After an embarrassing 6-1 loss on the road to the Jets, the Canucks returned home and served up an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Kings in front of the home fans. Just like Tom Petty, this team is free falling. They’re a shell of their last year selves right now, and it seems like nothing is going right outside of Quinn Hughes. If you wanna see the beatdown, here it is:
As has often been the case this year, the Canucks came out lame to open the game. They were down 1-0 less than a minute in, and 3-0 less than 10 minutes in. This team seems broken and completely off compared to where they were last year. Again, there’s not much to get into over this game that hasn’t been said or dissected before.
“We just made some egregious, egregious plays, you know, pinching, you know, wrong decision at the wrong time. You can’t do that. Some guys are just making some really bad reads right now,” Tocchet said post-game.
It’d be easy if it were one or two players not pulling their weight. But it’s everyone. The whole system is breaking down. Patrick Johnston mused about the quotes and the feelings of the team right now in comparison to the end of Boudreau's tenure, and there’s a lot of similarities there. This isn’t to say it’s the end of this team, but something has to give and some leaders need to step up and rally the team.
“You get punched in the mouth and you get back up. Can’t quit on yourself or your teammates. If you’re in this business long enough, you’re going to get these situations and character guys, leadership, all that stuff usually comes out of it. So we’re looking for those type of people right now,” Tocchet added.
One player the team needs and needed to step up has been JT Miller. He’s the center of trade rumors after taking an extended leave from the team, and his play hasn’t been up to snuff. His ice time has reflected that, trending down over the last number of games.
“Yeah, he's struggling,” Tocchet said of Miller. “He's caught in between. You know, it seems like every time he's on the ice, something bad happens. I think he's got some bad luck, but he's also got some reads that he's got to look at himself right now and focus on some of these reads. I think he's trying. I think the focus level has to get a little higher.”
“It's hard,” Miller said Thursday night. “I'm trying to be mentally strong. And I think this is where your character shows, in moments like this. So today, my mindset was to work my ass off and see what happens. And I really still think I did that, but it's just costly mistakes right now. I just need to focus more.
“It doesn't matter what I do, I'm on the wrong side right now, and it's on me. I'm a leader on the team, and the team expects me to be a lot better than this. So that's my focus.”
From bad reads to bad passes to missed assignments, Miller hasn’t been the monster he was last season. Much of that could be said about the whole team, mind you… it’s just there’s a lot more chatter around Miller these days, so it’s more focal on his large drop in play.
While it’s telling hearing from the Canucks players and staff, it’s also interesting hearing from the opposition. Pretty damning on their quotes after the game. This from Patrick Johnston at the Province:
On the game’s second goal, Fiala made Miller look ludicrous as he side-stepped the underperforming Canucks star and created a lane for Fiala to skate into. He lost his step for a moment but there was no recovery from Miller or any other Canuck, so Fiala had time to flip the puck on net.
“After the move I made on Miller, I had a lot of time. Yeah, I was a little surprised. And I had a lane to shoot, so I didn’t overthink it too much, and just shot it,” Fiala said post-game.
And somehow Alex Turcotte was left unchecked to flip home the rebound.
“A little bit,” Turcotte said about whether he was surprised he was left untouched at the side of the goal. “I mean, Kevin made a great play. He kind of rolled up high, and now the rebound kind of went right to me, so I got a good bounce for sure.”
The Canucks have now won just 7 of 22 on home ice. They’re 3-6-5 in the past month. They’ve scored 1 or fewer goals in six of the last nine. It’s not good.
Last year the team was one of the best defending against the rush. This offseason they wanted to get better at attacking on the rush. Turns out they’re bad at both this season. From Drance at the Athletic:
Before the season started, Rick Tocchet’s staff had a clear goal to improve the Canucks’ transition attack. With the speed they added up front and their upgraded pool of wingers, they felt they could be a more dangerous offensive team off the rush.
It’s painfully obvious this project hasn’t worked out. The Canucks, just like last season, rank 32nd in the NHL for rush chances according to Sportlogiq data shared by Mike Kelly. While disappointing, the lack of rush offence generation is at least understandable. They were in the same boat last year, and clearly the Canucks’ inability to move the puck with possession from the back end is the key bottleneck that prevents the forwards’ ability to attack with speed and numbers.
Vancouver could still have team success with a lacklustre transition offence if it defended as stoutly as last year. In 2023-24, the Canucks were the best team in the NHL at limiting rush chances against and the second-best team at limiting rush goals against.
You can get away with generating very little off the rush if your opponents are also limited. That, unfortunately, hasn’t been the case this season. The Canucks have tumbled all the way down to 19th in rush chances against and are 32nd in rush goals against. They give up way more, and their goaltending (second worst in rush save percentage this season, compared to third best last season) is letting them down in these situations, as well.
The Canucks host the surging Oilers on Saturday. I flipped back through some highlights from that series with the Oilers last playoffs… the team is unrecognizable. Hopefully a version of them show up Saturday night.
To the comments:
Quotes from the Province, the Athletic, and Sportsnet.
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