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Vancouver Canucks Get Stacked Up Against the Rest of the NHL and It Could be Worse
Photo credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Through the first five games of the NHL season the Vancouver Canucks have had ups and downs, but when we look at NHL Edge, the stats aren't as bad as expected when they are measured against the rest of the league.
NHL Edge does not tell the whole story of how a team is performing, but it can indicate which areas of work need attention for the Canucks.
"Last season, the Vancouver Canucks finished 24th in the National Hockey League in goals for, with just 236 in 82 games - an average of 2.87 per night and if they want to achieve their goal of making it back to the playoffs, they'll need to be a lot better than that."-Jaxon
NHL Edge measures the Vancouver Canucks through the first five games.
Adam Kierszenblat of the Hockey News covered what NHL Edge had to say about the Vancouver Canucks through the first week of the season. While there was some worry to start the season, the Canucks are starting to get a little momentum and hopefully the Edge stats continue to reflect that.
"Starting with shot location, the Canucks rank 17th overall with 36 high-danger shots. As for their best category, that would be mid-ranger shots, which Vancouver has generated 43 of. Lastly, the Canucks have recorded 28 long-range shots, which ranks 14th overall."-Kierszenblat
A big area of concern this season as previously mentioned was offence, scoring goals was a weak point for the Canucks last season, and if they have any hope to make the playoffs again they will have to start scoring over 3 goals a game, which starts with more high danger shots.
"Moving over to zone time, Vancouver's best category is offensive zone time, where their 41.2% ranks 17th. Their second-best category is the defensive zone, where their 42.2% ranks 22nd. As for the natural zone, the Canucks have spent 16.6% of their puck possession around center ice, which ranks 30th in the NHL."-Kierszenblat
The Canucks clearly need to improve in all three zones, but spending more time in the offensive zone will fix the majority of their issues. They are currently spending slightly more time in the defensive zone than the offensive, and while that obviously means less opportunity to score goals, it also means they are more prone to taking penalties and less prone to drawing them. It will be interesting to see if the Canucks improve upon their Edge stats in the next few weeks.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 19 | 715 ANSWERS Vancouver Canucks Get Stacked Up Against the Rest of the NHL and It Could be Worse Are the Vancouver Canucks going to improve their NHL Edge stats in the new few weeks of the season? | ||
| Yes | 482 | 67.4 % |
| No | 233 | 32.6 % |
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