So the Canucks were a product of PDO all this time? Or are they still a legitimate contender?

[Spectrefire]

The team's only two major weakness this season is health and defence.

The top-six is as good any contender with two 100 point centers in Pettersson and Miller, and a slate of good wingers in Boeser, Garland, and Debrusk,

The bottom of the forward line-up is also as deep as it's been in years, with Heinen, Blueger, Suter, Sherwood and Joshua.

The top pair of Hughes and Hronek is at least a top-3 pair in the league, if not top pair based on Hughes' play lone.

If Demko returns healthy and to form, him and Lankinen might be one of the best goaltending tandems in the league.

On paper, this team is a healthy roster and a 2nd pair D away from a contender calibre team.

 

[Three On Zero]

Lankinens GSAx is literally dead even meaning he's not producing better or worse than what the defense has provided. Silovs on the other hand, yikes... he's been one of the worst goalies in the league this year. So as a whole, canucks have gotten below average goaltending.

It’s funny seeing fans praise Lankinen when he really hasn’t been that good. He’s had some decent games but it’s easy to see why he got the contract that he did. Solid backup option

 

[arttk]

The team's only two major weakness this season is health and defence.

I want to know which team’s weakness is not health.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

A very mediocre team, evidently so now that their PDO has come back to normal.

 

[Rowlet]

A very mediocre team, evidently so now that their PDO has come back to normal.

2 pts less than last season after 23 games with half their core players missing time due to injuries unlike last season.

You should be more worried about the Avs instead.

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

I think last year was certainly about PDO but I think they also caught a lot of teams off guard as nobody was expecting them to be as good as they were.

Another element is that until the playoffs were basically a completely healthy team. This year they don't have that luxury.

The one benefit they do have is that the Pacific division is utter garbage.

You'll note the Oilers fan doesn't say anywhere the Canucks are a good team. Goaltending and team defense really are foreign concepts up there, hu?

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

It’s funny seeing fans praise Lankinen when he really hasn’t been that good. He’s had some decent games but it’s easy to see why he got the contract that he did. Solid backup option

Yeah just because he's playing like a legend in comparison to Silovs doesn't change the fact he's been just average. I've seen fans say Lankinen was the only reason the Nucks won against Pittsburgh at home and got a point against Carolina, and I'm like, bruh Lankinen played subpar vs both of them. The only game he truly outright stole was the Boston game. He had two bad games against Edmonton and Nashville, along with a subpar game against Detroit.

 

[JianYang]

Last year there was a lot of talk as they had a pretty incredible season finishing 6th and winning the pacific while being in contention for the presidents trophy most of the year. Notably, they had a pretty high PDO last season which was beaten to death. It even ended up with pdo themed avatars being discussed by fans owning it which was fun PDO themed Avatars

But now we are left with the question of what exactly are the Canucks. A team who could never get over the hump, end up having a huge year, and then have an up and down year so far sitting 11th in the league as time of this post.

What are the Canucks? Are they a contender in your mind?

They are surviving some key injuries. Last year, they didn't have much in the way of injury adversity until the playoffs.

I think it's mission accomplished for now, and then hope you can get your peices back and get into best form at the right time. In the meantime, continue to keep head above water.

 

[Regal]

Their PDO has regressed but they've improved to the middle of the pack in most other categories to compensate as opposed to being near the bottom like they were last year. Still not a contender though imo.

You mean the first month of last year? Because they were a top 10 team by most metrics last year.

 

[Regal]

The Canucks appear to have had an easier than average schedule so far this year.

That’s actually a decent part of it. Last year they had a great record despite a ton of games early and decent opponents. This year they’ve been rested and have played a lot of bottom feeders. The defense is significantly worse this year and unless they get it together I can’t see them competing against anyone good in a 7 game series.

 

[innitfam]

They're not as good as the highest highs of last year. But they are still a secondary contender IMO, if they add the right help on D and Demko plays well.upon returning, they are dangerous

 

[Regal]

The thing with PDO is that it’s mistakenly looked at as solely a measure of luck, when it’s mostly a measure of sustainability. The team last year was healthy and firing on all cylinders until the all star break, and even after that were playing very cohesive hockey and did a great job of protecting leads. That type of success and cohesion is hard to repeat though, which is why you need to have a strong foundation that leads to success without always playing your best. This year has been really up and down in that regard, and they’ve played mostly like a bubble team but have a solid record since they’ve had a relatively soft schedule. I think they can be better, especially if they can add a top 4 Dman, but I don’t think they’re a real contender.

 

[Regal]

It’s funny seeing fans praise Lankinen when he really hasn’t been that good. He’s had some decent games but it’s easy to see why he got the contract that he did. Solid backup option

I think Silovs has made Lankinen look better than he has, but I also don’t think expected goals is always accurate in terms of a goalie’s value, especially over smaller samples. Lankinen hasn’t been Demko, but he’s mostly given the team a chance to win every night .

 

[kanucks25]

They have too many good players to be a lottery team, but Id say the same for the Sabres.
Whatever is going on with Miller makes me nervous though.

I cant see them getting by Vegas or Edm and maybe are on par with the Kings.

The Canucks were a top 10 team last year that took EDM to game 7 in round 2 and likely win that series if Demko was in net.

To make a comparison to a team like Buffalo that hasn't even made the playoffs in like a decade is asinine.

Canucks are hovering around top 10 again despite having anywhere between 1 and 3 key players out of the lineup for every game so far this season. If they can get healthy and add a good piece at the deadline which they are surely looking to do, they have a legit chance. Would I put them in the Florida or Dallas category? Probably not but they're also not a pretender.

 

[ijuka]

Canucks point% to start this season is .630 and PDO to start this season is 1.000.

Canucks point% last season from January 1st was .652 and PDO 1.013.

Canucks point% last season before January 1st was .681 and PDO 1.048.


Looking at this, yes. Last season was approximately all PDO. Adjusting for PDO, the current season they are similarly good to how good they were last season.

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

Their season isn't bad so far for having no Demko.

 

[HockeyWooot]

Last year the Canucks were remarkably healthy, this year has been the opposite. All things considered faring pretty well.

Despite the record their play has lacked consistency and cohesion, attention to details.

If they can get healthy they’re at least as good a team as last year, if they can add a top 4 RHD they’re probably better.

 

[Knight53]

When your team has a Franchise #1C/D/G in Pettersson/Miller/Hughes/Demko and excellent surrounding pieces in Boeser/Hronek/Garland to go along with excellent management you’re going to be a legitimate contender. When healthy and youngsters in Willander/Lekkerimaki/Pettersson join the team full time, it’s as lethal as any team in the league.

 

[BoHorvat 53]

Every year a fanbase tries to argue that pdo isn't a real thing, and then come back down to earth the next year like clockwork.

But where is the come back down to earth here? We're at essentially the same spot as last year when people were calling our team PDO merchants, except this year we've had Miller, Boeser, Hronek, and Joshua all miss a decent chunk of time thus far and we haven't had the Vezina trophy runner up all season, and yet we're still in the race to win the division.

 

[Else Ermine]

PDO luck is a red herring here. It got latched onto early last year by people not paying attention and presumably this thread is about proving that they were right along?
It's understandable as a possible explanation if you're not watching the team but as has been mentioned already Tocchet has the Canucks as low volume/more selective screen shooters, and ideally smothering cross ice pucks in the D-zone at the expense of giving up lots of unscreened shots from the outside. If they're achieving their desired play style PDO is inflated without meaning they're necessarily all that good.
This season the Canucks all situations shooting percentage is 12.22%, last year's finished at 11.98%. Save percentage has fallen from 90.56% to 88.73% with no Demko and that's the fall off but it's less about luck and more about just not playing as well as last year's team did.

Last season they were unusually healthy and benefitted all year. Early in the season all the top players were going at the same time and piling up points. Come the playoffs they were less healthy but still very competitive; never a "contender" but few teams are each year.

This season so far the schedule has been exceedingly kind and the points accumulated has flattered them.
Defense has been the anticipated problem, over and above the absence of Demko. Lankinen has been good, Silovs has been bad. The net result has been fine, despite the near guaranteed losses for Silovs.
23-24 bottom D pair: Ian Cole - Juulsen/Friedman (Zadorov arrived after the PDO bender but did make the team better)
24-25: Forbort/Brannstrom - Desharnais/Juulsen
Despite his lack of foot speed Cole has arguably been a significant loss. The middle pair of Soucy - Myers has more heavy lifting to do this year and have gone into a tailspin that other teams are exploiting almost without fail. This year's bottom pair isn't steady enough to step in and make up for that.
D-zone structure is way less consistent vs last year and until they either steady it out through coaching or a trade whoever is in net is going to have a rougher time and the Canucks won't be as good as they were.

The forward group has played hit and miss. Personally I like it better in theory than last year's but neither Miller nor Pettersson have been close to their best yet. Garland and Boeser have been great though, along with some of the depth players like Sherwood, Blueger and Suter. Still obvious room to improve on the top end but expect that to be negated to some degree with a fall off from the depth guys.
The Pacific isn't brilliant so the Canucks should still be expected to make the playoffs but the defense does need improving if they're to have any success whatsoever at that point.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

You'll note the Oilers fan doesn't say anywhere the Canucks are a good team. Goaltending and team defense really are foreign concepts up there, hu?

16 wins are foreign concepts to Canuck fans.

Last year even the most optimistic Canucks fan wouldn't have called a division title. Nobody was predicting that huge of a step forward. Like most teams their true worth will be revealed in the spring.

 

[sensfan4lifee]

No, they are not a contender. Very few teams are actually contenders. Vancouver is a middling playoff team. They can win a round or two but expectations are that they are not a team that can make it to the finals and contend for a cup.

When healthy yes they are a contender they legit would have went to the finals last year if Demko had of been healthy

Miller + Petey best 1-2 punch down the middle in the NHL
Norris Trophy winning D-man in Hughes with a solid #2 in Hronek
Good set of wingers in Boeser, Garland, Joshua and a few more
Demko - Venzia quality goaltender
And Tochett might be the best coach in the NHL right now with what he's done there.
Also very good management.

When healthy this is very much a Contender and I'm not even a Canucks fan

 

[Three On Zero]

When healthy yes they are a contender they legit would have went to the finals last year if Demko had of been healthy

Miller + Petey best 1-2 punch down the middle in the NHL
Norris Trophy winning D-man in Hughes with a solid #2 in Hronek
Good set of wingers in Boeser, Garland, Joshua and a few more
Demko - Venzia quality goaltender
And Tochett might be the best coach in the NHL right now with what he's done there.
Also very good management.

When healthy this is very much a Contender and I'm not even a Canucks fan

Like the optimism, but doubtful.

 

[sensfan4lifee]

Like the optimism, but doubtful.

Doubtful that was actually results from last season

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I came into this thread for some delicious schadenfreude but the Canucks are 2nd in the division in points %??