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There’s little doubt that the thrill ride that was the 2023-24 Vancouver Canucks season was what fans had been waiting for a very long time.
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Their team hadn’t won a division title for more than a decade. And the intervening time was filled mostly with despair and bad hockey.
So to have their team come flying out of the gates, as the Canucks did this past season, roaring out to the best record in the league at the All-Star break, was nothing but good vibes for a fan base that had almost forgotten what that feels like.
The Canucks scored goals seemingly at will and played strong defence, backed up by excellent goaltending.
The were plenty of bounces that went their way — remember their sky-high, unprecedented shooting percentage? — and a lot of that good luck fell away in the second half, but in the end the Canucks did keep winning and they did enough of it over the year to finish first in the Pacific Division, holding off a remarkable second-half charge by the Edmonton Oilers.
Could they really do this all again?
At least one projection model says that, yes, it really could.
JFresh, one of the best statistical analysts out there, released a projection this week that says the Canucks will finish with 111 points in 2024-25, even with the Oilers.
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That’s a stunning projection for anyone who thinks the Canucks didn’t do enough up to upgrade their defence corps, who thinks that running with Tyler Myers or Vincent Desharnais as significant contributors will be successful, or doesn’t quite get the impact that Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen are expected to make on Vancouver’s lineup.
There were many who argued that the Canucks’ wild shooting prowess would collapse and they’d fall flat on their face, that it wasn’t repeatable.
The shooting percentage wasn’t repeatable and it did taper off as the season progressed, but at the same time the Canucks vastly improved their defensive play, which absorbed much of the shooting regression.
At the end of the year, there was lots in the Canucks’ favour, no matter how you sliced it. Yes, on the whole they scored more than they should, but their defensive record was no mirage.
And there’s no doubt that the Canucks’ collection of attackers, led by Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson will remain a force. They aren’t necessarily league leaders, but they aren’t far off.
Scoring goals is the most important thing in hockey, next comes stopping pucks.
JFresh’s projection sees the Canucks remaining adept at both.
So, buckle up Canucks fans.
pjohnston@postmedia.com
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/could-the-canucks-win-the-pacific-division-again-one-expert-thinks-so