The Canucks' strong numbers were fueled by Petterson's heroics

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No team in the NHL has more wins than your Vancouver Canucks.

It's been an amazing season.

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They are scoring a lot of goals. They were good at keeping the puck out of their own net.

Add it all up and it's no wonder they've won 34 straight before Thursday's matchup against the Bruins in Boston.

Let's explore how this team was able to win.

11

We've talked a lot about the Canucks' ability to simply blow teams out of the water: 23 of their 34 wins have come by two or more goals. Notably, the Bruins won that amount before Thursday's game, another sign of the Canucks' partnership.

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But look at another stat there: the Canucks have won 11 games by one goal. There is a good lesson here for Vancouver.

If you look at NHL history, you'll see that the team's record for one goal in a game is basically a coin flip.

While the 11 wins in one-goal games are impressive, they have come in 21 games.

So the Canucks in one-goal games are fairly consistent in history.

There's certainly an element of luck in their overall scoring prowess, but the lack of luck in their one-goal games is a great way to confirm their lack of success in their close games. .

They're scoring more points than they should, but they're doing so in blowouts, not close-control victories.

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Number one is Elias Petterson's nine-game winning streak.

You know that old truism that you need your best players to win?

Here's Petterson in the midst of another epic season.

He scored 106 points on the season.

He has 27 goals. He doesn't care if he's on the road (14 goals) or at home (13 goals).

Where he is, so are the Canucks.

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Surprisingly, he failed to score in 16 games this season. That shows the scoring depth the Canucks have.

JT Miller has five goals heading into next month's game.

Next is Dakota Joshua with four. Sam Lafferty and Nils Hoaglander both have three game winners, as does Brock Boeser.

If you're waiting for a hero, the Canucks have options.

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Fourteen different Canucks have scored the first goal of the game for a Canuck this season.

Petterson is tied with Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser for the lead with four such goals.

But Conor Garland, Lafferty, Hoaglander and Miller opened the scoring for the Canucks three times.

Indeed, the only Canucks regulars who haven't scored a first goal are Noah Juulsen, Nikita Zadorov, Nils Aman, Carson Soucy and rookie Elias Lindholm.

0.54

Petterson is averaging 0.54 goals per game this season, a career high.

Only Boeser's 0.6 goals per game is better than Petterson's.

At this rate, Petterson will score 40 goals.

Boeser, of course, is now aiming for 50.

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Among NHL players who have played at least 400 minutes at 5-on-5, three of the top 10 scoring players on teams are Canucks.

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Quinn Hughes and his great partner, Filip Hronek, are among the league's best: Hughes is second on the ice with 4.21 Canuck goals per 60 minutes, and Hronek is third. 4.13.

Not far behind is Petterson, who ranks eighth in the league with a 3.87 Canuck goals-for-60.

Ahead of him are a pair of grinders in Ottawa's Ridley Greig (first, 4.31) and Pittsburgh's Brian Rast (third, tied with Hronek, 4.1), as well as true top players in Nathan MacKinnon (fifth, 4.12), Rupe Hintz. (sixth, 4.11) and Zach Hyman (sixth, 4.11)

When you play as much as these guys and your team scores a few points, you know you're doing something right.

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Interestingly enough, Petterson remains the Canucks' fourth-youngest regular. He is 25.

Only Hughes (24), Hoaglander (23) and Aman (23) are younger.

The understanding of the young Canucks is not so much about the lineup itself, but mostly about their two biggest stars.

The average age of the Canucks is 28.5; they are the 18th youngest team in the NHL.

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