Casey DeSmith was outstanding in punching pucks away from danger and his Canucks teammates did a great job hitting the net for their goals.
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Three games in and we’re getting a pretty clear picture of how the Vancouver Canucks want to play.
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They want to keep things tidy around their net and take their chances on offence when they come.
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On Friday, the Canucks did just that.
They barely let the Predators inside. Nashville managed just five “high-danger” scoring chances, for instance. (Data from Natural Stat Trick).
That’s outstanding.
But even more telling is this: Casey DeSmith dealt with just two rebound chances on the night, one of the lowest one-game totals for him all season. There were so few rebounds, only one stands out, a save with his toe on Predators rookie Luke Evangelista.
DeSmith was adept at punching pucks away from the net, not leaving them sitting in front.
And it’s also a sign that his defencemen were keeping the space in front of him clear.
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During the regular season, DeSmith averaged more than five rebound chances against per game.
“You could just tell that he had it,” Rick Tocchet said Friday night. “He just looked big. He wasn’t side-to-side flopping. I think that really gave confidence to the team.”
Hitting the net
Now, the Canucks made few forays into the Nashville end in the third period, and overall only had 12 shots on goal, but it’s still notable that the Canucks didn’t miss the net nearly as much as they did in game 2.
The Canucks recorded 12 shots on goal, had 12 shots blocked and missed the net “just” nine times.
At even strength, they had seven shots on goal, had nine shots blocked and all nine misses actually came at five on five.
That’s not a ton of volume, but those are pretty standard ratios.
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The key thing is, of course, that the power play was lethal.
Hitting the net has a secondary purpose: not creating fast turnovers for the Predators. One of the things we’ve seen is how quickly they can transition the puck and in game 1, we saw a number of cases where the Canucks missed the net and the Predators, who were ready and waiting for the pucks to bounce their way, quickly attacked the other way.
We’ve seen much less of this in the last two games. It’s a trend that must continue for game 3.
How the goals happened
Only three goals last night but all are worth contemplating.
Goal 1: Vancouver 1-0, J.T. Miller, 13:23 of the first period
How many times have we seen this goal?
Miller taking a lovely off-load pass from Hughes, as he accelerates towards the net, then wiring a hard wrist shot at the top corner?
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There’s a reason why Miller gets himself moving, he’s trying to recreate a rush opportunity while still in-zone. By moving, that forces the goalie to adjust. The goalie can never really come set, so it challenges their technique.
And closing the distance on the net also means the goalie’s reaction time is lessened.
The other factor in this is Brock Boeser’s late screen, disrupting Juuse Saros’ view of Miller. Boeser is probably the best net-front player the Canucks have, he’s become really talented at taking the goalie’s eyes away at crucial moments.
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It’s become one of the true go-to moves for this power play.
“That’s a play we look for all the time, I’ve just got to find a way past their (first) layer,” Miller told Dan Murphy post-game. “I think Brock did a really great job screening.”
Goal 2: Vancouvrer 2-0, Brock Boeser, 4:33 of the second period
More classic stuff from Boeser and Miller.
He creates the perfect target for Miller to hit with his stick and Miller does the rest.
There is no better passer on the Canucks than Miller, who has a special talent for whipping the puck on the perfect angle over to teammates.
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Goal 3: Vancouver 2-1, Luke Evangelista, 16:48 of the third period
Nashville scored because the Canucks finally made some mistakes.
Filip Hronek made an aggressive play in the neutral zone, which is what the Canucks’ defensive scheme does call for, but it means that everyone else have to adjust and if any of his teammates aren’t on point, a pinch like this can open up big problems.
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The real culprit here is Elias Lindholm, who gets screened out briefly on the back check and then over plays Evangelista. Instead of just going right at him, he tries to take away the space in front of the Predators’ forward, but then overplays his hand and ends up doing nothing.
Evangelista is allowed an unchallenged shot off a rush, which is what the Predators are always looking for.
Safe to say the Canucks will be reviewing this one.
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reference: theprovince.com