What’s driving the Canucks’ best start in franchise history? 10 key performances

It’s the Vancouver Canucks’ world, we’re just living in it.

Fresh off of their latest stunning triumph — a 6-2 shellacking of the Edmonton Oilers, which was accomplished after Vancouver was outshot 19-2 in the opening 11 minutes of a kitchen-sink game for the reeling Oilers — the Canucks are sitting pretty. They have the most regulation wins in the NHL, the most goals scored, the best goal differential, the NHL’s leading scorer, the NHL’s leading scorer among defensemen and the starter with the most wins. According to the betting markets, head coach Rick Tocchet is the early season favourite to win the Jack Adams, awarded to the NHL coach of the year.

This team can do no wrong. They look faster, tougher and more skilled than just about every opponent they face. On Monday evening, Rogers Arena was rocking as the Canucks reduced a preseason Stanley Cup favourite — who came out with real desperation — to rubble.

So what’s driving this hot 9-2-1 start? Let’s identify 10 things that have gone very, very right for the Canucks and have powered their meteoric success in the early going.

1. Quinn Hughes has somehow levelled up

Quinn Hughes was already elite. One of the best defenders in hockey, or at the very least, in the 3B tier.

Somehow Hughes has gotten even better this season. His defensive game improved significantly last season, and now he’s added a different level of dynamism to his offensive game. Through 12 games, Hughes is attacking with a different type of purpose as a shooter and uncorking all kinds of new weaponry — changing the angle on wrist shots and getting a lot more velocity on them — that he didn’t seem to have at his disposal consistently in years past.

Hughes is the second defender since the butterfly technique became common in the early 1990s to amass 20 points in the first 12 games of an NHL season. With Hughes on the ice, the Canucks have outscored their opponents 18-3 at five-on-five. He’s got the entire game on a string on an every-night basis. He has a level of control over the game that’s incredibly uncommon for any individual to exert at this level.

This isn’t just a dominant individual performance. Hughes is currently playing like he’s the single best defenseman on planet Earth.

2. Hughes’ partnership with Filip Hronek

For years, there’s been a school of thought that assumed Hughes was best suited to playing on a pair with bigger, prototypical defensive defensemen. Over the years, players like Chris Tanev, Tucker Poolman, Jordie Benn, Luke Schenn and Noah Juulsen have typically been the first-choice Hughes caddies.

Just about a year ago, however, something interesting happened. The Canucks started playing Hughes alongside Ethan Bear, a transitional defender whose standout skill was his mastery at puck retrievals, and the results were sparkling. Then the club executed a widely criticized — especially by us — trade for Filip Hronek at the deadline, and the early returns from the Hughes and Hronek pair have been sensational.

“Well, I think I am a defensive guy,” was Hughes’ matter-of-fact response when the question of whether he’s better off playing with a puck-mover as opposed to a defensive guy was posed to him on Monday morning.

“Me and Filip don’t get scored on a lot,” he continued. “We’re going to have nights when we’re dash-three, but we’ll have a lot more nights where we’re plus.

“With Filip, he gets me three or four more touches a game. Like, he has the puck on my stick more. He’s able to open up and slide it to me. So we have the puck a lot, and the more we have the puck, it’s another chance I get.”

There’s perhaps something to the way two adept puck-moving defenders are able to amplify the team-level possession game of a pair. Hronek may not have been seen as fit to be Hughes’ partner 10 years ago, but in similar ways to what Devon Toews has brought to his partnership with Cale Makar in Colorado, Hughes and Hronek’s fit has been nearly perfect for Vancouver in the early going.

Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek have worked senstionally as a pair. (Bob Frid / USA Today)

3. Maximizing J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson in the matchup game

Tocchet and Adam Foote, the Canucks assistant coach who runs the defence, have been doing something pretty interesting in self-matching the Hughes-Hronek pair with J.T. Miller’s matchup line.

In the past, we’ve seen the Canucks work to get Hughes and Elias Pettersson out on the ice at the same time at five-on-five, but in the early going this season, Pettersson and Hughes have logged nearly 40 fewer minutes together at even strength (50:46) than Hughes has logged with Miller (90:10). On Monday, for example, Miller and his wingers and the Hronek-Hughes pair were hard-matched against Connor McDavid, almost as a five-man unit. Seventy-five percent of Miller’s ice time was spent with Hughes-Hronek playing behind him.

In contrast, Pettersson spent about one minute of five-on-five with the Hughes-Hronek pair, instead logging the bulk of his ice time with Vancouver’s other blueliners.

It’s an interesting approach. Instead of utilizing their two-way drivers — Hughes and Pettersson — to enhance what one another can do, the Canucks have instead counted on Hughes to help Miller’s line battle the toughest matchups, while Pettersson helps insulate Vancouver’s still-shallow blue line against secondary matchups.

There’s no arguing with the results.

4. Thatcher Demko’s outrageous heater

Here’s all you really need to know about Vancouver’s goal prevention in the early going. According to Natural Stat Trick, Thatcher Demko has stopped 82 of the 85 high-danger chances he’s faced so far this season. That means his save percentage isolated solely to inner slot-type shots, the most dangerous types of scoring opportunities for Canucks opponents, sits at an outrageous .965 through 12 games.

Regardless of the peripheral data you prefer — including the proprietary data tracked by firms like Sportlogiq and Clear Sight Analytics — Demko has been a brick wall behind Vancouver’s defensive structure this season. On most nights it’s taken something incredibly special, or incredibly illegal, to beat him.

This level of dominance isn’t likely to prove sustainable long-term, but Canucks players are going into every single game knowing they have the edge in goal. You can sometimes feel it wearing down their opponents — you certainly could on Monday, when Edmonton had so little to show for its dominance in the opening 15 minutes.

5. A bought-in core

Let’s just call it like it is: In previous years, we’ve seen some of Vancouver’s skilled players cheat on occasion for offence.

Now there’s no underlying data to measure this, although it does show up in the peripheral data. This is more subjective, but it shouldn’t be controversial. Those bad habits — from body language to lazy shift changes, to the commitment of Vancouver’s star players to being on the right side of the puck in just about every battle — are non-existent in Vancouver’s team game at the moment. This is a team that certainly looks to be playing selfless, bought-in hockey on a nightly basis.

Even if we were buying the Tocchet bump, this sort of ephemeral impact is of a different order of magnitude. It’s the sort of thing that suggests the Canucks may have identified the right leader at the right time to lead this team.

6. J.T. Miller and the art of shutting down top lines

Miller has matched up against McDavid’s line in three games. McDavid’s line has yet to score a single goal in 26:06 head-to-head against Miller.

Sure, Edmonton’s top line has had looks and on Monday, it dominated the shot clock. But Miller’s line kept McDavid to the outside, which ensured they only narrowly lost the high-danger chances battle. McDavid has rarely had any of his iconic rushes in which he skates through multiple defenders and has you on the edge of his seat.

Miller and his linemates deserve full marks for the unbelievable work they’ve done shutting down McDavid. By the third period of Monday’s game, it was enough to drive McDavid crazy.

On a long shift where the Oilers had the Canucks on the ropes, threatening to score and get within one, Miller’s hit on McDavid in front of Vancouver’s net completely sidetracked Edmonton’s captain. McDavid took shots at Miller, which sparked a scrum and quietly ended a dangerous Oilers shift.

Still rattled, McDavid took a bad roughing penalty on Pius Suter on his next shift that put the Canucks on the power play. Of course, it’s Miller who put the game away on the ensuing man advantage with a rocket one-timer.

No doubt about that one. 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/jjud5isn5r

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 7, 2023

It hasn’t just been McDavid, though.

Miller played 8:21 head-to-head against the Roope Hintz/Jason Robertson line on Saturday’s game. Dallas’ top line is one of the best in the NHL, yet it mustered just two shots on goal in that matchup. Miller allowed just one shot in 6:42 head-to-head against Mika Zibanejad and the New York Rangers’ top line, which was especially impressive because the Canucks were playing the second leg of a back-to-back.

Miller’s been an all-around stud when you combine those types of defensive showings with the 17 points he’s scored in 12 games.

7. Brock Boeser’s huge bounceback

Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.

Despite months of trade speculation last season, with the Canucks even granting agent Ben Hankinson permission to speak directly to other teams to seek a move, Boeser remained a Canuck.

Boeser has hit the 10-goal mark in just 12 games, less than a month into the season. Last year, it took him until Feb. 9, nearly four months into the season, to reach 10 goals. The six goals he’s scored just against the Oilers are more than any Oilers player has scored for the entire season.

Can you imagine how painful it would have been for Canucks fans to see Boeser reel off this bounceback somewhere else?

Boeser’s successfully attacking in so many different ways. He’s been excellent at setting screens and hunting rebounds at the net front, both at five-on-five and on the man advantage. We’ve seen him snipe from the slot when his linemates Miller and Phillip Di Giuseppe recover pucks on the forecheck. He’s fired a one-time blast on the power-play flank. Boeser was dangerous in the bumper power-play spot against Dallas as well, generating tons of high-danger chances by intelligently popping up to the high-slot area to get open.

Boeser also deserves credit for holding up defensively in a matchup role against top lines. He had a career-worst defensive year last season and has responded by drastically cutting down his turnovers from the defensive half-wall on the breakout. There have been no lackadaisical defensive moments, and in fact, there have been positive flashes like his proactive, high-intensity defensive check in the slot to prevent the Stars from generating a high-danger chance in the third period.

8. Canucks’ penalty kill is significantly improved

The Canucks’ penalty kill was dead last in the NHL last season. It’s improved to 77.3 percent so far, which is 19th in the NHL. That probably undersells the improvement too, considering the five-on-three goals they’ve surrendered.

The Canucks allowed way too many east-west passes to the slot and backdoor tap-ins in previous years. This season, they’ve been hyper-aware and disciplined about clogging those passing lanes.

Kudos for making these gains when the team hasn’t even had the chance to play Teddy Blueger, who’d arguably be the best penalty-killing forward on the roster.

9. Key depth pieces stepping up lately

After a slow start, the Canucks have gotten eight goals from the bottom six in the last four games. Sam Lafferty is up to six points in 12 games. Nils Höglander has three goals and five points in 11 games. Suter has scored in three consecutive games.

On Monday against the Oilers, Vancouver’s bottom six was a legitimate difference-maker. It cycled the puck down low for heavy, sustained offensive zone shifts, scored a pair of goals and had momentum-changing moments. When Leon Draisaitl scored to cut Vancouver’s lead to 3-2 in the second period, for example, Conor Garland immediately responded on the next shift by drawing a penalty because of his offensive zone maneuvers. The Canucks took over for the rest of the period, as a result.

On the back end, Mark Friedman has been a significant upgrade on Juulsen as the club’s No. 6 defenceman. After a rocky start, Tyler Myers hasn’t been on the ice for a five-on-five goal against in six straight games.

“He’s been unreal,” Tocchet said about Myers after the Oilers game. “The last five games he’s been one of our best players.”

There haven’t been any passengers on the Canucks over the last handful of games. Everybody is contributing.

10. Canucks’ power play looks elite

Vancouver’s power play faced a lot of changes this year.

This will be the first full season without Bo Horvat in the bumper, who has been by far the Canucks’ leader in power-play goals since 2019-20. Jason King was relieved over the summer with Tocchet taking an active role in handling power-play responsibilities. The new, motion-based power play the club debuted in training camp introduced big philosophical changes.

There’s been zero adjustment period. Vancouver’s power play looks absolutely deadly, converting on 32.6 percent of its opportunities.

The unpredictability of the Canucks’ power play is a huge asset. Vancouver’s forwards are constantly rotating and scoring in different ways, rather than spamming the same play. On entries, they’ll sprinkle in bank passes off the end boards, stretch passes or Hughes solo entries to combat the repetitiveness of always using the drop pass.

When you can get set, attack in so many different ways and boast elite first-unit talent, it’s hard to build a game plan to stop a power play like this.

(Top photo: Derek Cain / Getty Images)