Below you will find a compendium of interesting stats. Take from them what you will. Or, if you're feeling particularly sluggish this morning, take from them what I have taken from them. Whatever.
6 - Games the Canucks have played. I started with an easy one. How are they doing? Well, they're either a .500 team or they've only lost once, depending on how you look at it. The NHL standings can be pretty much whatever you bring to them. Like religion.
27 - Shots on goal by Daniel Sedin through the Canucks' first six games, good for 2nd in the NHL. Only Taylor Hall has put up more, with 29. And really, Daniel should have 28 shots, because HOW THE CRAP DID HE MISS THIS. I mean, seriously.
25 - Anyway, Daniel's not the only Canuck testing goalies at a league-leading rate. The goalless Radim Vrbata has 25 shots, which is sixth overall. The only other player to hit 20 shots without seeing one go in is Rick Nash, so Vrbata is very, very due.
10 - I mean, consider that Matt Bartkowski has scored a goal, and he never scores. Literally. Until he scored the other night, he'd never scored. If that's not the hockey gods mocking Vrbata, I don't know what is. And Bartkowski only has five shots. That said, he'd have more if he wasn't getting blocked so often. He's had 10 shots blocked this season. Only Brent Burns, Tyler Seguin, and Hampus Lindholm have been blocked more. It's early in the season, so this might mean nothing, but Bartkowski might want to work a little more on getting his shots through.
106 - Speaking of Bartkowski, his pairing with Dan Hamhuis is the worst thing about the Canucks right now. Here's how bad it is: Bartkowski's been on the ice for 104 shot attempts. That's ninth-worst in the NHL. And Hamhuis, who is usually a steady, reliable, trustworthy defenceman, is even worse. He's personally witnessed 106 opposition shot attempts. Fifth-worst in the league. This isn't working.
17:16 - Luca Sbisa's average icetime through six games, and here's why this matters: at 18:49, Ben Hutton is averaging over a minute and a half more icetime. In short, it's taken him all of six games -- and it may have happened sooner -- to zip past Sbisa on the depth chart. So if the Canucks are looking to get Yannick Weber back into the lineup, and they should, as the upcoming numbers will indicate, it's probably going to be Sbisa that comes out.
0 - Goals scored by the Canucks' first powerplay unit through six games. The Canucks have one PP goal: it was scored by Bo Horvat in the season-opener. Again: maybe get Yannick Weber back in there. He might be able to help.
123 - One theory I floated on the first episode of this year's Pass it to Bulis podcast is that the Canucks are riding Bartkowski over Weber because he's faster, and they want to play a chancier, more high-octane game. Further evidence to that: their scoring chance numbers, as tabulated by war-on-ice. Through six games, they have 123 scoring chances, which is sixth in the NHL and third in the Western Conference. They're really pushing the pace.
146 - Mind you, as impressive as that sounds, it's less impressive when you look at their scoring chances against: 146. Only the Ottawa Senators, at 151, are more porous. As it stands, the Canucks are the most generous team in the West. And they say Vancouverites are unapproachable. Ryan Miller begs to differ. He's been very approachable through six games.
54.43% - Sven Baertschi's corsi percentage, which is the best rate on the Canucks. So if you're wondering which player will be the focus of this year's advanced stats bickering, it's probably him. Baertschi is quietly driving play through his first five games, but there's something about his game Willie Desjardins doesn't like. If this keeps up, we're gonna be fighting about it all season. (Second on the Canucks in this category? Chris Tanev, because of course it is.)
52.2% - Nope, it's not another corsi number. This is the Canucks' faceoff percentage, eighth in the NHL. Not bad, but while I hate to be a spoilsport, most of the early-season success is because Henrik Sedin is currently drawing at an impressive and totally out-of-character 60%. The safe bet is for Henrik to regress to his usual 50%, although... he's over 35 now -- maybe all that veteran wisdom finally kicked in and turned him into an incredible faceoff man? That'd be cool, although I think I'd be more excited if Henrik was putting up points. He's got two through six games, which seems like a much bigger talking point than a couple additional won draws.
