Last season, the Canucks set a franchise record for fewest goals in a full-length season, tallying just 191 goals, an average of 2.33 goals per game. While Jannik Hansen, Bo Horvat, and Sven Baertschi set career highs in goals, Radim Vrbata disappointed and the Canucks just couldn’t get enough scoring throughout their lineup, particularly their defence.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the rest of the NHL doesn’t think particularly highly of the Canucks’ ability to put the puck in the net. As a result, the Canucks have faced an above average number of backup goaltenders this year. In nine of their 24 games, they’ve faced the clear backup, while in two other games it was more of a 1B situation.
The average starter in the NHL has played 18 games, leaving five to seven games for the backup. Sure enough, four of the backups the Canucks faced have only played in five games this season. There’s a reason one of those five games was against the Canucks.
So far, the Canucks are averaging 2.21 goals per game, second lowest in the league ahead of only the lowly Buffalo Sabres. They’re on pace for just 181 goals, 10 fewer than last year.
And those totals have been padded by playing so many backup goaltenders. The Canucks have scored three or more goals in just nine games this season; five of those games were against backups. Another was against Peter Budaj, the de facto starter in Los Angeles with Jonathan Quick hurt. The other three were against Mike Smith, Kari Lehtonen, and Frederik Andersen.
There are some bright spots, of course. Well, spot. Bo Horvat leads the team in goalscoring with 8 goals, on pace for a 27-goal season. Ignore his completely unsustainable shooting percentage and you might convince yourself that he could score 30 goals. Heck, if Willie Desjardins starts giving him the ice time he deserves, including some extra power play time, he just might do it.
There’s also hope that Loui Eriksson could start to fill the net, particularly if he reunites with the Sedins. Until then, we can only anxiously await the return of Jannik Hansen.
Right now, the Canucks are no threat. They’re near the bottom of the standings, they struggle to score, and their coach doesn’t know how to deploy his leading scorer. So it’s safe for opposing teams to send out their backup and rest up their number one goaltender for a tougher opponent.
But if the Canucks start to threaten to make a playoff spot, you can bet they’ll start seeing more number ones.
