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VANCOUVER — Back in journalism school, the simplest example of what constituted news was: Man bites dog. The Vancouver Canucks losing hockey games has never been “man bites dog.”
Losing in the National Hockey League’s northwestern outpost is more like: dog barks, then scratches itself, wags tail and poops.
But after surprisingly linear improvement under coach Rick Tocchet the last season-and-a-half, it is newsworthy how the Canucks have been losing on home ice this season. It’s not even that the team is 2-3-3 at Rogers Arena while pillaging other places with a 6-1 road record.
It’s that the Canucks have played a couple of their most putrid games under Tocchet on home ice over the last couple of weeks, and that a team that rebranded itself by being fast, physical and difficult to play against offered so little resistance in recent losses to the New Jersey Devils (6-0), Edmonton Oilers (7-3) and, on Thursday, the New York Islanders (5-2).
These prompted Tocchet to volunteer an apology to fans at the start of his post-game press conference after the Islanders game, in which the Canucks managed just six shots through two periods.
As Canuck defenceman Vincent Desharnais told Sportsnet after the game: “We can’t win all 82, so it’s normal to lose games. But it’s not normal to lose games like we’re doing right now.”
“Yeah, it feels a little different,” veteran centre Teddy Blueger said after Friday’s lively practice at the University of B.C. “I don’t know if maybe part of it is because last year we got off to such a good start, the downs were a little bit mitigated by that because we had a bit of a cushion in the standings. We also had some positive momentum. Once we started off well and started winning, we all kind of got dialed into what our roles were and what we needed to do. Right now, we’re kind of struggling a little bit to find our game, find our identity maybe a little bit.
“It’s hard to kind of pinpoint one reason for that. It could be a combination of things. Maybe teams are taking us a little more seriously this year. Maybe we thought it would be a little easier just because we had success last year — stuff that subconsciously creeps in. I think it’s all correctable, which is the good thing.”
There have been more good things than bad in the Canucks’ 8-4-3 start, especially considering the team turned over a third of its roster in the off-season, has been missing star goalie Thatcher Demko and now top winger Brock Boeser, and powerful forwards J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson have struggled for stretches to make their usual impact.
But the disconcerting part of the home losses is that the Canucks do not appear to be learning from their mistakes. Thursday’s no-show against the Islanders should not have happened so soon (or at all) after Saturday’s loss to the Oilers, who pumped in four third-period goals as the Canucks disintegrated.
A team that has treated its resiliency as a badge of honour, that has been coached not to compound one mistake by making another, is raking up errors like piles of autumn leaves.
“I think we have to realize what makes us successful,” defenceman Tyler Myers said. “The reason we had success last year was because we played a certain way. And right now, our consistency with that play is not where it needs to be. We keep talking about it, but it’s the mental prep before. It’s the preparation in practices, and going into games. We just have to keep working at it because we know we have the players to be successful.”
Myers described the Canucks’ mistakes as “trickling down” when players stray from basic principles like starting and stopping on puck and checks, playing through opponents and winning puck battles.
Tocchet described his team Thursday as playing “light.” The Canucks’ identity is heavy hockey. Nobody likes the taste of CanucksLite.
“I mean, listen, sometimes you get a little comfortable,” Tocchet told reporters on Friday. “I want these guys to feel comfortable, but play uncomfortable. And that’s a sweet spot we’re trying to find right now. We just can not accept these home-game efforts. There’s a game plan there and … if the other team gets a goal (or) something bad happens, we revert to one-on-one hockey again, and we’ve got to stop that.”
Tocchet added he has been “too soft” this season in criticizing his players.
He explained later: “My messaging is the same every day. But I’ve purposely stayed a little more quiet than I did last year because I want these guys to grow. And you grow in October and November. I can’t wait until March. But I think the growth has to start from lessons like last night, lessons against Edmonton, New Jersey. These are lessons where they’re going to have to grab a hold of it.
“I can’t go in there every day and scream and yell and read the riot act. I didn’t have to do it a lot last year because, quite frankly, we didn’t have a lot of bad efforts at home, and we didn’t have a lot of losing streaks. Now that the temperature’s higher … and we’re not surprising teams, we have to raise our bar. As a coach, I’ve got to let them grow to find that bar.”
The coach tried to claim “it’s on me” for Thursday’s loss but everyone knows that’s not true.
“I think it’s on us,” Blueger said. “That’s the kind of guy he is, protecting us a little bit and taking some of the blame. But I mean, he’s not on the ice. Ultimately, it’s up to us, and I think we let everyone down.”
ICE CHIPS: One game after Dakota Joshua’s return from cancer, Tocchet reunited him for Friday’s practice with Blueger and Conor Garland, the trio that formed one of the NHL’s best third lines last season. … Kiefer Sherwood was moved into the top six to replace Garland on a line with Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk, while Danton Heinen was dropped to the fourth line beside Aatu Raty and Nils Hoglander. The only forward line left untouched was Miller between Pius Suter and Jonathan Lekkerimaki. … Goalie Kevin Lankinen was given the day off, indicating he will likely start for the 12th time in 13 games when Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks visit Rogers Arena on Saturday.
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