The Canucks blew a second consecutive multi-goal lead, and while these posts focus on 5v5 play, Vancouver’s performance at 5v4 so far this season leaves a lot to be desired.
I was really impressed by the effort level of the John Tortorella Flyers here. They’re 2-0 to start the season with several no-names on the roster. This isn’t a very good roster. Not only do they not have a single game-breaking forward on the team, in my view, but their lineup has many AHLers on it, such as the Cates brothers, Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, Nic Deslauriers, and Olle Lycksell. Their defence is also in as much trouble as Vancouver’s is, with Ryan Ellis and Rasmus Ristolainen both out to injury.
Still, this team gave a real honest effort and fought for a lot of pucks, and the Canucks were not able to generate much space. These types of efforts probably won’t be sustained for Torts’ group going forward, but they can still probably frustrate teams that aren’t very strong on the puck, like the Canucks are.
Let’s get into the numbers.
5v5 Team Stats
Zone entries
The Canucks held a slim entry differential lead in this one, though this was offset very obviously by how often they commit a turnover at the blueline. A 22% failed entry rate is likely on the high end of what we’ll see in games throughout this season. If we counted “non-failed entries” the gap was merely 58-56 in favour of Vancouver.
This was probably the theme of the night: the Flyers locked down the neutral zone and prevented the Canucks from moving with much speed. The Canucks looked good if they were able to make longer passes and take advantage of some of the extra space the Flyers gave them on the weaker side of the ice, but the north-south game wasn’t working here.
Shots and scoring chances
After the first period, there was a Twitter exchange between Thomas Drance and EJ Hradek, where Hradek disputed Natural Stat Trick’s scoring chance count of 9-1 in the first period in favour of Philly.
My scoring chance counters are an inexact science. I define a scoring chance as:
- Any shot close to the net (inside the faceoff circles)
- Any shot from the slot area (between the faceoff dots and below the tops of the circles) where no defender is pressuring the shooter
- Any shot from the mid-range area (within the circles) that is immediately preceded by a pass
- Any “rush” shot (within 6 seconds of a controlled entry) from the mid-range area
These are generally the types of shots that are more likely to result in goals, in my observation.
In the first period, I had the chances at 11-2 for Philadelphia total, but a 5-2 tie at even strength. NST had 13-1 for Philly total, and 9-1 at 5v5. So perhaps the scoring was a little juiced for the home side in this one.
In the end, the Canucks had a lot more chance “attempts” than the Flyers did, but Philly did a good job at breaking up would-be shots around the net. Only 18 of the Canucks 27 potential chances at 5v5 wound up resulting in shot attempts, and just 12 hit the net. The Flyers closed down that area pretty well.
Exits and DZ touches
The Canucks were a little more efficient at breaking the puck out of their own end than the Flyers were, a big improvement over the Edmonton game when they exited with control just 46% of the time. They also forced the Flyers to commit a few more DZ turnovers.
5v5 Individual Stats
Zone entries
Vancouver:
- No Canuck forwards had a real good night moving the puck through the NZ. It was a volume-heavy game, particularly for the Horvat line, and they were generally quite good at recovering their shoot-ins, with 7 of the line’s 11 dump-ins being recovered. Garland in particular beat a few Flyers D to pucks and was the best Canuck at forcing turnovers. I thought he had a strong game.
- Otherwise, the only real good Canuck here was Quinn Hughes, who had a 8 entry attempts, tied for a team-high, and made a controlled entry on 4 of them, a team-high. Once again, he was the only Canuck D really making anything happen on offence.
Philadelphia:
- The Flyers first line was all over the puck in the NZ. Konecny had a great game, and this table doesn’t include the fabulous pass he made to Laughton on the shorthanded goal. As I said above, this is mainly a group of AHLers, and they don’t have particularly strong puck skills. The Canucks played down to their level a bit, and if you get into a game of whack-puck, the harder-working team is likely going to win.
Zone entry defence
Vancouver:
- You’d expect these numbers to be pretty good, considering the names on the backs of the jerseys of the other team. Schenn and Ekman-Larsson each had tough nights, particularly against that Philly top line: those guys were 3-for-3 when targeting Schenn and 2-for-3 when targeting Ekman-Larsson.
Philadelphia:
- Rumours of Ivan Provorov’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. He reportedly had a very tough start to last season, but he’s been an elite two-way defender in this league for a few years now, and did a fantastic job Saturday afternoon.
- Sanheim had a tough game. Also, funnily, DeAngelo was the only Flyers D I didn’t record as forcing a failed entry.
Shots and scoring chances
Vancouver:
- If there’s any one thing I’d be concerned about more than the powerplay, it’s the Miller line’s inability to create anything at 5v5. Those three combined for just two scoring chances in Edmonton and three in Philadelphia, essentially being out-produced by the fourth line. Even worse, they aren’t really setting anybody up either. Pearson set up a Miller chance early in the third period but that’s the only chance assist by a top-line player thus far.
- I loved Kuzmenko in the first game, not so much here. Both settled down a bit. Kuzmenko played his way off the first powerplay unit with three poor plays during a sequence at the end of the 2nd period (he missed a pass, missed a tap-in, and lost a board battle). I’ve been quite vocal in liking that unit better when Boeser is not only on it, but involved.
- I also loved Podkolzin in Edmonton, and he was very “meh” in this one.
- The team’s shots leader was Kyle Burroughs, which isn’t a great sign.
Philadelphia:
- The Flyers somehow scored three goals out of all this (granted, two were on special teams). While the Hayes line was good at moving the puck through the NZ, they weren’t able to get much going in the OZ.
- Farabee had a decent night, and it looks like he’s going to work himself into a role as a swiss army knife for the Flyers, who can play competently on all forward lines and both special teams units. He had a game-high 3 scoring chance setups in this game.
- Wade Allison is probably a guy no casual fan had heard of coming into this game, but he acquitted himself well, with 7 shots, 3 qualifying as scoring chances, just kind of creating havoc around the net.
Exits and DZ touches
Vancouver:
- As I said above, the Canucks exited the zone fairly well in this one, and it was pretty well-balanced.
- I found myself surprised throughout the game at how much I was enjoying Riley Stillman’s game. He was a little more involved handling the puck than he was in Edmonton, and so far, 6 of his 7 DZ exits have been with control, and he’s commit a single turnover on 15 DZ touches. If they can find a way to get Stillman to control the puck well in sheltered minutes alongside the very dependable Burroughs, it could be a big boost for the team.
- The lack of controlled exits from the top line has me wondering if maybe they’re blowing the zone too quickly. So far it’s just 8 total controlled exits for those three players through two games (Podkolzin has that many on his own). They just aren’t playing with any sort of flow right now. It might be time to mix it up a bit and split them up.
Philadelphia:
- Again, we see a key theme of what exactly the Flyers are dealing with this year. After that top line, not a lot of controlled exits: they were throwing the puck into the NZ and fighting to get it back. It’s a game plan that won’t work against teams that come in playing a bit sharper.
- There were two fights in this game: Nick Deslauriers vs. Kyle Burroughs, and Justin Braun vs. The Puck. Hockey Fights gave Deslauriers a unanimous decision against Burroughs, and I am saying The Puck beat Braun in a second round KO.
The numbers slightly favoured Vancouver in this one, and perhaps they deserved to win the game at 5v5, which they did. That said, they were out-worked by a team that had a lot of minor leaguers on it and failed to do much offensively. The powerplay is a concern, the lack of offence from the top line is a concern. With the first line, if it were only a production issue, there wouldn’t be cause for alarm, but their inability to really create much of anything through two games should start to raise some alarm bells. There are still three games left on this trip.
Thank you for reading. I hope you found something informative in here. I’m not a huge fan of website comments, so if you have suggestions, notes on what you liked or didn’t like, kindly get at me on Twitter @camcharronyvr, or send me an email camcharron@gmail.com.
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