The Canucks are back at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night, and the assignment is a serious one right away: the Carolina Hurricanes are in town to open Vancouver’s three-game homestand.
It’s the second and final meeting between the teams this season, with Vancouver coming home after a long six-game road swing that started in Carolina. Now the Canucks get a look at a Hurricanes club that arrives at 7-2-1 and sitting on top of the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina’s recent trip has already shown both sides of its game. The Hurricanes opened a five-game road trip with a 3-2 win in Winnipeg on Saturday, then had a seven-game winning streak snapped the next night in a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames.
Sebastian Aho has been the central offensive force so far, leading Carolina with six goals and 14 points in 10 games. His production has come in different ways too, with three power play goals and one shorthanded tally.
The Hurricanes have been outscored 7-8 in first periods this season, but they’ve taken control later in games. Across the second and third periods, they’ve outscored opponents 28-15.
At five-on-five, they’ve piled up the league’s best shot share with 246 shots for and 170 against. Their power play ranks eighth, while their penalty kill sits third.
In goal, Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov have each made five starts. Kochetkov has been the steadier of the two, going 5-0-0 with a .912% save percentage and a 1.78 goals-against average. K’Andre Miller leads all Carolina skaters in ice time at 22:24 per game.
For Vancouver, Elias Pettersson continues to drive the attack early in the season. He comes into Tuesday at a point-per-game pace through 10 games, with three power play goals, an average of three hits per game, and the highest ice time among Canuck forwards at 19:33 per game.
Pettersson was skating with Jake DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson at Monday’s practice. That trio has logged just over 10 minutes together at five-on-five this season, but in that limited stretch it has controlled 67.8% of expected goals.
Manny Malhotra met with the media on Monday after the club returned to Rogers Arena for practice, and the conversation centered on two things he keeps coming back to: structure and identity.
“When you look at the opponents that we had from Carolina to Florida to Tampa, teams that have established their structure and their team identity, and they stick to it, and obviously we continue to talk about this as a work in progress. But the quicker we get to our identity and establish what that identity is, the better things are going to look,” said Malhotra.
He said structure matters, but the Canucks also need a sharper edge as they keep building their game.
“What we have to be more dialled in with is the identity of our group in terms of how hard we play the game. And structures are one thing, but in terms of winning puck battles and tenacity, and being in the right place, and winning races, and just being hungrier than your opposition, those are the types of things that have to be at the forefront of our game right now.”
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