MIkhail Sergachev (43) all have more points than Vancouver’s top-scoring forwards. While Utah is not a particularly high-scoring team compared to others in the NHL, their goals-for count of 184 is still higher than Vancouver’s 176.
One surprising stat about Utah is their corsi-for percentage, which tracks even-strength shot attempts by a team. They are currently ninth in the NHL in this stat with 51.68%, putting them higher than the Vegas Golden Knights, Washington Capitals, and Winnipeg Jets. Vancouver is 22nd in the league with 49.03%.
As is the case with all games at this time of year, this weekend’s back-to-back is a big one for Vancouver. They have the opportunity to escape with all four points, taking two away from a team currently chasing them in the standings. Puck drop for Saturday is at 7:00 pm PT, while Sunday’s game starts at 5:00 pm PT.
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