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Silovs comes up big in first win for Canucks this season

Trevor Beggs
Trevor Beggs
|
Nov 17 2024, 5:39 am
Silovs comes up big in first win for Canucks this season
Bob Frid-Imagn Images

Life moves fast, just ask Arturs Silovs.

After a magical run for the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs last season, the 2024-25 campaign did not start according to plan.

Silovs bounced back in this contest. After former teammate Ilya Mikheyev opened the scoring for the Chicago Blackhawks, Silovs shut the door. He ended up stopping 28 of 29 shots in a 4-1 win for the Canucks.

Prior to this contest, the Latvian netminder lost his first three games after entering the season as the starting netminder with Thatcher Demko injured. He allowed 15 goals in those three starts and subsequently lost the net to the red hot Kevin Lankinen.

While the 15 goals in three games stat line is ugly, it wasn’t all on Silovs. He was hung out to dry in a chaotic first game of the season against the Calgary Flames, largely played well in a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then was completely abandoned by his team in a putrid 6-0 defeat at the hands of the New Jersey Devils.

It’s worth remembering though just how good Silovs was in the playoffs despite having just nine NHL games of experience prior to that run. He has the potential to be much better than his early season statistics indicated, and he proved that tonight.

Pettersson spoils Bedard’s homecoming

Connor Bedard will likely go down as the best NHL player to ever hail from Vancouver.

However, he was far from the best player on the ice during his hometown debut.

The Blackhawks’ 19-year-olf phenom spent the majority of his even-strength minutes lined up against Elias Pettersson’s line. In those minutes, Pettersson and the Canucks had 16 shots attempts to just one for the Blackhawks. One of those shot attempts ended up being the game-winning goal, which came off the stick of Erik BrĂ€nnström.

This isn’t the only time the Canucks have dominated possession with Pettersson on the ice. After a rough start to the season over the first five games, the Canucks have largely controlled play when Pettersson steps over the boards.

While that didn’t translate into offence right away, Pettersson has had a positive expected goals differential in every game since October 22nd, when the Canucks first played the Blackhawks.

In those 11 games, Pettersson’s expected goal differential of 66.8% is the fourth-best mark in the entire NHL. He has five goals and eight points in those 11 games.

There’s another gear for Pettersson offensively, but Canucks fans can safely breathe a sigh of relief.

He’s back.

The rise of BrÀnnström

Some things in life just go together perfectly.

Peanut butter and jelly. Jimi Hendrix and a guitar. Sweden and the Vancouver Canucks.

The Canucks organization has been blessed by Swedes for decades now, and that narrative rang true again tonight.

Not only was Pettersson the Canucks best player, but their second-best skater was also a fellow Swede, BrÀnnström.

The 25-year-old defenceman, acquired by Canucks Swedish general manager Patrik Allvin, was all over the ice tonight. It didn’t start well, as he was outmuscled on the Blackhawks only goal, but he more than made up for that blemish.

BrĂ€nnström led all Canucks players with four shots on net at even-strength, and he was rewarded by scoring the team’s only five-on-five goal of the night.

He now has two goals in his last three games, after scoring only two goals in his previous 62 contest dating back to last season.

BrÀnnström also laid arguably the Canucks biggest hit of the night shortly after Chicago opened the scoring.

It’s hard to believe that BrĂ€nnström was more or less a throw in for cap purposes when the Canucks dealt Tucker Poolman’s and his contract to the Colorado Avalanche on October 6th.

BrÀnnström went straight to the AHL after the deal. Now, just 41 days later, he could be on the verge of pushing for a top-four role with the Canucks.

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