The Vancouver Canucks moved to 24-10-3 after beating the Ottawa Senators 6-3 on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. After jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first period, the Canucks cruised to victory in the remaining two periods, seemingly never taking it out of first gear to end the game. In a matchup between one of the league’s best and the league’s worst, here are three takeaways from the game.
Elias Pettersson Makes the Canucks Go
Canucks fans know Elias Pettersson is by and large the straw that stirs the Canucks’ drink. When he’s on, the whole team follows him. After netting two goals last night in the first period, he’s now brought his season point total to 45 (15 goals, 30 assists.)
Both of his goals were a bit fluky, but hey, they all count the same. Even looking past his goals, he was a two-way force out there. According to Natural Stat Trick, Pettersson had the second-highest (only behind Pius Suter) expected goals-for percentage (xG%) with 78.58%. Obviously, the whole team deserves a boatload of credit for their performance in the first period, but the Swede separated himself from the rest.
If the Canucks are serious about being Stanley Cup contenders, they’ll need Pettersson to continue to play at his best. The scariest thing about him this season is that he hasn’t reached his full “Elias Pettersson potential” yet. 45 points in 37 games is spectacular. However, those who have been following his career since his arrival to the league in 2018 know he has a whole other level he can tap into.
Canucks’ Bottom-Six Continues to be Elite
Outside of the aforementioned Pettersson, the entire Canucks bottom-six forward group led the forwards in xG%. From Suter to Dakota Joshua and everyone in between, all six of them had yet again another solid day at the office. Time and time again, they lead their team to victory by playing with a majestic blend of speed, skill, skating, and defence.
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That was no different on Tuesday night. Suter himself scored twice, including a nifty goal where he caught the puck off the glass from a rebound, dropped it and slotted it in before Senators netminder Anton Forsberg even had a chance to locate the puck. Besides Suter’s three points — he also assisted on Pettersson’s first goal — Sam Lafferty was the only other bottom-six forward to add a point (an assist on Suter’s remarkable goal.)
President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin warrant a gargantuan amount of praise for putting this bottom-six group together. Each player brings something different to the table and together, they’ve been producing magic night in and night out.
Canucks’ PDO is Here to Stay
The running gag about this 2023-24 Canucks team is their PDO. It has been from the start of the year and it still is halfway through the season. For those who do not know, PDO (which oddly enough is not an acronym) is calculated by the sum of a team’s shooting percentage and its save percentage. That number is multiplied by 10 and voila, that is the team’s PDO.
The baseline for PDO is 1.000. Anything above that and you’re due for regression and anything below you’re considered unlucky. The Canucks sit well atop the league in PDO with a whopping 1.051. It has been sky-high all season, and yet the regression still hasn’t hit. Guess what? It more than likely won’t. This is who the Canucks are. Yes, they’ll get outshot. Yes, they’ll get lucky bounces to go their way and yes, Thatcher Demko will bail his defence out on occasion. However, this is what happens when good players all have the best years of their careers.
The Canucks will look to build off their win on Thursday, Jan. 4 against the St. Louis Blues in St. Louis. The game will be their first stop of a seven-game road trip.
