Elias Pettersson added two more assists last night, and the Vancouver Canucks still got buried 7-2 in Carolina.
That gives the Swedish forward 8 points through five games, the top total on the roster.
Paul Cotter sits next at 6 points, powered by a team-high 4 goals.
The playmaking is carrying this run. Six of his points are assists, and the puck keeps finding the right sticks in the right spots.
He's sitting at +3 while the team owns a -4 goal differential. That gap tells you exactly where the trouble lives.
The power play runs through him as well. He's been in on 3 power play goals, finishing two of them himself.
Fans have noticed. Analyst Rono posted this morning that he's thrilled for Pettersson but hopes it isn't a fluke start.
Kevin Lankinen's crease problem is costing Vancouver games
Fair worry. But the fluke question is aimed at the wrong guy.
Kevin Lankinen allowed 6 goals on 18 shots last night before Leevi Merilainen finished the game.
Lankinen's save percentage sits at .786 through five appearances. Nobody wins in this league with that number, no matter who's stacking points up front.
What exactly is the plan if the net keeps leaking like this?
Merilainen stopped 15 of 16 in relief and carries a .941 mark on the season. That's the contrast Manny Malhotra has to weigh before Saturday.
Going back to Lankinen in New Jersey would be the wrong call. Malhotra, hired in June, should hand Merilainen the net and find out if the younger netminder can hold it.
Right now the Canucks look like a band with a lead guitarist nailing every solo while the drummer keeps dropping the beat. The crowd only remembers how the song ends.
Vancouver has surrendered 25 goals in five games. Edmonton alone put 9 past them in the second meeting between the clubs this season.
Malhotra still leaned on his top forward for 20:20 of ice time in Carolina, and Pettersson finished a +1 on a lopsided night.
His $11,600,000 cap hit ranks 15th in the league. Through five games, he's playing to every dollar of it.
The schedule doesn't offer much breathing room. Saturday's game in New Jersey opens a stretch of five straight road dates, with both New York clubs, Florida and Tampa Bay waiting.
Vancouver heads east on a two-game skid at 2-3-0.
Pettersson can keep piling up points on this trip. Whether anyone behind him can stop enough pucks to make them count is the part nobody in Vancouver can answer yet.
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Should Manny Malhotra bench Kevin Lankinen and start Leevi Merilainen in New Jersey?
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