'Definite concern' mounts for Canucks as crunch-time struggles continue

LOS ANGELES — For the last seven weeks, the Vancouver Canucks have played like the fringe-playoff team that seven months ago a lot of people projected them to be.

Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings dropped the Canucks to 10-10-2 since the middle of February — actually, a record that doesn’t keep you in the playoff race over time.

In the seven weeks before Saturday, the Canucks were 24^th in scoring (2.71 goals per game), 14^th in defending (2.95), 22^nd on the power play (19.7 per cent) and 23^rd in penalty killing (74.6). Their most redeeming quality has been superior play driving, ranking fifth in NHL over the last 22 games with 53.9 per cent of shot attempts at five-on-five.

Vancouver’s bottom-six scoring has largely disappeared, starting goalie Thatcher Demko has been injured and star centre Elias Pettersson has been missing in many games lately. But Pettersson had six shots and an assist against the Kings, his fourth point in the last eight games.

Looking at the Canucks’ 22-game sample, a swath of play equivalent to slightly more than one quarter of a National Hockey season, it seems fair to ask: Are they just in a slump and struggling or is this who they really are?

The team fully earned its perch atop the overall standings through 55 games, when they were 37-12-6, almost unstoppable offensively and largely untouchable with a lead. They were doing so many things well it was unfair to dismiss it all as simply inflated shooting and save percentages.

The Canucks are returning to the Stanley Cup playoffs because of those 55 games — the first two-thirds of the season. At 102 points with five games remaining, this is already one of the most successful regular seasons in the franchise’s 54-year history.

But then what?

On Saturday, with the Edmonton Oiler freight train about to close within three points of them in the Pacific Division standings that Vancouver has led for 98 days, the Canucks took two penalties in the first five minutes, couldn’t kill either, and lost their sixth straight game against a team in playoff position.

“I mean, listen, there's some definite concern,” veteran defenceman Ian Cole said. “But I don't think there's any panic. I don't think that there's a lack of confidence. We view ourselves as a much better team than a .500 hockey team. There's a reason we're in position that we're in. We've had three-fourths of a great season, and the timing of this trough is not ideal. 

“But the only way to get out it — and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we were losing some games — is we have to work our way out of it. If the scoring has dried up, if that's the case, then we can't give up six goals. It's just the inconsistency that is concerning in terms of what we're giving up and what we're doing offensively. You've seen how well we can shut a team down. . . and then tonight was not as good. But we'll figure it out. We have all the confidence in the world in our team in here and our coaching staff to work together to figure this out. But we need to continue to grow and progress in the right direction because it is getting down to the crunch time.”

The Canucks' five remaining games include three at home, and three against Western Conference rivals who believe they have a chance to win the Stanley Cup. One of those teams, the Vegas Golden Knights, are at Rogers Arena on Monday. The Canucks visit the Oilers, who once trailed them by 16 points and still have a game in-hand, next Saturday.

Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet, almost always thoughtful and candid, declined post-game to offer an assessment about his team’s prolonged struggles, which began soon after the All-Star break.

“I just look at this game,” he said. “I don't care about what's in the past. We've got five games before the playoffs start. I don't care what happened in the past. Tonight, like I said. . . their conversion rate was great, we didn't (convert).”

Earlier, he said: “The two power-play goals early — you know, a little undisciplined — and then you're chasing the game. We were in the game today; we had some chances. They converted, we didn't. I liked the effort. Guys tried hard, but (made) just too many egregious mistakes. Then it's in your net.”

Canuck Teddy Blueger was called for a stick-slash just 1:41 after the opening faceoff, and Dakota Joshua took a needless roughing penalty at 5:16.

It took the Kings’ power play about a minute-and-a-half in total to generate a 2-0 lead on goals by Adrian Kempe and Drew Doughty, who picked corners from distance on Canuck goalie Casey DeSmith.

And after Brock Boeser took the puck aggressively to Los Angeles' net and was rewarded with a fortunate bounce to make it 2-1 at 10:48 of the first period, the Canucks surrendered an uncontested shot to Jordan Spence that hit Alex Laferriere and deflected past DeSmith just 2:09 into the second period.

The Canucks were never within one goal after that.

They did outshoot the Kings 42-29 and naturalstattrick.com had the high-danger scoring chances in all situations 19-8 for the Canucks. Presumably, critics blasting them with analytics a couple of months ago are now praising them for their play-driving. 

But the objective is, you know, to score goals and win games. In the last 22 games, the Canucks have scored more than three goals only four times. On the three-game trip that ended Saturday, Vancouver scored three times against both Vegas and L.A. and weren’t close to winning either game. In between, they gutted out a 2-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes.

“I think we're heading in the right direction,” Cole said. “But, obviously, giving up six goals is not going to win hockey games.”

“We seemed to crack more than they did,” centre J.T. Miller said. “And they won the special-teams game.

“We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. I'm not saying we can't make mistakes, but it just cost us today.”

The Stanley Cup playoffs open in two weeks.