The Vancouver Canucks are one of the best and most popular teams in the National Hockey League (NHL). Each year, they’re tipped to challenge for the championship, but so far in the 2022-23 season, they’ve floundered.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at the Cancucks’ current season performance, particularly focusing on their early games and comparing them to last year. We’ll also take a quick look at betting on the NHL. But first, let’s explore how the league works.
How Does the NHL Work?
The NHL is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world. It’s made up of 7 Canadian teams, with the Canucks being one of them, and 25 teams from the United States.
Each year, these teams battle it out to claim the Stanley Cup, which is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.
The NHL is split into two Conferences—East and West—and then split into four divisions. Teams battle it out in the regular season to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The current reigning champions are Colorado Avalanche, who defeated Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2.
Tips for Betting on the NHL
Given its popularity, it’s unsurprising that some people wish to bet on NHL games. Many sports betting sites offer a range of markets and betting types, from proposition bets to over/under bets.
You can also place accumulator bets on multiple outcomes, and back the team that you think will win the Stanley Cup.
When it comes to placing bets, it’s always advisable to do some research first. There are lots of sites where you can find great sportsbetting tips and advice on upcoming NHL fixtures. These sites can also tell you about any bonuses, offers, or enhanced odds that different sportsbooks may be offering.
A popular and potentially lucrative offer to watch out for is the matched first bet or first deposit bonus. It’s usually only available when you first join up with a new betting site. It involves the site either matching the amount you make on your first bet or on what you deposit into your account. So, if you bet $20 on a Canucks match when you first sign up, the betting site will match it, giving you a stake of $40.
The Canucks’ Season Prediction
Many predicted that the Canucks would do well this year, but so far, after ten games, they’re worse off than they were at this point last year.
Their current record is 2-6-2. After ten games last year, their record was 4-5-1. They’ve shipped a massive 40 goals, whereas last year they’d conceded just 26. They have, however, scored a few more goals—30 compared to 26 in 2021.
There are multiple reasons for this weak performance. One of them is the performance of goaltender Thatcher Demko. So far this year, he’s got an average goals-against score of 4.06, coupled with an awful record of 1-6-1.
What’s truly illustrative is his goals-saved statistics. The lowest score achieved in his career is -3.7. This year’s score is -7.3, which is a huge drop. All in all, this makes him the third-worst goaltender in the NHL, at present.
It can’t all be Demko’s fault, however. When you look at the high-danger shot figures, you begin to get a sense of the broader picture. So far this year, the Canucks have given up a total of 57 high-danger shots, the fourth highest in the league.
Demko is playing with a shot-stopping percentage of 78.9%, which is too low for such a high number of shots peppering his goal. That’s where the other players need to step up. If they know their goaltender is struggling, they ought to play harder to offer better protection.
And there needs to be greater effort all over the ice for the full three periods of the match. This year, the Canucks have slackened off in the third period, and over their first tengames, they have been outscored 17-8. It’s the joint worst record in the NHL. They’ve lacked strong offense in these periods, and that’s heaped even more pressure onto the defense and goaltender.
To see them turn their fortunes around, they need to focus on the likes of improving their penalty kill. They have the worst score in the NHL, with a 60% rate. If they hope to get anywhere near the playoffs, this figure has to improve, and drastically so. But they only have until April to achieve this.
