What will it take for the Canucks to turn their season around?
Posted October 20, 2022 9:29 am.
Last Updated October 20, 2022 9:31 am.
The Vancouver Canucks are in the midst of a very young season and they’ve already made history for all the wrong reasons.
The team is the first in NHL history to lose four straight games after holding multi-goal leads. That pretty much sums up how they’ve played so far this year — they get a decent lead and then give it up, only to skate away empty-handed.
Canucks are the first team in NHL history to lose 4 straight games after holding a multi-goal lead in each contest
(h/t @OptaStats)
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) October 19, 2022
There are a couple of obvious things troubling the team right now. They have, what would appear to be, zero confidence. Throw in the inability to close out a game and special teams units that just can’t get the job done.
“There’s a myriad of problems and I feel like a big part of it is a mental block, even the coaches called that out,” says Dan Riccio, host with CityNews sister station Sportsnet 650. “It is something that has plagued the core of the team, the captain Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller, and many of the other players. They’ve been here for a while now and they’ve consistently made these types of mistakes.”
He says puck management is also a sore point.
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“Understanding the game situation, ‘Hey, we’re up two goals, let’s just make the safe play here and get it in deep.’ The penalty kill is continuing to get roasted. We know they can score goals, but they do a lot of things that cheat on offence and when you’re doing stuff like that, you’re going to get burned,” explains Riccio.
Riccio sympathizes with fans who hold their breath every time the Canucks get a lead right now.
“When they have a lead [the Canucks] just know that something bad is about to happen. And as soon as the next goal comes, you can feel the snowball start to roll on them and they don’t know what to do to stop it. It was inevitably they were going to give up the lead, then anything else.”
So, the question is: what will it take to stop the snowball?
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“I think a lucky bounce of some kind. A goalie making a big save, they haven’t really had that so far. They need something like that to really go their way and stop the snowball from coming down. There have been moments in these games where they’ve had a chance to go up another goal and create a bigger lead and maybe that way, they could see through the win but in those moments, they’ve either hit a post or the puck has just slid off a stick.
There’s a combination of not doing the right things and then not getting the luck when you need it… and a lot of times in life you have to make your own luck, and the Canucks haven’t been able to do that.”
Despite dropping the first four contests, Riccio isn’t predicting any major changes, either on or off the ice.
“Bruce Boudreau was not given a contract extension, so he’s basically on for just the year. At the same time, this club is still paying Travis Greene and I don’t think ownership would be happy with paying another coach. Also, how many coaches are you going to fire before you start to realize this is a problem with the players? This early in the season, you aren’t really going to make any kind of a big trade, it’s just too hard — not enough teams have enough salary cap space and most teams are content to just see what they’ve got for the first 20 games. Can you make a sacrificial lamb trade? I don’t see that happening.”
So far, the team has collected one point out of a possible eight.
The Canucks wrap up a five-game road trip Thursday in Minnesota against the Wild and their home opener is this Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres.
Listen to Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah on Canucks Central Monday to Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sportsnet 650.
