Canucks’ decision to reunite Lotto Line looks spectacular after first game

The Vancouver Canucks received a heroic performance from the “Lotto Line” in a 6-4 win over the New Jersey Devils 6-4 on Saturday evening. The trio of Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Brock Boeser was responsible for four of the team’s six goals.

The final score does not reflect the degree to which the Canucks dominated this game. They outshot the Devils 42-25 and controlled 71.18% of the expected goals at five-on-five.

When they played together during the 2019-20 season, the Lotto Line outscored opponents 30-15 at five-on-five and had a 58.38 Corsi percentage. They were dominant, yet haven’t had many chances to play together ever since Miller started playing centre full-time for the Canucks.

Head coach Rick Tocchet was clearly looking for a spark as the Canucks had scored just one goal in two of their three games prior this one. His chess move of putting the trio back together on the top line paid massive dividends. The Lotto Line outscored the Devils 4-0 at five-on-five in tonight’s game.

“Obviously we played a ton back in the day so just trying to work hard, make plays, and be reliable for each other,” said Pettersson about the line after the game to Kate Pettersen.

Even with much of the Canucks’ firepower consolidated on the top line, they still got very strong performances from their depth players. The realistic possibility of the Canucks using the Lotto Line full-time hinges on the capability of the team’s other lines to create offence.

Tonight, that was not an issue. The trio of Andrei Kuzmenko, Pius Suter, and Ilya Mikheyev outshot the Devils 7-3 at five-on-five and had the best Corsi percentage of any Canucks line.

“We’ll see how long I’ll keep it together,” said Tocchet after the big win. “Sometimes it’s a shot in the arm for the team.

Jack Hughes missed tonight’s contest for the Devils due to injury, robbing fans of a second game featuring all three Hughes brothers this season. He wasn’t the only significant player that didn’t suit up for the Devils as Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton also sat out with injuries.

The Canucks play their next game on Monday against the New York Rangers. The two teams have already played once this season, a battle that the Rangers won 4-3 in overtime.