The road trip is over. It turned out to be underwhelming. The Penguins were 1-1-1 and only earned three of the possible six points. Last night they were defeated by a man named Brock Boeser who notched his first career hat trick. Boeser has played 19 career NHL games and now has nine goals and 18 points. He’s a player who isn’t on too many people’s radar (not mine at least) and probably deserves some closer attention. This is exactly the kind of player the Canucks need to hit on. They have a tough transition period to navigate right now and effective players on ELC’s is just what the doctor ordered.
Here’s the goal that kicked things off for Boeser
Tough sequence for Olli Maatta and a nice finish for Boeser.
Boeser scored a goal making a nice deke on Murray, on a fortuitous bounce near the net front, and on the rush as the trailer. All three were different types of goals and he was a 58% possession player on a night where his team was 40%. I leave this game impressed with him.
Pittsburgh didn’t necessarily play poorly, but a loss is a loss and if you’re keeping track you’ll already know that the team is 1-3-1 in their last five games with their lone victory in overtime, not regulation. The points that the team banked in the beginning of the season are keeping them afloat right now. They’ve burned up that wiggle room and need to get back to earning standings points.
Pittsburgh has some things to figure out, but they are still capable of doing things like this
Very nice. The power play has been consistently good this year. It’s the other stuff that needs some work.
Ryan Reaves got in on the offensive action last night when he took a text book point shot that was hard, low, on net, and tippable. Gregg McKegg made the most of that quality shot. Getting offensive production from Reaves is always a bonus and it’s too bad it was ultimately wasted.
Let’s talk about the line combinations. Certain aspects of what Mike Sullivan is trying to do makes sense. Other areas do not. Tom Kuhnhackl anywhere other than a limited fourth line role is too much let alone playing multiple games next to Evgeni Malkin. A bad Carl Hagelin is still a more appropriate choice than Kuhnhackl on a good day. Right now you have Geno playing with Kuhnhackl and Bryan Rust. I like what Rust does as a player, but he should never be the best winger on a top six line. I really dislike the current second line. I’m fine with Crosby playing with Conor Sheary and Patric Hornqvist. I’m not fine with Jake Guentzel playing away from both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Guentzel’s creativity is not a good match for the vanilla Riley Sheahan. It’s wasted potential.
Big picture I like Phil Kessel being separated from Evgeni Malkin to create some balance on the lines. The problem is that there isn’t enough forward depth to pull it off right now. The team is going to need to make a significant trade or hope that Daniel Sprong can pull a Jake Guentzel later this season. This team is never going to be a good defensive team. They are going to have to load up on the offensive side and try to overwhelm teams.
Derrick Pouliot is ten games into his Canucks career and so far it has been fine. He’s a 56.25% possession player and has a points per 60 of 0.98. Only Olli Maatta (1.47) has a better points per 60 than Pouliot on the Penguins right now. Can he keep it up? We’ll see as the Canucks will actually give him the ice time to find out.
Brandon Sutter is a 45% possession player with a 1.01 5v5 points per 60. Same as it ever was. He is Vancouver’s 4.3M fourth line center. Only three more years after this one remaining on his contract.
The flightless birds will return home to face the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. It’s not a “must win… game, but losing to them wouldn’t be an acceptable outcome.
Thanks for reading!