The Vancouver Canucks wrapped up their three-game road trip against the Vegas Golden Knights on March 7, beating Vegas 3-1 in one of their best defensive efforts all season. Now on a three-game winning streak, their defence in those games has been remarkable, receiving valuable contributions from every player on the ice and it was no different in Sin City on Thursday night. Here are three takeaways from their victory.
Welcome Back, Carson Soucy
First-year Canuck Carson Soucy has had a bit of an up-and-down debut season for the team in blue and green and that’s not to do with his play on the ice. Playing just 23 games this season, his biggest battle has been the dreaded injury bug so far. Despite that, he’s been arguably Vancouver’s top defensive defenceman all year, and it was no different against Vegas.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Soucy had the second-highest expected goals-for percentage (xG%) among Canucks defencemen on Thursday night with an impressive 70.90%. His partner Ian Cole ranked slightly ahead of him, coming in at 71.55%. Both he and Cole have been superb in their debut seasons in British Columbia and their pairing should continue to be dynamite in the postseason if the both of them stay healthy.
In their previous two games against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver’s defence was also stellar. Don’t get me wrong, both Casey DeSmith and Thatcher Demko were also great, but the Canucks defensive unit did a great job of keeping players in front of them and making their goaltender’s lives easier. Soucy returned to the lineup for that Ducks game, and since then the team’s blue line has never looked better.
Ilya Mikheyev Shows Life
It doesn’t take a genius to see that Ilya Mikheyev has been struggling since the beginning of the new year. Now scoreless in 32 games, he simply feels snakebitten at this point when it comes to putting the puck in the net. On top of that, he’s largely looked invisible out there, especially as of late. Now, despite not scoring against Vegas, he was dynamic and more than noticeable in the offensive zone.
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He finished the game with Vancouver’s second-highest Corsi for percentage (CF%) at 55.56% and was by far the most noticeable on the ice between his two linemates, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. He forechecked hard, looked like his pre-torn ACL self when it came to his skating and even made a multitude of high-danger-chance scoring passes to set up his teammates like the one below.
As stated before, he didn’t score. Heck, he didn’t register a point, either. But his performance against the Golden Knights was easily his best during his everlonging goal drought. If he continues to play the way he did on Thursday night, his poor luck will eventually run dry. This version of Mikheyev was the one Canucks fans saw before his drought, where he was genuinely effective on both ends of the puck. If he can do that night in and night out, Vancouver is deeper than ever in terms of forward depth.
Canucks Are Built for Postseason
The Canucks beat two solid, talented teams in the Kings and now Golden Knights on their road trip (sorry, Anaheim). The Kings are a young team with veteran leaders and a stingy, borderline-boring style of hockey that seems mind-numbing to play against. And the Golden Knights are once again built to contend this season with yet another deep roster due to their innate ability to find extra cap room right before the trade deadline hits. Jokes aside, they’re a top team.
Vegas, since their inception back in 2017, has been one of the Canucks’ hardest teams to beat. Vancouver was 5-11-2 against the guys in gold previously, and had every reason to lose again on the final leg of their road trip. Instead, they went out, punched the Golden Knights in the mouth early on thanks to two goals by Quinn Hughes and Phil Di Giuseppe, and took home the two points while making their opposition look completely inferior.
It’s games like those that make you sit down and wonder, “Wow, the Canucks really could win it all.” T-Mobile Arena is one of the hardest places to play at. There’s the raucous crowd, the entertainment, and the post-goal announcement that sounds like an action movie and takes an eternity to get through, it’s a really tough barn to play in. Vancouver could’ve lied down after nearly a week of travelling and phoned it in. Instead, they quieted that crowd, took home the two points playing Rick Tocchet-hockey and showed that they are truly primed to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
The Canucks return home to face the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, March 9 in a heavyweight bout that could have strong playoff-seeding implications.
