Canucks' 2-0 start is their first in seven years
The Vancouver Canucks are (tied for) second place in the entire NHL.
That’s not a sentence you could’ve said all that often over much of the last decade, but despite it being just two games into the season, it’s hard to be too critical of much of the team’s play so far.
Taking two wins off the rival Edmonton Oilers, their 12 goals scored across the two contests is tied for the league lead, while they’ve given up just four goals across six periods.
And while two October games should not really be a measuring stick for how a season is set to go, that two-game opening stretch has been quite the problem for many Canucks teams of the past.
In fact, it’s the first time since 2016-17 that the team has gone 2-0 to start the season, perhaps an indicator of how tough things have typically been for Vancouver’s NHL club.
#Canucks start the season 2-0 for the first time in 7 years.
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) October 15, 2023
Things were particularly tough for last year’s Canucks, who took nine games to earn their second win of the season on their way to a 2-6-2 start through 10 games.
Here’s how each Vancouver team since the last 2-0 team has fared at the start and end of their schedule:
| First two games | First 10 games | Final record | |
| 2023-24 | 2-0-0 | ? | ? |
| 2022-23 | 0-2-0 | 2-6-2 | 38-37-7 |
| 2021-22 | 1-0-1 | 4-5-1 | 40-30-12 |
| 2020-21 | 1-1-0 | 5-5-0 | 23-29-4 |
| 2019-20 | 0-2-0 | 6-3-1 | 36-27-6 |
| 2018-19 | 1-1-0 | 6-4-0 | 35-36-11 |
| 2017-18 | 1-0-1 | 6-3-1 | 31-40-11 |
| 2016-17 | 2-0-0 | 4-5-1 | 30-43-9 |
Those 2016-17 Canucks went 4-0-0 to start the season, picking up one shootout win and two overtime wins along the way. But they faced a harsh reality after that, immediately going on a nine-game losing skid that stretched from October 22 until it was finally broken on November 8.
As we can see from this data, even an opening 10 games isn’t really indicative of how a season will finish in Vancouver (or anywhere else).
If you can believe it or not, Vancouver’s only won more games than they’ve lost just once since 2014-15, where they won 48 of 82 games to go along with 29 regulation losses and five in OT or shootout.
In 2019-20, Vancouver picked up their only actual “winning” season based on raw wins and losses since 2014-15, where they won 36 games compared to 33 losses in a pandemic-shortened regular season. But they actually startedĀ that season 0-2-0, before eventually reeling off a four-game winning streak.
In any case, the Canucks continue their road trip with a matchup Tuesday afternoon in Philadelphia, where they take on the Flyers at 3 pm PT (which was changed earlier this week to accommodate for the nearby Philadelphia Phillies playoff game) .
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