Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
As we prepare for Halloween, the Canucks are taking this holiday a little too seriously and scaring me. They are not a bottom-of-the-barrel team, and not particularly good either; it is almost better to be noticeable in any way than to be mediocre. It is October, and I do not want to pre-define the identity of the team for the whole year, although the controversies of the week seem to be baffling player deployment and concerning centre depth, with injuries piling up. Who could have predicted this? Surely these are not the same concerns held by many over the summer!
didnt realize id have to bring this back
The Canucks look about as good at defending a lead right now as a pair of Crocs is at being waterproof. Sure, it may be comfortable and familiar, but the holes are pretty visible. This week, I lost my Canucks Orca charm off my Crocs and later found it face down in a puddle in my driveway and put it back where it belonged. This feels like a fitting metaphor for three losses in a row, topped off with a statement win against Edmonton on Sunday night.
Despite these subsequent losses, there are still going to be stand-outs, comebacks, and players with individually good games. Let’s get into it.
Elias Pettersson
Ah, EP40, a player everyone can be normal about when discussing, a player who begs conversations which always stay completely civil and never verge on obsessive or vitriolic. I am sure we are all familiar.
Pettersson should be scoring more, but it is not for lack of trying nor a result of poor performance at large. His underlying numbers this week were great, including shot share, expected goals, and high-danger chances, as seen in Nashville and Montreal. His defensive game and shot blocking have been positive contributions, as usual. But he just wasn’t scoring – nor was he particularly given the ice time to achieve that, either.
In zero worlds should Pettersson’s line be getting nearly *half* the 5v5 ice time that Raty’s is getting. No matter how good Sherwood has been, you’re not winning deploying your 1C this way.
This is how the Canucks forward lines have been deployed through two periods
Safe to say that was rectified this weekend. On Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens. Pettersson opened the scoring and proceeded to have a three-point game. He looked more confident in general, but also showed more confidence much earlier in the game. He was playing like himself, rather than trying to rewire his instincts like some social experiment. We had a proper throwback game from Pettersson that, unfortunately, the team completely lost control of. This is one loss no one can scapegoat Pettersson for, try as you might.
🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨
Elias Pettersson scores his 2nd goal of the season and gets Vancouver on the board!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks
Luckily, vintage Pettersson stuck around for the back-to-back on Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers. Pettersson had himself a one-timer on the power play that truly gave me flashbacks to two years ago – perhaps even further back. Yes, Kiefer Sherwood won the game in overtime and nearly had a hat trick, if not for an offside call, but still, you couldn’t beat the electricity and momentum that the whole team benefited from after Pettersson’s firecracker shot returned from the abyss.
EP40 ONE-TIMERS. PERFECTION 🤌
Who would’ve thought that the best game this week would be the one against a back-to-back Stanley Cup losing division rival, with Quinn Hughes out of the lineup? Not a single person on the planet. This team continues to defy all expectations, both in a good and a bad way.
Ultimately, I am pleased to nominate Elias Pettersson as Star of the Week, something I am sure we, as normal fans, will also be very enthusiastic about in the comments. Let us go forth and discuss a player whom we will surely all come to a unified and joyous unanimous decision about. What are sports made up of if not unified, joyous, unanimous opinions?
Conor Garland
Conor Garland is the driving force of the Canucks right now. He is Max Verstappen, and the team is the 2024 Red Bull car (Okay, this analogy may be an exaggeration. The point being Verstappen was good and the car was bad). Anyway, I think in analytics, the professional term for how Garland is playing is ‘stupid good.’
While the Canucks lines have been put through a blender like a green smoothie as of late, I have really been enjoying Garland playing alongside Elias Pettersson. It seems to be clicking for both of them – take a setup from Filip Hronek to Pettersson that Garland jumps on to net the opening goal against the Penguins just over a minute into play.
🚨CANUCKS GOAL🚨
Conor Garland rips a shot past Arturs Silovs to open the scoring!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks
This was also scored on former Canucks goalie and Calder Cup winner Artūrs Šilovs. Just don’t point out the five unanswered goals from Pittsburgh that came after this.
These three players would connect again for a Pettersson goal against Montreal, a game in which Garland later scored what could have been a comeback opportunity for Vancouver, marking 300 career points for him, as well as Pettersson’s power play goal against Edmonton. With another assist on Kiefer Sherwood’s overtime winner on Sunday, Garland proves that he’s earned his special teams deployment and first-line spot by simply being a dependable, all-situations player. Gone are the days of alleged trade requests from Garland’s camp – it’s great to see how far he has come as a core member of the team since then. Thatcher Demko
Many of you rightfully pointed out that Thatcher Demko deserved a star of the week last week – for clarity’s sake, every week I try to even out the love and shoutout players who might quietly be performing well, or who bounce back from a slump. I try not to always highlight the same players every week, despite Vancouver’s core group being clear. Otherwise, I would likely run the risk of giving Kiefer Sherwood a star every week, even in games where he doesn’t appear on the scoresheet. That said, it’s not currently a given that the usual suspects for 3 Stars are acting as such.
Thatcher Demko is a consistent star of the week on the team right now, even if I don’t always say so. He might be the star right now, if we are being totally honest with ourselves. Demko is one of Vancouver’s best players again, which is refreshing after so much time without him, but it is so disappointing that many of his performances feel wasted.
Demko played two games this week, not counting his matinee showing against the Washington Capitals that I covered in last week’s edition of 3 Stars. Nashville is a tough team to lose a game to 2-1; middling in the standings, with suffering special teams. While Nashville should be much better than they are on paper, underestimation won’t get you very far. Demko made the saves he should have in this game, putting up a .943 SV%, but the team in front of him just couldn’t get it done in front of him in this low-scoring contest and were outshot 35-22.
Thatcher Demko makes a great save and keeps this a scoreless game.
🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks
Demko also put up a solid performance against the Oilers, and although an early 2-0 lead was once again squandered as Edmonton fought back to tie the game 3-3 and force overtime, Demko couldn’t be held strictly responsible. Let’s put a pin in this week of Canucks hockey with Demko denying Connor McDavid, shall we?
Thatcher Demko stops a dangerous Connor McDavid chance!
🎥: Sportsnet | #Canucks
PRESENTED BY VIVID SEATS
