Versatile Pius Suter forces way back into Canucks’ top-six conversation
Ten games into the National Hockey League season, Pius Suter has forced his way back up the lineup to where he finished last season with the Vancouver Canucks, writes Iian MacIntyre.
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ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ten games into the National Hockey League season, Pius Suter has forced his way back up the lineup to where he finished last season with the Vancouver Canucks.
The team’s Swiss army knife — well, Suter is both Swiss and handy — is expected to start Tuesday’s road game against the Anaheim Ducks as a top-six winger, flanking Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland.
Garland has been one of the Canucks’ best players this season, Pettersson the most disappointing. Suter has merely continued to be a smart, safe, subtle player whose detailed tradecraft goes largely unnoticed until he scores twice as he did in Saturday’s 3-2 road win against the San Jose Sharks.
Promoted from fourth-line centre to Pettersson’s left wing in the third period, Suter helped that line dominate its five-on-five shifts. Shot attempts were 7-1 for Suter, Pettersson and Garland, who in an extremely small sample generated expected-goals-for of 100 per cent.
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Suter sniped the winner on a nice pass from Garland with 25.7 seconds remaining.
Canucks’ head coach Rick Tocchet said after Monday’s practice that he’ll keep the line together, even if that probably requires calling up minor-league prospect Aatu Raty to centre the fourth line in his second NHL stint this season.
“I think he deserves it,” Tocchet said of Suter, whose four goals and five points this season are three goals and one point more than Pettersson has produced in 10 games.
Suter may have deserved more at the start of the season, too.
The 28-year-old from Zurich had an impressive playoff run last spring as the defensive-minded component on the No. 1 line, which featured J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser.
But the organization signed four NHL wingers in summer free agency, and the projected upgrades meant Suter spent all of October on the fourth line — mostly at right wing — after missing Game 1 due to an injury.
“I mean, nobody likes seeing your ice time go down,” Suter said. “Last year when I signed, obviously I knew what the lineup looked like (and) I was going to centre that third or fourth line. And then there were injuries and everything. Was this hard? No, I wouldn’t say that. Obviously, you always want to be involved as much as you can and help the team as much as you can wherever you’re needed.”
For now, it looks like the Canucks need Suter in the top six.
Among the new wingers, Jake DeBrusk scored his first goal for the Canucks in San Jose and is playing with Miller and Boeser on the top line.
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Danton Heinen has two goals but slipped down the lineup until finding his footing on an effective third line with Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood, who with five points and 69 hits has been the best of the new skaters.
“Sutes and I have played together before,” Garland said, referring primarily to an extended third-line run at the start of last season. “He’s exceptionally smart. He’s not the fastest guy — he’d probably be the first to tell you — but he’s always in the right spot. Like me, I want to attack all the time, roll out of the corner and make quick plays. And he’s usually there for me. He’s always in the right spot for you. He’s an easy, easy player to play with. Ask anyone.”
Speaking from experience, Garland said it’s not easy to bounce around the lineup.
“I had a little bit of that my second year here,” he explained. “We signed a bunch of guys in the offseason, I come in and start on the third line, then go to the fourth and then kind of just bounced around when we were losing. So, it’s hard. But for a guy like Pius, I think he just plays his game. He probably doesn’t get categorized as, like, someone who gets guys going because he doesn’t do the flashy stuff or the speed stuff. But he gets guys going by just playing the right way and being responsible.”
Yes, the gets-guys-going part.
Pettersson’s struggles have been an undercurrent to the Canucks’ season so far. He is pointless in the last three games since scoring his only goal this season — and first at five-on-five since last March — in a 4-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins nine days ago.
He had one shot on target in San Jose but, as Garland pointed out Monday, worked to keep the puck ahead of Suter’s winning goal.
Suter would be the fifth left winger to start a game with Pettersson, who has been tried with DeBrusk, Heinen, Nils Hoglander and, the last two games, Arshdeep Bains. Garland was elevated to Pettersson’s right side in Game 4 and has stayed there since.
“That’s not my job to evaluate Petey,” Garland said. “He’s easy to play with, fantastic through the neutral zone. The play to keep the play alive (in San Jose), you know, that’s winning hockey. What’s better, having three assists in a 10-1 win or making that play to win a game? I think making that play.
“We had a bunch of chances (to score) last game. And we missed on a couple of little plays where we would have had other chances. We’re just going to keep going. We’re going to find it soon.”
Asked about the turnstyle to Pettersson’s left, Tocchet said: “Listen, you just pick different guys and stuff like that. I just think for (Pettersson), if he does his thing, it really doesn’t matter. We’ve got capable wingers. So I think that’s really what it comes down to for him. He checks a lot of boxes. Smart guy, plays the penalty kill, has a great shot. I’ve talked to Petey and he understands he’s going to be working even more. He’s got to move his feet. He’s got to get going with the puck and move his feet. The only guy that’s going to be able to do that is him.
“Like any very good or great player, you’ve got to do the things you do to be great. That’s really what it comes down to. That’s what he’s trying to do.”
ICE CHIPS: Canuck defenceman Derek Forbort, who played well in San Jose after taking time off due to the death of his father in Minnesota, hobbled off the ice at practice after sustaining what appeared to be a foot or ankle injury. … Dakota Joshua took turns on the fourth line but is not expected to play against Anaheim. After undergoing surgery for testicular cancer in early September, Joshua could make his season debut Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.
