Monday October 17 - Washington Capitals 6 - Vancouver Canucks 4
Tuesday October 18 - Vancouver Canucks at Columbus Blue Jackets - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
And so it continues.
According to Sportsnet Stats, the Vancouver Canucks are making history for all the wrong reasons: now the first team in NHL history to blow multi-goal leads to lose their first three games of a season.
After building a 4-2 lead through 40 minutes on goals by Elias Pettersson, Bo Horvat, Curtis Lazar and J.T. Miller, the Canucks were outshot 10-4 in the third and frequently swarmed by the Washington Capitals on Monday, giving up four goals and sending the Vancouver players into a closed-door postgame meeting before they spoke with the media.
And it's funny — in some ways, it's not the losses that are surprising. What hurts is that the team has had a chance to seize those valuable points, but let those opportunities slip away.
If you want to be understanding and cut them some slack, you can point to the injuries, especially on the blue line. Say what you will about Tucker Poolman's abilities as a defenseman — the picture looks even grimmer when the Canucks roll out Riley Stillman and Noah Juulsen as their third pair.
Freshly called up from Abbotsford after a pair of games in California over the weekend, Juulsen got the nod over Jack Rathbone as a natural righty who's 6'2" and has some bite in his game. Officially, he finished with three hits, two takeaways and three blocked shots in 10:49 of ice time. But he was stapled to the bench after John Carlson tied the game at 4-4 at the 8:43 mark of the third, while Juulsen was distracted by 5'9" Conor Sheary while trying to guard the front of the net.
Quinn Hughes led the Canucks with 27:06 of ice time. Kyle Burroughs (!) was second at 24:07 and Oliver Ekman-Larsson was the third 20-minute man, at 21:41.
Not exactly ideal numbers with another game on tap on Tuesday in Columbus — and what's essentially a 3-in-4 that will wrap up in Minnesota on Thursday.
Tyler Myers and Travis Dermott can't get healthy quickly enough.
On the road with the team,
Patrick Johnston from The Province was told Monday by Bruce Boudreau that both blueliners are skating hard back in Vancouver, as they work to recover from their injuries.
"It’s very encouraging," Boudreau said.
And here's a Tuesday morning update. Perhaps the cavalry is on the way??
Of course, some of the responsibility for this predicament has to lie at the feet of the new management group, who said they were prioritizing an upgrade to the blue line during the offseason but didn't make any changes other than the late addition of Stillman.
And by electing not to offer a contract extension to Bruce Boudreau, they've pushed their affable bench boss onto the hot seat very early in the season.
On Monday's edition of the '32 Thoughts' podcast, Elliotte Friedman suggested that Lindy Ruff's position in New Jersey is most tenuous in the early going, particularly because the Devils brought in Andrew Brunette as an associate coach during the offseason, and he could be ready to take over at a moment's notice.
But Friedman said the heat could also be on Boudreau — mentioning that the Vancouver management did make some calls about coaching during the offseason.
I'm not sure that's a real indicator of anything, though. The option to return was Boudreau's during the summer. It would make sense for management to have explored some options while waiting to hear whether or not their coach was coming back.
Friedman also mentioned that the Canucks are still paying Travis Green nearly $3 million not to coach this year. Green has spoken recently with Friedman — he mentioned in last week's '
32 Thoughts' column that Green does want to get back into the coaching game, and interviewed for the Panthers' head-coaching job that went to Paul Maurice.
"Yeah, there are some things I'd have done different," Green told Friedman. "Every coach makes mistakes, but being around for a while, I'll be a better coach next time around learning through the hard ones."
Next up on his agenda:
"He will be going to Finland as part of the NHL contingent when Colorado and Columbus play Nov. 5-6, doing some clinics. He plans to visit a few European clubs to broaden his horizons."
As a player, Green suited up for Team Canada for three World Championships in the late 90s, and spent the last year of his playing career with EV Zug, in Switzerland.
I don't think the Canucks have any designs on bringing Green back. But I did wonder about Boudreau's decision to hold a hard practice in Washington on Sunday — on the heels of the loss in Philadelphia, but ahead of the back-to-backs in Washington and Columbus.
After holding their own through the first 40 minutes, was fatigue a factor for the Canucks in the third period against the Capitals, leading to both physical and mental mistakes and an inability to keep pace as Washington took their game up a notch? Or is it all between the ears, a sign of being 'mentally weak,' as the coach conceded after Monday's game?
Once again, it seems like 866-game NHL veteran Luke Schenn might be the man with the message that the team needs to hear. Everyone needs to chip in to get the group out of this funk.
As for the Blue Jackets, they're in a funk of their own — also off to an 0-3-0 start after three-goal losses to Carolina, Tampa Bay and St. Louis. Patrik Laine has been out with an injury since Game 1 and Johnny Gaudreau is one of three Blue Jackets tied for the team scoring lead with two points each — along with Gustav Nyquist and Erik Gudbranson (!).
But the Blue Jackets will be rested: they haven't played since Saturday, and Elvis Merzlikins gets the nod in net after giving up five to the Blues on Saturday, while I expect Spencer Martin will get his first start of the year for Vancouver.
And by the way, shield your eyes if you happen to take a peek at
MoneyPuck's early goalie analytics. Their 'goals saved above expected' stat is supposed to separate goalie performance from the team's performance in front of him and if it's accurate, that's not great news for Thatcher Demko.
After giving up 13 goals in his first three games, Demko ranks 55th out of 57 goalies on their chart, at -4.5 goals saved above expected.
The Canucks were 1-1-0 against the Blue Jackets last season. They dropped a 4-2 decision on the road — but erased a 3-0 Columbus lead to come back for a 4-3 win at Rogers Arena on Dec. 14, 2021, just over a week after the coaching change and Game 5 of Boudreau's opening seven-game winning streak. I seem to recall that was a big "Bruce, there it is," night.
Much like when a player is in a scoring slump, I feel like the Canucks should be able to build off their first win, once they finally get it in the books. Maybe Tuesday is the night.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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