By: Brayden Fengler / October 11, 2024 The Vancouver Canucks faced off against the Calgary Flames last night in their first game of the season. Although the Canucks had a strong initial showing with four goals in the first period alone, they could not keep up the pace against Calgary and suffered a 5-4 overtime loss to the Flames.
During this contest, the Canucks were missing their starting goalie Thatcher Demko, who is still on a recovery timeline since his injury during the playoffs last season. This game marks the 13th straight playoff/regular season game that the star goalie has not suited up. Another notable absence was forward Dakota Joshua, who is dealing with his own recovery timeline.
While the absences are significant, the Canucks’ inability to overcome these absences against a team that had 12 fewer wins last season (and missed the playoffs) is concerning. It was never in doubt that the Canucks’ defensive game would be their weakest point to start the year. That being said, they can fix it – even before Demko is back – if they go against their captain’s wishes.
The Good Before the Bad
As expected, the Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek line was exceptional in game one. They were the only Canucks defensive line at even strength with a goal for, as well as the only defensive line with no goals against. Their Corsi numbers were also impressive at a very respectable 61.3%.
The offensive pairing helped their team hold the puck in the Flames zone during the bulk of their time on the ice, which certainly plays into the adage of what makes the best defence.
On the power play as well, Hughes’ first unit and Hronek’s second unit both converted for the club. Hughes’ PP1 did fall victim to a shorthanded goal, but this one is hard to pin on the captain. The goal was initiated by J.T. Miller gifting a tape-to-tape pass to Anthony Mantha which all but sprung him right around Hughes and on a breakaway.
The Bad
The bad was, unfortunately, basically everything else that had to do with the Canucks’ defense (i.e., anything that was not Hughes or Hronek). The lines stayed the same after practice on Wednesday: Soucy and Myers were pair two and new Canucks, Derek Forbort and Vincent Desharnais made up pair three.
One of Myer’s first touches of the pucks during the game was a fumble and a turnover in the Canucks own end, which was a telling forecast for how the second and third unit would handle their defensive responsibilities for the rest of the game.
Myers and Soucy were given nearly the same deployment as Hughes and Hronek, but unfortunately had little to show for it. This line was not involved in any offensive contributions and was responsible for one goal against. The Forbort and Desharnais line fared worse, somewhat expectedly not producing offensively and allowing two goals against under their watch at even strength.
This one-game points breakdown of the Canucks defensive system could not be more indicative of the type of troubles they are likely to face all season if they don’t change it up. Unless Hughes and Hronek skate for 60 minutes a night, there is more than a zero percent chance that their hard work will often be undone by the rest of the Canucks’ defensive talent.
The Defensive Fix the Canucks Should Implement…Now.
Hughes and Hronek cannot play together regularly, at least until Demko is healthy. There is no denying the effectiveness of this line, but the unproven make-up of the pairings below them is more important to address than keeping the Captain and his partner together.
Once Demko is back, perhaps, if the Canucks have had more time to work on their systems (especially the new defensemen) they may be able to skate Hughes and Hronek with more consistency.
But they can’t do that now. As great as Silovs still is, despite his poor showing against Calgary, he cannot be relied on to save the Canucks’ bacon as often as Demko. Demko makes bad mistakes from d-men go unnoticed and for the time being, he is not here to provide that occasional bailout to the Canucks bottom two pairs.
Hronek needs to see more deployment on line two in order to even out the Canucks defensive offerings. This is something that their captain is publicly against, and it’s easy to see why.
Yes, both Hughes and Hronek would likely see a dip in their own production if separated, and yes, when they are together, their control of the ice is unmatched; unfortunately, they need to be split up. With these two together, the Canucks are in a position to win big when they are on the ice and lose big when they are not. The Canucks instead need to be prepared to win small across the whole night.