Life moves fast, just ask Arturs Silovs.
After a magical run for the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs last season, the 2024-25 campaign did not start according to plan.
Silovs bounced back in this contest. After former teammate Ilya Mikheyev opened the scoring for the Chicago Blackhawks, Silovs shut the door. He ended up stopping 28 of 29 shots in a 4-1 win for the Canucks.
ARTy on display. 🚫 pic.twitter.com/SgbUzWuKlt
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 17, 2024
Prior to this contest, the Latvian netminder lost his first three games after entering the season as the starting netminder with Thatcher Demko injured. He allowed 15 goals in those three starts and subsequently lost the net to the red hot Kevin Lankinen.
While the 15 goals in three games stat line is ugly, it wasn’t all on Silovs. He was hung out to dry in a chaotic first game of the season against the Calgary Flames, largely played well in a loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then was completely abandoned by his team in a putrid 6-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
It’s worth remembering though just how good Silovs was in the playoffs despite having just nine NHL games of experience prior to his run. He has the potential to be much better that his early season statistics indicated, and he proved that tonight.
Pettersson spoils Bedard’s homecoming
Connor Bedard will likely go down as the best NHL player to hail from Vancouver.
However, he wasn’t the best player on the ice during his hometown debut.
The Blackhawks’ 19-year-olf phenom spent the majority of his even-strength minutes lined up against Elias Pettersson’s line. In those minutes, Pettersson and the Canucks had 16 shots attempts to just one for the Blackhawks. One of those shot attempts ended up being the game-winning goal, which came off the stick of Erik Brannstrom.
BURIED BY BRANNSTROM. 😳 pic.twitter.com/frypwI8eDJ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 17, 2024
This isn’t the only time the Canucks have dominated possession with Pettersson on the ice. After a rough start to the season over the first five games, the Canucks have largely controlled play when Pettersson steps over the boards.
While that didn’t translate into offence right away, Pettersson has had a positive expected goals differential in every game since October 22nd, when the Canucks first played the Blackhawks.
In those 11 games, Pettersson’s expected goal differential of 66.8% is the fourth-best mark in the entire NHL. He has five goals and eight points in those 11 games.
There’s another gear for Pettersson offensively, but Canucks fans can safely breathe a sigh of relief.
He’s back.
More to come…