Put yourself in the skates of Filip Chytil, Marcus Pettersson or Drew O’Connor for a second. Last weekend, those three had not only been dealt to the Vancouver Canucks in separate trades, but they were making their way across the continent to join a franchise that had been the talk of the National Hockey League for all the wrong reasons for months.
You can fully understand if any or all of them had reservations about picking up their lives and stepping into the uncertainty that was the Canucks. A never-ending soap opera off the ice for a team below the playoff bar and one spinning its wheels one way too many nights on the ice. Who in their right mind would want any part of that?
Fast forward a week, and those three have contributed to three wins and an overtime loss; they have been part of a three-game win streak and have helped the Canucks post consecutive victories on home ice for the first time all season. In short, they’ve been a huge part of the best week of the team’s season so far.
In the process, Chytil, O’Connor and Pettersson seemed to have breathed new life into this team’s playoff hopes. Oh, and they haven’t skated a single shift with captain Quinn Hughes in the lineup. So there’s that to look forward to.
It’s been a remarkable turn of events. And it should have all three of the newcomers counting down the minutes until the 4 Nations break is over, and they can get back to work with their suddenly refreshed teammates.
Players want to contribute, and they want to win. And all three of them have found ways to make individual impacts in just four games. Chytil scored in his Canucks debut last Sunday against Detroit and has three points in four games since joining the team from the Rangers. O’Connor has scored twice, including the game-winner on a penalty shot in overtime in San Jose on Thursday. And clearly Pettersson has been so impressed with his new surroundings that after just four days in the city, the veteran defenceman agreed to spend the next six years here. And he elected to sign his extension likely before he’d had a chance to walk the seawall.
As weeks go, it’s hard to imagine things unfolding any better than they did, not only for the three newest Canucks, but also for the organization as a whole.
To their credit, all three of the acquired players jumped in midstream, played on instinct rather than worrying too much about systems and added stability to a lineup that had been playing like a group waiting for the seismic shifts that finally happened 10 days ago.
And now, they can all step back, catch their collective breaths, allow their lives to settle down a little and come back after the break with a familiarity with the faces in the locker room and an understanding of the way the organization operates. And that should allow each of them to be even better than they’ve been – and that’s an enticing concept since they’ve all been very good in the short period they’ve been here.
Had things gone sideways in their first week, maybe their outlook is a little different. Maybe their urgency to propel this team to the post-season isn’t quite as great.
But now you’ve got players who should be hungry to pick up where they left off, knowing that the team still has its best weapon in the holster.
The Canucks made changes because they’d reached a point that didn’t allow them to move forward. Something had to give. And management hoped that a change could serve as a reset.
Has it ever.
Seven of eight points in the standings. Just five goals against – and only four of those in regulation time.
The early returns of last week’s trade have been impressive. And if this is merely jumping on point for these guys, it should be fun to see the contributions they make when the Canucks get back to game action on February 22nd in Vegas.
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