VANCOUVER — Told that new defenceman Akito Hirose practises breathing and visualization exercises on the bench during games, Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said: “The Zen club. I like that.”
Everyone on or near the Canucks this season — or for any length of time over most of the last 50 years — can use a little Zen. Inhale. Hold. Exhale gently. Breathe in, breathe out. You can not breathe in the past, you can not breathe in the future, there is only the present.
For the Canucks, losers of four straight games and soon to miss the National Hockey League playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons, the present is why they need a little Zen.
Certainly, emotional leader J.T. Miller seeks inner calm. His dash from the ice to the dressing room about 20 seconds before the end of the second period on Tuesday was a talking point after the Canucks lost dismally 5-2 to the Seattle Kraken.
“It’s not complicated; I was frustrated,” Miller told us after Wednesday’s practice at Rogers Arena. “I'm trying not to show it in front of my teammates. But now it becomes a thing, and everybody finds out about it anyway. I'm not going to not be frustrated sometimes; that part is not going to go away.
“When you see people who have never seen black or red or whatever the colour is (for anger), it's hard for them to understand. But trust me, I understand the final step is sitting down and taking a breath and not doing anything. To be honest, it feels good to break something every once in a while.”
As every parent knows: all feelings are OK, all actions are not.
Miller is working on his actions, but it is up to the Canucks to do the same over their final five games, starting Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
After the Seattle game, which followed an uninspired 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, Tocchet blasted his team for its lack of energy and poor body language and “bad habits” that have crept back into its game after six weeks of superior, winning play.
“You can't take a game off; I don't care if you're in the playoffs or not,” Tocchet said Tuesday, upset at the Canucks’ lack of energy and defeatist body language. “Quite frankly, some guys can't afford to take games off. You know, this is evaluation time. If you're packed in already, it's going to really affect all of our opinions on the guy, so that's why you're really looking at guys and how they finish strong.”
The current losing streak helps the Canucks’ draft-lottery odds, but not the culture Tocchet is trying to build. And it certainly hurts the players — some of whom will not be on the team next season.
“He coaches like he plays; he wants to win as bad as any player in here,” winger Conor Garland, who played for Tocchet for three seasons in Arizona, said after Wednesday’s remedial session of battle drills. “And I think for a player, that's awesome. He's right; guys are playing for their (NHL) lives, playing to stay here. You can't mail it in. He was 100-per-cent right, and he has a great way of conveying that message.”
“The two months that I've been here, I've seen a lot of good things,” Tocchet told reporters on Wednesday. “I've seen a lot of good, positive stuff. The last 10 days, I've seen some old habits creep back in — you know, not coming to the bench fast (on changes), some body language stuff. The battle part of our game is something that has to be addressed. We're a little bit light but that doesn't mean you can't win battles and we're going to have to figure that out.”
Until their four-game slide, the longest since Tocchet replaced Bruce Boudreau in January, the Canucks had gone 13-4-1 and looked transformed — tight defensively, more direct and consistent and with far fewer big mistakes.
But that’s a long time to sprint, especially with top players like Miller (21:05), Elias Pettersson (21:42) and Quinn Hughes (27:16) playing big minutes night after night. Sunday’s loss officially eliminated the Canucks from the playoff race, and there is a bleak reality about what remains in what has been an emotionally-taxing season.
“I hope they don't think that way: 'I can't wait for the season (to end),’” Tocchet said. “Our message today in the meeting with the players is every day you try to get better. How are we going to get better today? If you just want to waste five games and wait for the summer, it's probably not a good attitude to have.”
Not when Tocchet and general manager Patrik Allvin and their staffs will be evaluating these final games as closely as they have any others.
Hirose this week became the 15th defenceman to play for the Canucks this season. There are seven injured blue-liners and Tocchet said Hughes, who missed practice with what the coach described as a virus, may not be able to play Thursday. If that occurs, college free agent Cole McWard, whose signing was announced by the Canucks during the Seattle game, could become defenceman No. 16 against Chicago.
His first skate with teammates was Wednesday. Hirose is getting ready for NHL Game 3, while prospect Jack Rathbone will play his fifth game since being recalled from the American Hockey League on an emergency basis.
Amid the Canucks’ dramatic downshift, Allvin has orchestrated an influx of solid prospects every bit as impressive in scope as the injuries on the defence.
Hirose, who turns 24 on Sunday, was signed as a free agent from Minnesota State University-Mankato. McWard, 21, was lured from Ohio State after his sophomore season. Western Michigan University free agent Max Sasson, 22, has started with the minor-league team in Abbotsford.
The Canucks also signed Belarusian goalie Nikita Tolopilo, 22, and their own 2019 draft pick Aidan McDonough, a 23-year-old power forward who went into the lineup straight from Northeastern University.
Including pre-deadline trade acquisitions Aatu Raty, 20, and junior Josh Bloom, 19, the Canucks have quickly deepened a prospect pool that had looked dangerously shallow when the season began.
“I don't think we wanted to have just quantity,” Allvin told Sportsnet. “We’re trying to get quality and, to be honest, those three college players (McWard, Hirose and Sasson), we actually targeted. (Director of player personnel) Scott Young did a great job staying on them. McWard could have stayed another year in college, but he was really excited to join this club.
“Credit again to Jeremy Colliton and our coaching staff in the AHL and also our player-development staff. They've worked hard to help a lot of guys down in Abbotsford to become better players. And I do think that coming into training camp next year, we will have more competition and have more options.”
Tocchet hasn’t many options at the moment, but the competition starts now. He hopes players realize that.
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.