'No compete': Humbling loss to Flyers reminds Canucks they still have lots to prove

“Who are we to think we’re anybody?”
— Canucks coach Rick Tocchet

PHILADELPHIA – Not since Drew Doughty said after a loss in Vancouver four years ago that his Los Angeles Kings should not be losing to “a team like that,” has dismissive criticism the chance to become a rallying cry for the Canucks like Rick Tocchet’s observation Tuesday after his team’s dismal performance.

Sailing along after surprising the Edmonton Oilers and the rest of the National Hockey League by sweeping a two-game series to start the season, the Canucks crashed spectacularly Tuesday against the supposedly inferior Philadelphia Flyers, losing 2-0 in Game 3 of 82 only because Vancouver goalie Thatcher Demko was sensational.

The Canucks were horribly sloppy at the start, unable to complete passes, and were outshot 22-3 in the middle period by a Flyers’ team that nobody expects to be anywhere near the Stanley Cup playoffs this season. The Canucks didn’t often get to pucks, and didn't win puck battles when they did. They looked mostly awful.

When asked about it post-game, Tocchet said: “We were off in every single system part of it. And then the compete wasn't there. They competed, we didn't. That's the bottom line. I really don't have anything to say -- no compete. And then we tried in spurts, but it's not good enough.

“We weren’t smart everywhere. It’s a good lesson for us. Who are we to think we’re anybody?”

And, of course, the Canucks aren’t anybody. After three tumultuous seasons and an eight-year period that felt unendingly bleak, players must do a lot more than win two games against Connor McDavid to prove they’re somebody.

Tocchet probably saw Tuesday coming. After giving players a day off Sunday, the coach didn’t like the way his team practised Monday, stopping the session at one point to demand Canucks “earn your f---- ice time.”

And the players followed that with a Tuesday performance that looked frighteningly like the long, dark spells of the last three seasons.

It’s unfair after just three games – and a 2-1 record that anyone would have taken in a heartbeat a week ago – to reload all the negativity and disappointment from the past on this team, whose defence has been rebuilt and whose lineup has changed greatly since the start of last season.

Still, who are they to think they’re anybody? Yet.

How they respond Thursday in Tampa, against the recent two-time Stanley Cup champion Lightning, will reveal a little more about who they are.

That 2019-20 Canucks team that Doughty thought so little of? They made the playoffs that season and, in the pandemic bubble, actually won a couple of series.

A team like that was actually pretty competitive.

Few Canucks besides Demko looked competitive on Tuesday.

“We've just got some guys, oof, they. . . better pick it up,” Tocchet said. “I don't like to use the word soft, but I didn't see guys competing at all. And that's alarming. But saying that, you win two games and we said: 'Let's not get too high.' It's the same thing. Obviously, it's a bad effort (but) let's not get too low. Obviously, we've got to go to the drawing board with some guys here. They gotta pick it up, boy. You can't be throwing goose eggs again, some guys.”

Sadly, he didn’t name names and the individual ice times weren’t an obvious indictment of anyone.

Despite trailing 2-0, last season’s 39-goal scorer, Andrei Kuzmenko, had only 2:40 of even-strength ice time in the third period, when Anthony Beauvillier played just two shifts and Phil Di Giuseppe three. Defenceman Tyler Myers, who looks his worst when the Canucks’ structure collapses, had only 3:42 of five-on-five ice time in the final frame and Noah Juulsen just 2:24.

The Flyers got their goals in the first period when Egor Zamula scored at 1:45 on a point shot that appeared to clip Canuck Conor Garland’s stick before beating Demko, who was screened by Juulsen. And Sean Couturier, the Flyers’ leader who went nearly two years without playing and missed all of last season due to back surgery, scored on a beautiful penalty shot at 17:23 after he was slashed on a breakaway by Elias Pettersson.

With Demko somehow keeping the Canucks in the game, Vancouver failed on a pair of late power plays, including a six-on-four in the final two minutes.

“Not a great start, go down a 2-0 hole which we don't want to be in, and then not a great response,” Vancouver defenceman Ian Cole summarized. “I think it's a learning moment for us, right? I think it's an opportunity for us to take a step back and say: 'Alright, we did stuff wrong the first two games we won. We did a lot of stuff wrong tonight. We need to start fixing things.’ We can't start dropping games just because of whatever. We need to fix things (and) fix things in a hurry.”

A key free-agent acquisition for the Canucks, Cole has played on nine straight playoff teams, including last season with the Lightning.

“Good teams don't lose two, three, four games in a row,” he said. “They don't let that snowball. They say: 'Hey, this is what we did wrong, we fix it right away and we go out and we have a better effort the next game.'”

“Listen, there's no panic button here,” centre J.T. Miller said. “It's Game 3, right? We lost today because of things we can totally control, and that's work ethic and the F-U I was talking about after Game 1, little details and the staples our team has been talking about.

“I can be better, that's for sure. But I don't want there to be a sense of panic in the room; it's Game 3 and we're 2-1. At the end of the day, we've got to hold ourselves accountable and to the standard that we believe we can play to.”

They need to become a somebody.