Music: {allcanada} Shootouts were Canucks' lone weakness last season

Monday, October 3, 2011

{allcanada} Shootouts were Canucks' lone weakness last season

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Advantage Margin: -16
The Canucks may have had the best special teams in the NHL, but they did it with quality, not quantity, of chances. Amazingly, they had fewer power-play opportunities than their opponents on the road and at home.

Special Teams Goal Margin: +31
The Canucks' power play led the NHL in goals (72) and success rate (24.3 percent), while surrendering just 2 shorthanded goals. The penalty killers were third in the League at 85.6 percent.

Goals by defensemen: 42
Christian Ehrhoff turned a career-best 14-goal, 50-point season into a 10-year deal with Buffalo, but the Canucks still have plenty of firepower on the blue line.

Overtime Record
Total: 8-4-5 OT: 4-4 SO: 4-5
One of the Canucks' few vulnerabilities last season came in the shootout -- especially at home, where they lost four of six.

Times Scored First: 49
Record: 41-2-6
The Canucks were only third in the NHL in scoring first, but were by far the best in number of victories and percentage at turning those early leads into two points (.837).

Best 2010-11 Number: 42
Goals allowed by the Canucks in the first period, the fewest of any team in any period during the regular season. It's also the margin by which Vancouver outscored its opponents in the third period -- the Canucks had a League-best 100 third-period goals while allowing just 58.

Worst 2010-11 Number: .538
Roberto Luongo's save percentage in shootouts. It was one of the few flaws in a season that saw him go 38-15-7 with a 2.11 goals-against average and .928 save percentage.

Scheduling
Lengthy trips are a fact of life for the Canucks, who have a four-gamer in October, six-game trips in early November and late February and a five-game Eastern swing in December. The good part: They have a seven-game homestand at the beginning of March and play 13 of their last 18 at Rogers Arena.