Vancouver Canucks: Goalie Controversy, Poor Penalty Kill, and Weak Defense?

It’s been far too quiet out there what with the Canucks locking up their third Northwest Division title in the last four seasons. And all you out there (and me included) were calling for coach Alain Vigneault’s head last season.

Goalie controversy—what controversy? Roberto Luongo is 12th in GA/G with a 2.63. Last season he finished in the seventh spot with a 2.60. Also, when was the last time that the Nucks had such a competent backup in Andrew Raycroft (9-4-1; GAA of 2.31; Sv% of .914)?

It’s easy to see what the difference is this year, and that’s team defense.

That sometimes is the price you pay when you currently rank third (tied) for wins with 48, second with 3.24 goals per game, second in 5-5 F/A, fifth in PP%, fifth in points with 100 and still three games to play as I write. Add to that the second best record in the second half of the season and you have a huge improvement in the offensive category.

I’m not going to bore you with the same stats from last year, but suffice to say they were all and will be, worse.

Career years for a number of players—Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, Mikael Samuelsson, Mason Raymond, Christian Ehrhoff, and the list goes on—have also helped the Nucks to ice the best offensive team, in my opinion, since 1994.

So what if the team defense is a few hundredths of a point off—who cares when they can score? Two seasons ago everyone was crying about one of lowest-scoring teams in the league.

I think the Nucks have done pretty well surviving a rash of injuries, with a makeup of seventh through 10th in the depth department playing on defense for periods of the season. Losing a key shutdown player like Willie Mitchell would sink most teams.

Don’t get me wrong here, they really do miss Willie Mitchell, but Christian Ehrhoff, who was added as a possible quarterback on the power play, has turned out to be a huge addition to the back end. Just look at his stats and how he has played should clarify that picture.

Now, the penalty kill, which finished last season in 16th and is currently in 18th, really does concern me. Teams that don’t finish in the top 10 don’t usually go very far in the playoffs.

Will this turn around in the postseason? It’s really hard to say, but all the Nucks need to do is get on one of those rolls where they kill off 16, 17 in a row and that cures that problem.

There is reason that the optimism and the expectations are so high this year. As they say, the proof will be in the pudding.

Next up, I will talk about the keys to the Nucks' playoff success.