Do the Vancouver Canucks Have a More Potent Offense Than Last Year?

Last season the Vancouver Canucks were the best offensive team in the NHL, leading in goals per game and power play efficiency, while Daniel Sedin walked away with the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's scoring leader.

That edition of the team was led by the Sedin twins and Ryan Kesler. All the offense went through those three players, as Henrik and Daniel finished fourth and first overall respectively in the NHL scoring race, while Ryan Kesler and Daniel finished tied for fourth overall in the Rocket Richard race for the most goals.

That potent offense was a double-edged sword, as the Canucks fell to the Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals largely due to Zdeno Chara, Tim Thomas and injuries combining to neutralize those three key players, which is something the Blackhawks, Predators and Sharks tried to do, but failed to, in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

This season, the Canucks have spread the scoring around, and while it might seem counter-intuitive, the big three are all on pace for worse seasons offensively than last year—but the team is actually scoring more goals.

In 2010-2011, the Canucks scored 3.15 goals per game. Through the first 45 games of 2011-2012, the Canucks are scoring 3.22 goals per game. The power play is a touch worse at 23.6 percent this year versus 24.3 percent last year, but is still the best in the NHL.

The Canucks' leading scorer in 2010-2011 was Daniel Sedin with 104 points. The Canucks leading scorer this year is Henrik Sedin, who is on pace for only 95 points. However, Henrik is still leading the NHL in scoring, and appears poised to take home his second Art Ross Trophy.

Last year's edition of the Canucks had five players with 50 or more points: Both Sedins, Kesler, Mikael Samuelsson and Christian Ehrhoff.

Ehrhoff left as a free agent to join the Buffalo Sabres and Samuelsson was traded to Florida early in the season.

This year's version of the Canucks also has five players on pace for 50 or more points. The Sedins and Kesler are of course on the list, joined by Alex Edler and Alex Burrows.

However, there are also four more Canucks on pace to score in the mid-to-high 40's. Cody Hodgson, Jannik Hansen, Kevin Bieksa and Chris Higgins are providing secondary scoring that wasn't present last year.

When you look at actual goals instead of just overall points, the scoring is evenly distributed.

Last season, the Canucks only had three players (Daniel Sedin, Burrows and Kesler) hit the 20-goal mark, which is rather odd given how they dominated the league offensively.

In 2010-2011, 82 of the 258 goals scored by the Canucks were put in the net by Kesler or Daniel Sedin. That is 31.7 percent of the total goals scored by just two players.

This year, only 21.3 percent (31 of 145) of Canucks' goals have been scored by those two players.

Five players (both Sedins, Kesler, Burrows and Hansen) are on pace to exceed the 20-goal mark. Two more players, Hodgson and Higgins, are on pace for 18 and 19 goals respectively, so they could very easily top 20 goals as well.

Essentially last season the Canucks had one really good scoring line (Sedins and Burrows) and another scoring line that was carried by a really good centre (Kesler's helicopter line).

This year, the Canucks still have the excellent top line, but they also have better wingers for Ryan Kesler on the second line. With the emergence of Jannik Hansen and rookie Cody Hodgson making the team, the Canucks also have a solid third line that can score as well.

Two speedy offensive players, Mason Raymond and David Booth, have both missed significant time due to injuries, and if healthy can also be counted on for secondary scoring.

The move to try and distribute the scoring more evenly might result in lesser personal stats for the elite players, but it has made the Canucks more of a threat to score on every shift and teams have had a harder time shutting them down.

Hopefully this strategy will pay dividends in the playoffs, when every opponent will focus on shutting down the Sedins and Kesler.