It's time for the Canucks to ditch conventional wisdom for defence pairings
How quickly things have changed for the Vancouver Canucks.
It was less than a week ago that the market was overflowing with optimism after the team’s first 2-0 start in seven years. However, back-to-back losses against the Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning have exposed some of the team’s weaknesses.
Most notably, the Canucks’ defence has really struggled over the last two games. From obvious errors, such as the defensive zone giveaways by Tyler Myers against the Lightning, to smaller details, the defence has been struggling to perform at an adequate level.
The Canucks are third last in the entire NHL in shots allowed per game. While not all the blame lands on the defence corps, they need to be better.
To give the Canucks credit, there have been some attempted changes through the early part of this season as eight different defencemen have touched the ice. There are a lot of new faces and the coaching staff is still trying to find the best combinations.
As of right now, the Canucks defensive pairings look like the following:
Hughes – Hronek
Cole – Myers
Soucy – Friedman/Juulsen
This is what they’ve managed to come up with while strictly adhering to the traditional belief that you need to have three left-handed players fill the left side and three right-handed players on the right side. It’s time for the Canucks to break that belief.
If the Canucks want to give themselves the best chance of winning games, they need to ice their six best defencemen and get their best four blueliners playing in their top four. That means having four left-handed players and just two right-handed players. While head coach Rick Tocchet has seemingly been against doing this so far, the team’s obvious lack of depth on the right side is costing them games.
Here is what those pairings would look like if the Canucks ditched the conventional thought that you need to have three of each side in your defence group:
Hughes – Hronek
Soucy – Cole
Hirose – Myers
While these combinations still leave lots of questions to be answered â for example, if Soucy can perform in a top-four role or what a Hirose and Myers pair would look like â it gives the Canucks the best chance at winning.
Cole does have experience playing alongside Jaccob Slavin and Victor Hedman, both stud defencemen who patrol the left side. His ability to play both sides was one of the qualities that made Cole such an attractive free agent pickup.
Juulsen and the newly acquired Mark Friedman would both be sitting in this scenario. Juulsen had a rough showing in the three games he played as the Canucks had just 25.38% of the expected goals while he was on the ice at five-on-five. He also took a penalty in the third period of the Flyers game that prevented the Canucks from having a crucial power play.
Marc Staal boards Phillip Di Giuseppe, then Noah Juulsen jumps Staal and both are sent to the box. We're getting 4-on-4 hockey. Not a smart decision by Juulsen. pic.twitter.com/90lYnnbYbG
— Ryan Quigley (@ryanquigz) October 18, 2023
Friedman slotted into the lineup for the first time against the Lightning. When he was on the ice at five-on-five, the Canucks were outshot 9-0. It’s just one game and it was his first with a new team, but the Canucks should let him stay in the press box until needed.
If Tocchet is hellbent on playing an equal number of left and right-handed defencemen, as he has shown thus far, then there are other ways that he could get creative to make some changes.
So far, the Canucks have been loading their top pairing with Hughes and Hronek. Before the season started, it was actually thought by most that these two would not play together.
The Canucks have outscored opponents 4-0 with the Hughes/Hronek pairing on the ice at five-on-five. However, the underlying numbers suggest things may not be going as smoothly. They’ve actually been outshot 34-28 and out-chanced 31-29 during those minutes. They’ve been the beneficiary of some great goaltending, as has everyone on the Canucks.
If Tocchet broke up that top pairing, Hughes could play with one of either Noah Juulsen or Friedman. While those aren’t the best options to get the most from the captain, Hughes has shown he can carry a pairing in the past and actually had solid results in limited minutes with Juulsen last season.
The pairings would then look something like this:
Hughes – Juulsen/Friedman
Cole – Hronek
Soucy – Myers
While this would put a lot of pressure on Hughes, at least you’re relying on one of your best players to carry a heavy load. The second pairing then looks very strong with Cole and Hronek, two players who have been steady thus far.