Welcome Matt: Canucks’ defence corps is looking passable again
Nobody will ever confuse them with the Colorado Avalanche, but after a pair of wins, a trade, and good health for Quinn Hughes, the Vancouver Canucks’ defence corps is looking passable again.
Monday’s practice saw Hughes back from a lower-body injury alongside security-blanket partner Luke Schenn, while newcomer Ethan Bear took a spot on the third-pair beside Riley Stillman. Both players were acquired in the last month, with Bear joining Friday via a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The upshot was that rookie Jack Rathbone and Langley’s Kyle Burroughs were pushed down to the fourth pair — a little unfairly given Rathbone was part of back-to-back wins over Seattle and Pittsburgh last week and Burroughs had his moments earlier in the season, standing out in games the Canucks were losing.
But as the Canucks dig out of the 0-5-2 hole they created for themselves, a couple of observations about the blue line deserve more notoriety.
The Athletic’s Cam Charron joined our show Thursday prior to the modest winning streak, and mentioned moving the puck out of the defensive zone hadn’t been that bad for the Canucks, even without Hughes. The problem was more that defencemen had done so little to help scoring in the offensive zone.
After the victories, and going into Saturday’s play, our Jeff Paterson noted only the Vegas Golden Knights (20) had more assists from their defencemen than did Vancouver (18).
It’s beginning to harken last season when a Canucks’ defence group that looked poor on paper outplayed its reputation. The sum of the parts were better than expected, in part because Tyler Myers’ transitioned into a more defensive defenceman alongside partner Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and because Schenn was so solid.
Look — this blue line has a long way to go before the playoffs and upgrades are necessary long-term. But if Vancouver’s forwards can score, and the goaltending remains upper-echelon, then the defence just has to be good, not great.
We saw some of that last year, and we’re seeing some of it this year.