VANCOUVER – Nobody promised wins. But the Vancouver Canucks are finally starting to deliver on the effort and competitiveness they pledged as a baseline.
Their 4-2 loss Saturday to the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped the Canucks to 3-12-1, which is grotesque and worse than anyone expected even for the start of a National Hockey League rebuild.
But they had their goalie out and pressing for a late tying goal, as they did in Thursday’s 3-2 road loss to the San Jose Sharks, and the Canucks didn’t drown at five-on-five against another superstar-driven team.
And even though Vancouver’s poor middle period decided the game, the two shots that allowed Toronto to go ahead 3-1 could have been handled better by goalie Leevi Merilainen.
After getting outshot in 12 of their first 13 games, which included a 10-game losing streak, the Canucks have now narrowly outshot their opponents in three straight contests. Shots on Saturday were 29-28.
It is sobering that these last three games, a 6-5 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday followed by the goalie-out losses against the Sharks and Leafs, probably constitute a “hot streak” at this stage for the NHL’s worst team.
But at least there is progress, which was difficult to find through most of October – a month that was Halloween for the Canucks from start to finish.
“Getting closer,” coach Manny Malhotra said Saturday night. “It's not close to where we need to be or need to get to, but there is progress there. It's frustrating as we talk about these games after loss after loss, but we do see improvement in different areas of our game. It's just... tough to see those when there's no correlation to wins.”
“Obviously, the end result has to change somehow,” Canucks winger Paul Cotter, part of an effective fourth line, told Sportsnet. “We'll get a bit more locked in order to do that. But I think just as a team, we've been better consistently the past couple of games. That’s a good sign.
“I think we're doing the right things. And the changes that are needed to be made are just little, you know, easily fixable mistakes — the tiny little details that might not seem like much. It seems like we've been on the same page lately as a group. The communication has been there, the effort's been there. So it’s just a matter of time until we get our game in place.”
The Canucks are 16 games into their first full season under construction. They’ve got new players, new coaches with new systems, a new management regime and new standards about how they should think and act as Canucks.
The scale of the rebuild should take hundreds of games. But they are trending towards a better second quarter of the season than what the Canucks have shown in the first.
Against high-powered opponents, Vancouver has averaged 25 shots against the last three games after yielding 37 per night the previous six.
“I think there's a lot of new guys,” Cotter continued. “There's a lot of guys that are being put in new positions, and it was going to take some time. I think all of us in here wish it was quicker, like it should be. We hold ourselves to a high standard. But the only thing we can do now is keep trying to get better each day.”
“Honestly, I think our team's playing a lot better hockey as of late,” veteran Brock Boeser said. “We're generating more shots, and I think our defensive game's coming along and getting better. And, you know, you’ve got to look at the little things. As long as those are improving, then we’ve got to build off those.
Two questions later, he added: “I do think... we're feeling a lot more connected and a lot more, you know, playing as a five-man unit on the ice. You know, guys can feel it. Guys' confidence levels are much better than where it was on that losing streak.”
The Canucks may have bottomed out in their embarrassing 5-2 home loss against the Detroit Red Wings nine days ago when Vancouver, incomprehensibly, went 39 minutes without a shot on net.
The next game, which was Quinn Hughes’ return to Vancouver with the Minnesota Wild, the Canucks played an excellent first period before getting buried in the final two periods at five-on-five during a 4-2 loss against the Stanley Cup contenders.
They’ve looked like a different team against Anaheim, San Jose and Toronto.
Despite falling behind 1-0 on William Nylander’s circus finish on a breakaway just 1:23 into the game, a few seconds after Canuck defenceman Jamie Oleksiak stumbled in front of the puck in the neutral zone, Vancouver slightly outplayed Toronto in the first period.
Boeser’s tying goal, on a power-play breakaway pass from Filip Hronek, was nearly as impressive as Nylander’s.
With a long skate to their bench, the Canucks got stuck in their own zone far too often in the second period, failing to relieve pressure by failing to win pucks and make passes.
But still, Auston Matthews’ go-ahead goal at 3:47 went through Merilainen’s pads from a sharp angle – and after Canuck Elias Pettersson broke his stick blocking a shot and let Leafs defenceman Darren Raddysh skate past him – and Zack MacEwen’s floater from the blue line at the end of another extended offensive-zone shift for Toronto was palmed by Merilainen off teammate Luke Schenn and into the net at 12:34.
Max Sasson popped the rebound from Brendan Gallagher’s shot past Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz to bring the Canucks within one at 9:27 of the third. But Vancouver couldn’t convert on a power play that began 34 seconds later, and didn’t generate a Grade-A scoring chance after that.
“There’s confidence we can build on knowing what works in our game and what doesn't,” defenceman Zeev Buium said. “I think the way we're playing for bigger parts of the game now is a recipe for success. We're starting to understand the structure and system, and I think you saw in the second period where we just kind of break down and get away from it. Just defending and everyone's tired, and it just gets away from you. So we’ve just got to find a way to clean that up, and I think we'll start liking our results a lot better.”
The Ducks visit Vancouver on Tuesday before the Canucks continue their challenging first-quarter schedule with road games in Winnipeg and Edmonton.
ICE CHIPS – Former Maple Leaf Jacob Quillan was recalled from the minors and made his Canucks debut after Filip Chytil, who reinjured his shoulder on a hit by Darnell Nurse in San Jose, was placed on injured reserve. Centring wingers Linus Karlsson and Liam Ohgren, Quillan registered one shot in 11:58 of ice time and had a 52-per cent share of shot attempts at five-on-five. . . It was Merilainen’s fourth straight start for the Canucks. . . Top centre Elias Pettersson blocked five shots for Vancouver but was roasted in the faceoff circle, going 7-18, mostly head-to-head against Matthews.
