Vancouver Canucks learning important playoff lessons during disappointing homestand

VANCOUVER — If this March homestand was not merely a playoff dress rehearsal for the Vancouver Canucks, the team might be out of the Stanley Cup tournament by now.

But that’s the great thing about rehearsals; the performances that matter are still ahead.

As the Canucks try for the third to hit 100 points after clinching a playoff berth Saturday on losses by St. Louis and Minnesota, their 4-3-1 record so far during this extended run at Rogers Arena tells a story about where they stand.

They opened forever ago, on March 9, with an impressive 5-0 win against the Winnipeg Jets, and since then have beaten non-playoff teams from Buffalo, Montreal and Calgary. Vancouver’s four losses have come against former Stanley Cup winners in Colorado, Washington and Los Angeles and, 3-1 on Thursday, a Dallas Stars team that lost the bubble final in 2020 and last year made it to the Western Conference final before losing to the eventual champion Vegas Golden Knights.

And while it’s true the last of L.A.’s two Stanley Cups was a decade ago, the best Kings in Monday’s 3-2 win were still Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty.

The Stars’ victory was driven by old warriors Jamie Benn and Joe Pavelski, along with playoff-hardened Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen.

The Colorado Avalanche overwhelmed the Canucks at the end of their 4-3 comeback win with Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar. And the Capitals? Even Alex Ovechkin scored in Washington’s 2-1 win, and T.J. Oshie and John Carlson were excellent.

All these players have playoff scars and, except for the Stars, Stanley Cup rings. They have been there, done that, survived the National Hockey League’s toughest stage and know how to handle big moments and big games.

The Canucks don’t have those players at the top of their lineup.

Thirty-one-year-old J.T. Miller has logged 78 playoff games but is six years removed from the last of his long post-season runs with the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers. The only playoff hockey Canucks like Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and injured goalie Thatcher Demko have experienced were in the artificial, fan-less Edmonton bubble four years ago.

Knowing what’s coming, Canucks coach Rick Tocchet has been sounding the alarm since early March, imploring his players to find another level, to up their intensity and win more puck battles and get to the front of the opposition net to score more goals.

So far, the results have been mixed and this homestand a little disappointing. But the lessons from the losses, if Canuck players are absorbing them, are every bit as important as the points in the standings – even with the Edmonton Oilers creeping uncomfortably closer in the Pacific Division table.

“It is important lessons learned before we get there (to the playoffs),” Boeser said after Saturday’s practice. “You never know how playoffs are going to go. . . but I truly do think these games against these playoff teams — and Vegas and L.A. are coming up — they're important games and we'll see what we learned from the last two losses. I think that it is really good for us to play these teams before the playoffs.”

After closing out their nine-game homestand with an Easter Sunday matinee against the Anaheim Ducks, the Canucks leave Monday for a three-game trip to Vegas, Arizona and Los Angeles.

They play the Golden Knights again in Vancouver on April 8, visit the Oilers on April 13 and close their regular season in Winnipeg on the 18^th.

In total, there are nine more games for the Canucks to prepare for the franchise’s biggest playoff moment in nearly a decade.

“I think we do feel like we can be better,” captain Hughes said. “But I don't worry about fans and the intensity (of playoff hockey). I mean, I feel like it's always crazy here. I think this year has been a cakewalk compared to other years where we're losing and it's miserable and the fans are on you that way. It's just hockey and I'll be really excited to play it.”

But as Miller cautioned Saturday (and has been telling teammates): “It really is different. I certainly didn't think the way I do now when I was 22 and 23 playing in big playoff games. It takes some experience. 

“We have a really good hockey team in here and we have shown that we can play and beat anybody in the league this year, so we should have a lot of confidence going in. There's just a little bit more, and I think that’s what we're going to learn as we go here: it takes a little bit more from every individual.”

Miller said the games this week against Los Angeles and Dallas were “perfect examples” of what the Canucks will see when the Stanley Cup playdown begins in three weeks.

“We've liked parts of our game during those games, but we weren't at our absolute best,” he said. “And I think it just shows that in those tight games, the only way to score is by getting to the inside. We've had great structure against those teams. I think we've played good games. But to score goals at this time of year, you've got to score on the power play and you've got to go to the dirty areas. And I think those teams just did a better job in those games of getting to the areas to score.”

The Avalanche, Capitals, Kings and Stars also did not make the big mistakes at critical times that the Canucks did.

Teddy Blueger took a high-sticking penalty with 3:28 remaining on Thursday and Dallas scored its late winner on the power play. Against Los Angeles, the Canucks surrendered a goal on a terrible line change. A turnover cost Vancouver against Washington. All systems failed for the Canucks in the third period against the Avalanche, who won it on an overtime power play after Carson Soucy cleared the puck over the glass with nine seconds left in regulation time.

Lessons.

“Yeah, our structure is good and all that stuff,” Tocchet said Saturday. “But it's those little miscellaneous things; if you add those up, they're really big. 

“All games basically — take the empty net away — are one goal losses, right? It could be one or two plays. These are the pedigrees of teams in the playoffs that have had long runs; they know at the crucial time what to do. We're learning. You know, we haven't been through that. Is it a dry run right now? Yeah. And it's good that we're going through this right now.”

ICE CHIPS – Pettersson did not practise Saturday; Tocchet said it was a maintenance day. He said injured centre Elias Lindholm has been skating but remains out “day to day.” . . . The Canucks’ struggling power play practised with power forward Dakota Joshua at the net front. . . Nikita Zadorov practised as an extra and may sit out Sunday for Noah Juulsen as Tocchet tries to keep all seven of the team’s defencemen involved.