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The Vancouver Canucks have done a lot of things well in these playoffs. They’re in the second round and tied with one of the favourites to win the Stanley Cup.
Among all that success, one thing they haven’t done well is generate shots on net.
In fact, the Canucks have the fewest shots on net through the first 10 playoff games of any team in NHL history.
Fewest Shots On Goal
Through First 10 Games of a Postseason2024 Canucks 203
1999 Penguins 207
2002 Canadiens 223
2000 Sharks 227— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) May 15, 2024
With 203 shots in 10 games, the Canucks are barely averaging more than 20 per game. That’s well behind the Boston Bruins and Nashville Predators, who have the second-worst mark in these playoffs at 25 shots per game.
The Canucks didn’t struggle this much to generate shots on net in the regular season. While they weren’t near the top of the league, the team averaged 28.4 shots per game, good for 26th in the NHL and far from setting records for futility.
Some of their most consistent forwards in the regular season, such as Elias Pettersson, Nils Höglander, and more, have really struggled to generate anything offensively during the postseason.
While the Canucks have lacked in terms of shot quality, they do have the best shooting percentage of any playoff team this year at 13.3%. This continues a trend from the regular season where they’ve consistently outperformed the league average shooting percentage.
Whether that should be attributed to careful shot selection, talented snipers, or dumb luck is unclear. It’s likely some combination of all three, but the Canucks have managed to outperform their expected shooting percentage all year long.
With their second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers tied at two games apiece, the Canucks are about to play the most important games of their season.
The Oilers have started two goalies in this series already and thus, the Canucks will either be facing an inexperienced netminder or a struggling one.
Getting shots becomes more important when the Oilers have major question marks in net. We will see if they can do a better job of getting pucks on net over the next few games.
Game 5 starts tonight at 7 pm PT as the two teams look to claim the series lead.