Vancouver Canucks: 3 keys to victory against the Sharks
By Chris Faber
Love is still lingering in the air after Jim Benning received his Valentine’s Day present from Trevor Linden and the Aquilini’s. But the team on the ice will have their minds set on the San Jose Sharks. Here are 3 keys to victory.
After a four goal against first period versus the Florida Panthers, the Vancouver Canucks will try to bounce back on the second night of a back to back with travel against the second best team in their Pacific Division.
The Sharks are build strong from top to bottom, they currently have seven players with over 10 goals and two defencemen who are currently sitting with nine goals a piece. The Canucks will have to contain the big defenceman in Brett Burns, who currently has 242 shots on goal so far this season and is as active offensively as any other defenceman in the NHL.
The Canucks come into this game losing five of their last six games and have a lot of youth that fans have been clamoring for inserted into the lineup due to some recent injuries.
Reid Boucher, Darren Archibald and even a possibility of Nikolai Goldobin or Philip Holm playing in the second of a back to back after a tough performance is a strong possibility and after Jim Benning and Trevor Linden’s press conference. They both implied that young players would be given an opportunity to play.
In the case of Boucher, Goldobin and Holm there should be some powerplay opportunities and those guys will have to step up if they want to earn a spot on the Canucks roster at the beginning of next season.
From this point in the season the Canucks should try and let players showcase what they can bring to the team in the seasons to come. I’m curious on what Boucher, Holm, Goldobin and even Jake Virtanen can do with the man advantage.
It will be Travis Green’s job to try and develop players and this game against the Sharks will definitely be a good test as they are one of the strongest contenders coming out of the pacific division. The Canucks will need their “A” game to head down to the Shark tank and come out victorious.
Shut down the “Active D”
A couple big pieces of the San Jose Sharks success so far this season come from Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. These two offensive defencemen lead the Sharks on the back end and each love to contribute to the offence as Burns leads the team in points and Vlasic moves the puck through the neutral zone at an elite level.
The Canucks won’t be able to play a run and gun game with the Sharks, they just do not have the defencemen to keep up with the likes of Burns and Vlasic. They tried this type of game against the Florida Panthers and got burned from it.
Pepper the goalie
The Canucks should take away some game adjustments they made and have shown in their past two games.
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The Dallas game they were firing as many shots as possible and against James Reimer of the Panthers, they has moments of the game where they were testing Reimer.
The Sharks will either go with Martin Jones or Aaron Dell in net.
Those two goalies are one of the top duos in the NHL so the Canucks will have to lean on a strong start with some shots from anywhere to get some confidence that they will need to keep up.
Whether it be Jones or Dell it will be a tough task as they combine for five shutouts and a goals against average under 2.60.
Power play needs to come through for this team to win
The Canucks could have used some clutch powerplay goals against the Panthers but fell short on some late game attempts with the man advantage. The good teams find a way to make the powerplay be a game-changer and when the Canucks powerplay can clutch up they will find a lot more wins coming their way.
The key is Brock Boeser, but right now many other teams and keying in on him too. Boeser is clearly the best shooter on the Canucks and after his all-star performance the league is on full notice of his abilities.
Boeser may look to find some open passes or maybe let the Sedins do some more board work with the amount of penalty killers that now find themselves leaning towards Boeser’s side of the ice and getting in his shooting lanes.
All in all it is going to take one heck of a performance to knock off the Sharks and I think the Canucks should explore playing Philip Holm because it’s about time we see what he can do at an NHL level.
Head coach Travis Green has seen enough of Holm and definitely a few Canucks fans would pay more attention due to a Holm appearance. I would like to see Anders Nilsson start as well as I believe he was planned to start in this game before Jacob Markstrom let in four goals in the fist period against the Panthers.
Next: Canucks roundtable: Debating Benning's extension
Vancouver will have to be ready to play tonight because you know the Sharks will be. Hopefully the Canucks don’t find themselves beginning a new losing streak. Unless you’re on #RaceForDahlin , if so let the good times roll