Hawks Gameday: Where Do They Get Those Wonderful Toys?
Setting up the visit of the once-hated rival Canucks.
Sector 1901 - Where Do They Get Those Wonderful Toys?
Vancouver Canucks Lineup
Hoglander - Pettersson - Garland
DeBrusk - Miller - Boeser
Heinen - Blueger - Sherwood
Suter - Aman - Sprong
Hughes - Hronek
Soucy - Myers
Brannstrom - Desharnais
Lankinen
What You Need To Know: We'd pretty much memory-holed the Canucks' Pacific Division championship last year, as they mostly PDO'd their way there. The fact that they probably should have beaten the Oilers in the second round but barfed up a Game 7 at home (a tradition unlike any other) at least put a decent sheen on the whole thing. The Canucks are basically running the same team back, with the addition of Jake DeBrusk, a winger that would have looked nice donning red and black on Madison St. but oh well!
It's been something of a meh start for the Canucks at 2-1-2, though they did just flatten the Flyers in Philly last time out after beating the Panthers in Florida in overtime. This is the last game of a four-game swing for Vancouver, so maybe the Hawks can catch them looking forward to the flight home.
The Canucks have been something of an inverse of the Hawks, where they are better in Corsi than they are in xG, spending more time in the offensive zone than their opponents but not creating or preventing the better chances. At least not yet.
It would be easy to point out that the Canucks are missing Thatcher Demko and thus their middling spring from the blocks. Demko is dealing with some sort of knee issue, and no one's quite sure when he'll be back. But Kevin Lankinen, yes that one, has been brilliant in three starts with a .953 save-percentage. His partner in the crease, Arturs Silovs, has been less so, with an .827.
The Canucks are suffering some bad shooting luck, hitting the net less than 8 percent of the time. That'll correct. And the Canucks rock one of the more solid top sixes in the league. It's hard to tell a difference between any of their best forwards. JT Miller has become the 90+ point center you didn't know about. Marcus Pettersson is one of the best playmakers in the league, and that makes their top two centers.
One's mileage on Brock Boeser my vary. He finally became the 40-goal scorer he threatened to become for what felt like 20 years. But it wasn't the result of getting more chances or getting to better areas, he just shot nearly 16 percent at evens and 19.6 overall. He did boost his positioning and chance-getting on the power play, and those goals still count despite what some would tell you. Interestingly, he's pumped up his shots and chances so far this year something fierce, but we'll see if it lasts more than five games.
The upgrade from DeBrusk to whatever was filling in on the top six last year, some of that was Ilya Mikheyev who managed to not score at all while playing with Pettersson, is a big one. Or it will be, but DeBrusk's transition so far to the West Coast has been a rocky one, with no goals so far, metrics in the toilet, and his shots and chances cratering. It'll work itself out, though. Connor Garland rounds it out, and he might be the one player that was talked up as a Coyote and then actually proved it somewhere else.
On the back end, the Canucks still trust Tyler Myers and and Carson Soucy to take their dungeon shifts, and there is nothing in this world that will convince us that Myers doesn't suck. He's always sucked, always been an oaf, and no matter of Canadian press shine-ups will convince us otherwise. Most NHL teams tend to think so too, as he's the Canucks d-man that teams attack the most and get by the most on their way into the Canucks zone.
For the Hawks, the big story tonight is that Philipp Kurashev is going to be a healthy scratch. Though it's only for one game, if Andreas Anathasiou is centering your second line at any point, you're getting a top five pick come June. Luke Richardson seems to think that Kurashev's game was unacceptable on Saturday night against the Sabres, though we can't really identify why. Phil has managed only one shot in the past three games, but his metrics were glittering last time out.
This feels like doing it to do it, and it might have been worth seeing what Lukas Reichel could do between Hall and Bertuzzi. But it's October, and this isn't worthy rupturing any capillaries over.
Player To Watch - Quinn Hughes
It is not an exaggeration to call Hughes a unicorn. There is no one better in the league at getting their team out of their zone and into the other one cleanly than Hughes. And if you need proof:
Hughes piled up 92 points from the blue line last year, and he's the reason the Canucks can get up and go at all. Hughes hasn't relented, as he's top-10 in both Corsi and xG-percentage among defensemen so far this season.
This is what the Hawks need to have. Teams can't win these days without a d-man that can't be a one-man breakout and also get funky in the offensive zone. It's the only way to break the advanced defensive systems teams see night after night. No, Kevin Korchinski is not going to be Quinn Hughes. Neither is Sam Rinzel. But he'd better be a diet version of it, because there's no one else in the organization who can. Without Hughes, the Canucks are probably the Sabres. With him, they can contend for the division again. It's pretty much that simple.
