Manny Malhotra isn’t asking the Canucks to turn into a team that just hunkers down and survives in its own end. He wants the opposite: a group that spends less time defending because it spends more time with the puck, moving play the other way and keeping pressure off its own net.
That’s a notable shift for a club that was buried by bad numbers last season. Vancouver allowed 314 goals against, the most by a Canucks team in 35 years and the most surrendered by any NHL team over the last two seasons.
The problems ran across the board, too. The Canucks gave up the most goals at even strength and on the penalty kill, and their 71.5 per cent penalty kill percentage landed in the bottom ten in NHL history.
Malhotra, the new head coach, has already pushed through a major overhaul of the team’s defensive-zone approach. The system is meant to be more structured and more aggressive once the Canucks are set up in their own end. But he’s also clear that the bigger fix is reducing how often that structure even gets tested.
“To me, elite defensive teams don’t spend any time in their D-zone coverage,” said Malhotra. “The best defences don’t spend time in their own zone, so there is going to be an element of being aggressive and getting pucks out of people’s hands. It’s not about wanting to just sit on the inside and hope for dear life.”
That’s the heart of it: better defense, but less of it. Malhotra doesn’t want the Canucks collapsing and absorbing shot after shot. He wants a team that’s sound, organized and relentlessly active.
“For me, defensive hockey doesn’t mean you sit five guys on top of the goalie, and you soak shots,” said Malhotra. “Defensively, our structure has to be sound. It’s going to be rooted in being in the right place and being ultra aggressive to take away time and space.”
And the defensive fix doesn’t stop in the defensive zone. Malhotra made it clear that the Canucks’ work with the puck will matter just as much, because cleaner transition play and more time in the offensive zone means less time spent getting pinned back.
That’s where the offensive structure comes in. If Vancouver can recover pucks, win second chances and know when to release pressure, it can ease the load on its back end even without lighting up the scoreboard.
“It comes down to structure and being in the right place to be able to recover pucks, number one,” said Malhotra. “Again, we’ll keep talking about being tenacious on pucks and having to win those rebound pucks or second opportunities and then just knowing how to release pressure.
“Every team is going to be going through their D-zone structure and how to kill plays, so the chess match of how to get out of those pressures and where our support is going to be is a big part of laying out our foundation in the offensive zone.”
The Canucks may still have to defend plenty this season. Their rebuild could depend on it. But if Malhotra gets his way, it won’t be because they’ve become the league’s softest team in their own end again.
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