VANCOUVER — It can get dark so early around the Vancouver Canucks that it feels sometimes like youâ€ve missed the clock change and itâ€s suddenly December.
Instead, it is three games into an 82-game National Hockey League season. But here we are again with dusk apparently closing in.
The West Coast can get wet and gloomy in a hurry once summer ends, but it has actually been a beautiful autumn out here, and Tuesday was blue-sky sunny and 14 degrees.
The Canucks, however, are 1-2 through three games and coming off TWO STRAIGHT LOSSES! And after last season — and especially after one of the most positive and encouraging training camps and pre-seasons in a couple of decades — that feels ominous.
“Just from everything, you know, thatâ€s happened the last couple years, it probably feels a little bit more urgent than maybe if we were a team that was in the playoffs last year,†Canucks captain Quinn Hughes said after Tuesdayâ€s practice at Rogers Arena. “But we haven’t deserved that right to kind of be 1-2 and say, you know, ‘We’ll be good.†We have to go prove it.
“There’s a mental challenge, sure. But it’s our job to be positive throughout the whole season no matter what’s going on. So we tried to have fun today at practice. Definitely, there’s waves (of ups and downs) and I felt it last night. But for myself, just be positive and bring your best every game. So that’s what I need to try to do, and everyone needs to do.â€
The urgency, usually a precursor to desperation and then panic, that always seems to lurk near the Canucks was ramped up by the holiday weekend losses, 5-2 Monday at home to the St. Louis Blues, and 3-1 Saturday in Edmonton against the Oilers.
The Canucks werenâ€t nearly good enough in either game. But as usual, in a market scarred by disappointment over many years and wary of being fooled again, emotions are outracing reality.
The Canucks were sloppy in both games, especially against the Blues, but were still in position to salvage points had they executed better at the end.
Their top players arenâ€t producing but, in most cases, have underlying numbers that are less discouraging than their point totals.
Hughes, for example, is stuck on a single assist and is minus-two through three games, but his expected-goals-for share at five-on-five is 59 per cent. Elias Pettersson has just one assist and three shots on target, but his xGF is 68 per cent. Conor Garland has only one assist but co-leads Vancouver with nine shots.
The Canucks need to finish, and their power play that surged through the pre-season needs to offer something better than 0-for-7. The team also must earn more chances with the man-advantage, and stop turning over pucks and yielding quality scoring chances when theyâ€re chasing games.
They need to play tighter and sharper, like they proved they could do in a pre-season that had them (and many fans) brimming with optimism.
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“The thing for me,†goalie Thatcher Demko told reporters Tuesday, “is the things that have been lacking are things that are super correctable. We can address those things, and we have in video and things like that. But, yeah, those are easy things to fix. We had so much momentum going for us in the pre-season games, and I don’t think itâ€s going to take much to kind of get back to that level and have that swagger as a group.â€
And as for any darkness closing in for Game 4 Thursday in Dallas?
“I mean, I think no one’s talking about it,†Demko said. “I think guys are fine. I mean, if you guys (in the media) are chatting about it. . . I don’t know. But I don’t get that sense in the room, to answer your question. I don’t think there’s a panic level or anything like that. We know we have to address some things. Weâ€ve got to clean some things up, for sure. We’re not turning a blind eye to that. But I think that we’re the same group we were a week ago. I feel good about our group, and I think guys are excited to get on the road.â€
The five-game trip opens with back-to-back contests against the Stars and Chicago Blackhawks, then moves to Washington for a Sunday matinee against the Capitals, then to Pittsburgh and Nashville for games next week.
The Canucks canâ€t make the playoffs even with an outstanding tour, but they can ease the pressure around them and make things a little brighter.
“I think you have to have adversity throughout the season; I don’t care what team you are,†winger Kiefer Sherwood, the best Canuck so far, told Sportsnet. “You think we have a good camp and it’s just going to be smooth sailing? Like, that’s not how a season works. If anything, it’s good to go through growing pains earlier, so that we know how to respond, how we can grow, how we stick together and we learn from it. At the end of the day, it’s what you do with those losses that can propel us to more wins.
“We have to flip the switch from training camp mode and, you know, summer happiness to lock in here. Itâ€s going to be hard, and I think youâ€ve got to embrace the hard, right? You can’t try to avoid it. It’s a long, grueling season, especially with our (condensed) schedule this year, so we have to embrace it. The urgency has to be now. It canâ€t be 10 or 15 games in. We did this to ourselves, and now it’s time for us to move forward and, like I said, put our work boots on and grow from it.â€
“Just rely on our teammates and rely on each other,†Hughes told us. “The guys in this room are going to get us out of it. I actually feel bad talking this much about it because I just want to go out there and play, and just let the actions (speak).â€
The first Canuck campaign by an 18-year-old in 35 years ended Tuesday at three games when centre Braeden Cootes was sent back to his junior team in Seattle.
“We’re proud of what he’s done,†Canucks coach Adam Foote said of the first-round draft pick who made the opening-night roster out of training camp. “It’s not been his play at all; he’s a smart hockey player. We just think it’s the right thing for his development. This is going to be a condensed, long, heavy season. And you know, we have a young team. . . so it’s hard to have a lot of support around him for his age at this moment. So I think it’s the right thing for his development.â€
In three regular-season games, Cootes did not register a point nor shot on net while averaging just 10:47 of ice time. At five-on-five, the Canucks were outshot 20-7 with Cootes on the ice and high-danger scoring chances were 10-0.
Clearly, Cootes isnâ€t ready for the NHL. Yet. But he was — is — a great story for them and one of the brightest pieces in the Canucks†future.
Foote said the team was recalling minor-league centre Max Sasson, who is seven years older than Cootes and probably would have made the Canucks last week had he been subject to waivers. Sasson could play Thursday in Dallas while veteran checking centre and penalty-killer Teddy Blueger gets close to returning from a knee injury.
Blueger and defenceman Pierre-Olivier Joseph (groin), who is on injured reserve, practised Tuesday in red jerseys but fully participated in contact drills.
Apart from swapping fourth-line centres, Foote said he was “leaning towards†playing Pettersson between wingers Garland and Evander Kane, while elevating Filip Chytil to a line with Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk.
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Karlsson, Blueger, Joseph
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