Canucks’ Ideal Line Combinations for the 2024 Playoffs – The Hockey Writers – Vancouver Canucks
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Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet has been juggling the traces nearly each sport looking for the correct mix for the playoffs. With solely six video games remaining on the schedule, it’s crunch time, and the Canucks are nowhere close to the place they need to be, roster and efficiency-clever. That stated, listed here are my very best line mixtures for Game 1 of the first spherical.
Tocchet has inexplicably averted this potent trio for the majority of the season. They have solely performed 122:46 collectively at 5-on-5 and infrequently do they begin a sport as a line. They have been used sparingly since Feb. 1 – solely 14:06 – and the Canucks have struggled to attain since the All-Star Break, Elias Pettersson specifically. The Lotto Line was once the best top line since Henrik and Daniel Sedin had been joined at the hip with Alex Burrows, and the West Coast Express, which featured Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi driving shotgun with Brendan Morrison.
So why is Tocchet so hesitant to throw all his offensive weapons in a single basket? Mostly, it’s as a result of it depletes his middle depth, making Teddy Blueger his second-line middle when Elias Lindholm isn’t in the lineup. But with Pettersson struggling to score, this line provides him the greatest likelihood of re-igniting and returning to the dominance he confirmed in January. That month, the Lotto Line was reunited and Pettersson scored 14 objectives and 21 factors in 13 video games – almost half his manufacturing over the full season. Digging deeper into the numbers, Pettersson, Boeser, and Miller performed 100:25 collectively at 5-on-5, outscored the opposition 11-4, and potted seven excessive-hazard objectives. While they had been out-chanced 52-48 and outshot 66-45, they had been scoring objectives, which is one thing the Canucks desperately want proper now.
All of that is to say that Tocchet must reunite his uber prime-line for Game 1 of the playoffs – no matter the opponent.
Dakota Joshua – Elias Lindholm – Conor Garland
The Dakota Joshua-Conor Garland connection has been robust all season lengthy. There have been video games the place they appear like they’ve Sedin-like chemistry with Garland’s behind-the-back spin passes or no-look dishes on 2-on-1s. The duo has been past enjoyable to look at. So a lot so, that it doesn’t matter who their middle is – be it Blueger or Miller – they’re dominant. Again, like the Sedins, some gamers play higher with them, however their chemistry remained the similar irrespective of who was on their line.
In this state of affairs the place the Lotto Line is reunited, Lindholm – if he’s wholesome – ought to middle Joshua and Garland when the puck drops on the postseason. This line has the potential of being nice, particularly if Lindholm’s ailment is behind him and he returns with vigour and extra like the player that scored 41 goals centring Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau.
You might argue that Joshua and Garland are a poor man’s Tkachuk and Gaudreau respectively. While Joshua received’t ever put up a number of 100-level seasons, he has the measurement, physicality and skill to get underneath the pores and skin of his opponents – identical to Tkachuk. He additionally hits every little thing that strikes (he leads the Canucks with 221 hits) and stands up for his teammates. As for Garland, he’s simply as slippery as Gaudreau, at all times finds a method to possess the puck and by no means provides up on a play. I might argue he has far more aggressive power on the boards than Gaudreau and though he doesn’t have a number of expertise in the playoffs, will possible be extra impactful when the video games turn into more durable down the line.
The extra I discuss this potential mixture, the extra I need to see it in the playoffs. The caveat? Lindholm must be wholesome and nearer to the participant he was in 2021-22. Unfortunately, that’s an enormous ask with how he has performed thus far with the Canucks since coming over in a commerce from the Flames.
Nils Hoglander – Teddy Blueger – Vasily Podkolzin
This combo could possibly be a stable power line in the playoffs with Nils Hoglander‘s intense forechecking abilities and scoring touch and Vasily Podkolzin’s ever-bettering sport. In truth, Blueger may thrive with these two given they’re much like Garland and Joshua, two linemates he had success with earlier than Joshua was damage in December.
Hoglander has come a great distance since final season when he was toiling in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Abbotsford Canucks. He has turn into a dependable two-approach participant, and doubtless certainly one of the greatest forecheckers on the crew, subsequent to Garland, in fact. His 23 objectives are a profession-excessive and he’s nineteenth in the NHL in even-power objectives with all of his manufacturing coming at 5-on-5. Most of the time when he’s on the ice, the play is in the offensive zone, as he carries a powerful 52.7 Corsi for proportion (CF%) and a plus-20 in the plus/minus column. Basically, he’s turn into a accountable participant in each space of the ice, one thing that former head coach Bruce Boudreau could never say about the 5-foot-9 Swede.
Podkolzin in the meantime has re-engaged his standing as an NHL participant after spending the total 2023-24 marketing campaign up the freeway in Abbotsford. Since returning to the guardian membership’s lineup, he hasn’t regarded misplaced and it could possibly be argued that he makes the Canucks a greater crew with him than with out him. His confidence is rising with every passing sport, and it received’t be too lengthy earlier than he’s scoring objectives in bunches.
Maybe Podkolzin is saving his greatest for the playoffs. While he doesn’t have any expertise in the NHL, he performed a memorable 16 video games for SKA St. Petersburg in 2020-21 the place he led the crew with six objectives and 11 factors. He was a beast in these Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) playoffs and is wanting increasingly more like that participant on daily basis.
Podkolzin solely has two assists, however is taking part in accountable hockey and has upped his bodily sport with 52 hits already (in 14 video games!) matching the quantity he had final season in 39 video games. That sort of physicality makes a distinction, particularly in the grind of the playoffs. All in all, this line has the potential to be an X-issue for Tocchet and firm if put collectively.
Ilya Mikheyev – Pius Suter – Sam Lafferty
Finally, we have now the fourth line comprised of the struggling Ilya Mikheyev, Pius Suter and Sam Lafferty. They have been shuttled up and down the lineup with expert gamers, but solely have 4 objectives between them since Feb. 1. They are solely collectively due to the line mixtures above them. With that stated, on paper, primarily based on their ability set and historical past in the league, they might shock everybody and turn into a productive combo in the playoffs. Only Lafferty and Mikheyev have expertise in the postseason, however do have objectives and factors to point out for it with Lafferty scoring a purpose and three factors in 2023 and Mikheyev two objectives and 4 factors in 2022, each with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Related: Arturs Silovs’ Confidence Soaring With Vancouver Canucks’ Win
Mikheyev, Suter and Lafferty are additionally nice defensively and received’t be a legal responsibility on the ice – even when they aren’t scoring. Ideally, you need each line to be producing offensively in the playoffs, however so long as they aren’t the purpose for objectives in opposition to, I feel Tocchet shall be tremendous throwing this trio over the boards.
Will Lindholm Be Available For Game 1?
This is the most very best lineup with everybody wholesome. Unfortunately, proper now, everybody isn’t wholesome with Lindholm on the shelf with an undisclosed harm. He has been skating and is on the present highway journey, however with rumours circulating via Elliotte Friedman that he is perhaps out for the remainder of the common season, his standing for Game 1 continues to be unknown. If he isn’t obtainable, the aforementioned traces will change with Suter or Lafferty leaping as much as the third line to middle Hoglander and Podkolzin and Blueger reuniting with Garland and Joshua (which wouldn’t be a foul factor if they will rekindle their chemistry from earlier in the season). Nils Aman or Phil DiGiuseppe would then return to the lineup and slot in on the fourth line.
Hopefully, Lindholm shall be wholesome and near one hundred pc when the postseason begins on April 20. While he hasn’t been an offensive risk since becoming a member of the crew in February, he’s nonetheless a authentic prime-six middle able to successful an insane quantity of face-offs (60.4 p.c with the Canucks) and making a distinction on particular groups. That alone will assist them in the playoffs with puck possession and killing a key penalty or waning minutes at the finish of a sport that could possibly be the distinction between a collection win and a collection loss.
Regardless of the lineup, playoffs are only some weeks away from returning to Rogers Arena. Are you prepared Canucks followers?
What are your very best line mixtures for the playoffs? Let us know in the feedback beneath!
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