“Everybody is tired of losing. You hear everybody say that. That’s OK to say that, but what are you doing to change that narrative? When I talk to the leadership group, they’re not talking about goals and assists. They’re talking about changing the narrative. Now it’s the actions. What are you doing to change the narrative?”
— Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet
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VANCOUVER — The new coach has been with the Vancouver Canucks for less than nine months. The team has been losing for most of its 53 years.
But rarely has the core of the team, its best four or five players, been as talented as the group that Rick Tocchet inherited last winter with the mandate from management to transform them into winners.
Goalie Thatcher Demko said on the eve of training camp last month that this season could be the last chance for this core because at some point you have to win or the organization will move on and find new players.
What followed was probably the most instructive, teaching-based and detailed training camp the Canucks have had this century. The team hasn’t had a practice or morning skate in which Tocchet and people from his staff, usually blue-line coach Adam Foote, haven’t pulled players aside to tutor and instruct them on some nuance of tradecraft that will make them better.
When the Canucks’ pre-season ended Friday with a thorough 3-1 win in which they allowed the Calgary Flames just 18 shots — less than half of what Calgary averaged last season in four games against Vancouver — the coach appeared to have complete buy-in about how this team must play to be successful.
There is little doubt the lineup is stronger. The summer buyout of defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the money it freed up for general manager Patrik Allvin to sign Ian Cole, Carson Soucy, Teddy Blueger and Pius Suter in free agency was a game-changer.
With Demko, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Filip Hronek and Andrei Kuzmenko, the Canucks have loads of talent atop the improved depth. But now they have to win.
“We’re trying to make the environment different,” Miller told Sportsnet last week. “I’m not putting a marker on what our season is going to look like, but I just feel like we’re a better team now with our additions. And we’re better now because we’re a year older and a little more mature. Things are changing for the good. You can feel that around the room.”
The Canucks start Wednesday against the Edmonton Oilers.
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2022-23 regular season record: 38-37-7, 83 points
2022-23 finish: 6th in Pacific Division (12 points out of playoffs)
Additions: D Ian Cole, D Carson Soucy, C Teddy Blueger, C Pius Suter, RW Sam Lafferty, G Casey DeSmith
Subtractions: D Oliver-Ekman Larsson, D Ethan Bear, D Kyle Burroughs, LW Tanner Pearson, RW Vitali Kravtsov, G Spencer Martin, G Collin Delia
Three Storylines to Watch
1. The Tocchet Way
Since he replaced Bruce Boudreau as coach in January, Tocchet has worked on changing the way the Canucks play and implored players to adhere to details and meet demands even when doing so makes them uncomfortable. Vancouver was 25th in goals allowed last season and had holes in its game that made it impossible to win consistently.
Just last week, before the Calgary win, Tocchet still acknowledged shortfalls in the Canucks’ game and the need for players to win more battles, be more robust in defending and better under pressure, and get to the opposition net more often. Much better defensively — Vancouver surrendered an average of just 23 shots over its final five pre-season games — the Canucks will be harder to play against. But can they play this way for 82 games?
2. Thrill Of The Kill
The Canucks not only finished last in penalty killing last season at 70.6 per cent, but for much of the year had the worst shorthanded efficiency since the NHL began tracking it in the 1970s. In the first month of last season, when the Canucks played themselves out of contention by starting 4-9-3, their special-teams deficit was nearly a half-goal per game. Winning hockey is unattainable at that rate.
Nearly every player new to the Canucks this season brings a penalty-killing profile. In the last five pre-season games, the new (and sometimes improved) penalty-killers went 16-for-17. If the Canucks are merely average this season shorthanded, and what has been a formidable power play remains in the top-10, special teams alone could be worth the extra half-dozen wins the team needs to make the playoffs.
3. For Petey’s Sake
Elias Pettersson decided in August to delay a decision about signing a long-term extension, and vowed when he finally spoke to Vancouver media on the opening day of training camp that the situation would not become a distraction. Eligible for restricted free agency next summer, the 24-year-old centre who had 102 points last season has said his focus is solely on winning, which naturally heightens the imperative of winning for a franchise that wants him to stay.
But even if the contract is not a distraction to Pettersson, it will be ongoing fodder for everyone else. And if Pettersson or the team starts poorly, suppressing discussion about his future will be like trying to hold back a hurricane. The Swede did not dominate training camp like he usually has, although that may be by design; beating teammates in September is nothing compared to beating opponents in October. And his pre-season was not helped by a couple of sick days and the ongoing absence of linemate Ilya Mikheyev, who is close to returning from last winter’s ACL surgery. The bottom line is Pettersson needs to win as much as the Canucks do.
The Season Will Be A Success If…
…The Canucks play the way their coach wants and goalie Thatcher Demko returns to form while avoiding significant injury. Under Boudreau and his go-go-go offensive style, Demko went 3-10-2 with a .883 save precentage and 3.93 goals-against average before he tore his groin in December. When the goalkeeper returned from injury under Tocchet, the 27-year-old finished the season 11-4-2 with a .918 save percentage and 2.52 GAA.
Players Who Could Surprise: Brock Boeser
Struggling emotionally the last two seasons amid the toll of his father’s grave illness and subsequent death, Boeser became a forgotten figure among the Canucks — except when he asked for a trade in December. The request was rescinded in April when Boeser told Sportsnet he had found peace and a new drive to be the scoring winger he hinted at when he amassed 29 goals in 62 games as a rookie six years ago. There is only so much more the Canucks can expect offensively from Pettersson, Miller, Hughes and Kuzmenko. But Boeser has a tonne of rebound potential — if he can adapt to Tocchet’s ideals about being harder to play against and earn the opportunity to make a difference.
Projected Opening Night Lineup
Forwards
Andrei Kuzmenko-Elias Pettersson-Conor Garland
Phil Di Giuseppe-J.T. Miller-Brock Boeser
Anthony Beauvillier-Pius Suter-Sam Lafferty
Dakota Joshua-Teddy Blueger-Nils Hoglander
Defence
Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek
Ian Cole-Tyler Myers
Guillaume Brisebois-Noah Juulsen
Goalies
Thatcher Demko
Casey DeSmith
Notes: Winger Ilya Mikheyev is close to returning from ACL surgery and should play with Pettersson and Kuzmenko when healthy. Defenceman Carson Soucy is out week to week with a lower-body injury but will be in the top five. Acquired in a Sunday trade with Toronto, Lafferty has yet to even practise with the Canucks.