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In a week with few bright spots for the Canucks, Zack MacEwen shone the brightest

"Zack's a little bit of a throwback and I like that about him. He's an old school player."
David Quadrelli
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Zack MacEwen broke out in a big way in a small role this week. photo: Dan Toulgoet

In the sixth edition of Quads’ Awesome Canuck of the Week, Zack MacEwen takes home this most prestigious of honours.

Since the last edition of this column, the Canucks had tough week, suffering two tough losses and winning just a single game.

Not many Canucks were awesome this past week, but one player who turned in a memorable performance was Zack MacEwen. Here are four things that made MacEwen’s week the most awesome of any Canuck. 

1 | He scored more goals than any other Canuck

Not to delve too deeply into advanced statistics, but you need to score more goals than your opponent in order to win hockey games. MacEwen certainly helped that cause in Friday night’s victory over the Colorado Avalanche.

The Canucks’ defensive flaws have been on full display in front of goaltender Thatcher Demko, as they no longer have their potential league MVP and Vezina Trophy winner Jacob Markstrom there to mask their flaws. Demko has played well, and it’s flat out unfair to expect him to step in at 24 years of age and play on par with one of best goaltender in the NHL this season, but in order to get wins, Demko needs more run support.

In the two losses this past week, the Canucks scored just three goals and were outscored 3-6. In the game against the Avs, however, the Canucks’ offence finally broke through, scoring six goals en route to a 6-3 victory. 

MacEwen picked up two goals, and looked great on what is now known the “Gauds of War Line” thanks to The Athletic’s Wyatt Arndt.

The line of Roussel, Gaudette, and MacEwen has looked good over their few games together and was especially effective on Friday, scoring two even strength goals, both coming off the stick of MacEwen. 

2 | He's worked on the little things, and he “gets it”

Travis Green is a coach who likes when his players do the little things well. Winning puck battles, making the right defensive play, skating hard, and not coughing up the puck. Those last two, skating hard and not coughing up the puck are two things the Canucks’ coaching staff identified as something MacEwen needed to work on to continue to progress.

“I don't think I've even come close to my ceiling yet," said MacEwen at prospects camp, prior to the start of the season. "It's all about just getting reps and just more experience at each different level and using that experience to work on details and little things in your game to keep improving and keep getting better every day." 

When asked about what he thinks MacEwen has improved on the most, coach Green had this to say: 

“His skating, his details. A lot of things we talk about with young players. He's had to work on his wall work in his own zone, moving his feet when he gets a puck on the wall. We showed him some video after his first game back in the lineup where I thought he turned over a couple pucks, lost some wall battles, and he's smart, he understands that part. You tell him something and he already knows it when you're showing the video, which is a positive sign with young players. He's got a bit of a mean streak in him, which, as coaches, you always like that. You're happy to see guys get rewarded.”

This is a player who is clearly on the same page as his coach when it comes to his development and what he needs to do in order to be successful at the NHL level. Although MacEwen's ceiling is almost certainly as a bottom-6 forward, it’s good to see an undrafted player find some success early in his NHL career. 

3 | He didn’t give away his goalscoring stick

Ah, a hockey player’s stick. To some, it may seem like a replaceable carbon copy of many just like it, made of fibreglass, carbon fibre, and other composite materials. 

But to a hockey player, a stick that they score a goal with becomes more valuable to them than the ones identical to it that sit behind the bench, waiting to be called upon in the tragic event of the goal-scoring stick breaking.

For Zack MacEwen, he knows how important his goal scoring stick is. MacEwen was named the first star of the game after hist two-goal performance against Colorado, and as he returned down the tunnel toward the Canucks’ dressing room, a young fan asked him for his stick.

MacEwen’s response was simply priceless:

Hockey players will go to great lengths to preserve their goal scoring sticks or treat them extra nice. Alex Ovechkin’s stick for example, was so hot at one point that he couldn’t even touch it after scoring his 50th goal of the season with it.

In the past, players like Boone Jenner and Marc Savard have planted a kiss on their sticks, just to show their goal scoring device how much it really means to them. Carrie Underwood once roasted Ryan Johansen on Twitter after the Nashville Predators' centre, then a teammate of her husband Mike Fisher, gave his stick a tender kiss on the bench. 

MacEwen understands this affection, and wasn’t about to part ways with a hot stick.

4 | He got high praise from his coach

Travis Green is typically a man of few words, and those few words are usually repeated each time Green takes the podium. Ask him how a player performed, and you'll typically hear, "He was okay tonight," or if that player had a hat trick, two assists, and a game-saving block, Green might even say, "He was good."

He rarely singles out a player for a bad performance, but every once in a while, the Canucks’ head coach praises a player for their positive impact on the team. After the Canucks’ 6-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche, MacEwen was the player on the receiving end of some serious praise from Green. 

“This is a guy that's just playing to win. It's nice to see,” said Green. "Zack's a little bit of a throwback and I like that about him. He's an old school player that wants to earn it, appreciates the value of earning your stripes. He's had to do that in the AHL, which, it doesn't always happen in the game today.

"We've had good communication with him to stay patient, you'll get your chance. I probably would have played him in the Columbus game regardless if Beagle hadn't got hurt. I just felt like we had to get him in there. I've got a soft spot for guys that are kind of old school that way, that earn their stripes and want to play the game hard.”

While MacEwen got just 7:15 of ice time in the game against Colorado and 10:11 against Columbus, you can expect his ice time to grow with his head coach giving him that kind of praise.