Last year's Canucks lacked aggression. Let's hope 2026-27 is different

Дата публикации: 23-07-2026 01:14:20

Patrick Johnston: A quick look at the NHL's stats package shows us that taking penalties isn't as bad as you think.

Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.

You just want your Vancouver Canucks to work hard, right?

Article content

After the listless, path-collapsing 2025-26 season, Vancouver hockey diehards just want to see a team that plays with gumption.

Article content

Article content

And so I’ve been thinking a lot over the past week about a silly little study that landed in my email inbox. Sports betting sites, you see, send all kinds of story pitches, usually centred on some goofy piece of data they’ve tracked down, such as “Which World Cup stadium has the cheapest food” or “Why Vegas is actually a terrible soccer market.”

The study in my inbox declared the Canucks the NHL’s eighth-least aggressive team last season. In this study, they crunched together a bunch of penalty data to find that the Canucks, well, just weren’t all that truculent.

Now, just looking at the NHL’s own stats, you see a team that just didn’t take many penalties, minor or major. In general, you would rather your team not be killing penalties. But it’s also interesting to note how penalized some of the game’s top teams were last year.

The top five stands out: Tampa, Boston, Florida, Calgary and Montreal.

Only the Flames are an outlier here. The other four teams were in the playoffs, and three of them were among the league’s most engaging, intriguing teams.

Article content

Article content

And that’s why you hope the Canucks will play a more hard-edged style this coming season. That’s what fans will want. That’s why they loved Kiefer Sherwood. Trading him was a smart move, but it’s a little ironic that this team needs guys like him more than ever as the Canucks go through this period eschewing wins. They won’t score, but they should at least show heart.

There is no doubt that Paul Cotter will be an important figure in this regard.

His bruising style of play didn’t actually land him in the penalty box all that much last year, but he likes to throw hits.

Jamie Oleksiak, the NHL’s biggest guy, also isn’t terribly prolific in the PIMs game either. Nor was a big hitter last season, at least not according to the NHL’s stats counters.

But there is still a mentality there, one that speaks to the silly little study — just being more feisty.

In years past, we would hear the amorphous “Be hard to play against” as being the Canucks’ priority.

There is little doubt that at the last era’s apex, in the 2024 playoffs, the Canucks were hard to play against. They had a hard edge on the blueline in Nikita Zadorov, up front in J.T. Miller and Dakota Joshua. Rick Tocchet’s crew played on top of the opposition, giving away little space.

Article content

Space is, after all, one of the few premiums in the NHL that you can take away from the opposition, or just concede.

Fast forward to last year, and the space the Canucks gave away was nearly comical. Think how often the Canucks got caught running around in their own end. Hard to play against? Decidedly not.

And so this season, let us hope that they will be the opposite. They may not be talented, but they do need to be energetic. That’s what the fans, who understand what this rebuild is supposed to be about, will want — just show you’re there.

---

TRAINING CAMP — For the third year in a row, the Canucks are heading to Penticton’s South Okanagan Events Centre for training camp, running Sept. 17-20.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

Read More

1. 

   Canucks Free Agency Preview: There's no frenzy, just pragmatic roster building

2. 

   Canucks Player Grades: Vancouver hits hard, hits early in 4-1 win over Islanders

Article content

Схожие новости

#	Наименование новости	Тональность	Информативность	Дата публикации
1	Avalanche to open 2026-27 season at home against Los Angeles Kings	0	5	15-07-2026
2	Canucks: New Abbotsford coach gets assist in Aiden Celebrini's NHL chase	0	12.49	23-07-2026
3	A look back on 2025-26: moments of excellence	5	7	30-05-2026
4	Here's when former Senators captain Brady Tkachuk will make his return to Ottawa	0	5	16-07-2026
5	Comment on The Largest NHL Cap Hits Signed In The 2026 Offseason by Doghockey	-5	2	14-07-2026
6	What to know about the Avalanche in the 2026 NHL Draft	0	5	26-06-2026
7	Фетисов: КХЛ стоит подумать о работе над статусом игроков, учитывая пример с канадцами	0	0	25-07-2025
8	Comment on Bruins Add Kevyn Adams, Promote Two Amid Front Office Overhaul by frozenaquatic	0	2	15-07-2026
9	Is Sharks' revamped defense better than before for the 2026-27 NHL season?	0	5	17-07-2026

Классификация: Мнения. Схожих патентов: 0. Схожих новостей: 9. Тональность: 0. Информативность: 9.37. Источник: theprovince.com.