GRIN, AND BEAR IT
Canucks must promote young stars into prominent roles next season if team is to move forward Ed Willes
Canucks drop 3-1 decision to Sharks for fourth-straight defeat. Vancouver still sits in 27th place
With just four games left in another humdinger of a Canucks’ season, here are the equally exciting Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports:
n The issue with the Sedins isn’t the players they’ve been, the men they are or what they’ve meant to the Canucks and this province.
No, we trust you understand by now that they’re 1 and 1A among the greatest Canucks of all time. They represent the very best qualities of the game and, when they retire, they should rename Stanley Park after them.
There’s another issue, however, and that concerns what they are as players in April 2017. The Sedins remain the Canucks’ unquestioned leaders and the focal point of the team, but they are no longer capable of delivering at a level commensurate with their ice time and their station on the club.
Henrik is 115th in the NHL in scoring and Daniel is 150th. The Canucks’ power play, on which they still play the lead roles, sits 29th in the league.
Clearly, the Canucks can’t move forward with the twins producing at this rate while they occupy the feature offensive positions on the team. Sunday’s matinee with the Sharks, in fact, was mindful of so many games this season, where the Canucks fall behind early, make a rush in the third period that inevitably comes up short, then congratulate themselves on their work rate or something.
In the meantime, the Canucks are 2-9 over their last 11 games and have scored 18 goals over that span. That’s all you need to know about this team.
For next season, one of two things must happen, or the faithful are looking at another march to nowhere. Either the Sedins have to turn back time or their roles have to be redefined. The former is a possibility. It’s difficult to remember, but, last season, Daniel went 28-33-61 in 82 games and was plus seven. The Canucks would cheerfully sacrifice a limb to see that level of production again, but, with the twins turning 37 next season, it’s not likely.
The challenge for the organization, then, is to keep the twins’ presence in the locker-room while promoting Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi and Brock Boeser into feature roles.
It could be that the youngsters aren’t ready for that level of responsibility, but change has to start sooner rather than later.
This team can’t move forward as long as it clings to the idea the twins are their best players.
n On a related note, the team’s complete lack of physicality has to be addressed as the Linden-Benning management team reimagines the lineup.
Yes, the game is trending toward youth, speed and skill, but hockey hasn’t become so highly evolved that size, grit and toughness are no longer required, and the Canucks have simply been bullied out of too many games this season.
Last week’s much-publicized loss to Anaheim was a low point. The Ducks, one supposes, are a heavy team, but you wouldn’t describe them as overly physical. Still, they treated the Canucks the way a pit bull treats a chew toy, and when Public Enemy No. 1, Ryan Kesler, elbowed Henrik Sedin in the melon, there was no response.
You don’t necessarily have to fight in today’s NHL — although it’s still part of the game — but you do have to push back when challenged.
It was bad enough watching that Tuesday night. It didn’t help that two nights later you could turn on the TV and watch 19-year-old Matthew Tkachuk, the player the Canucks passed over in last summer’s draft, battling the Los Angeles Kings like a madman.
Tell me. Which Canuck plays with that level of passion and physical commitment?
n Given the lineup he’s been stuck with most nights, it’s unfair to judge Willie Desjardins as a coach this season. But, ultimately, this is why I believe he won’t be back next season.
They haven’t won a game at home since Feb. 18 and the atmosphere at Rogers Arena has turned deader than Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
Sunday afternoon, the Sharks’ Tomas Hertl scored two goals, two minutes apart, midway through the first period and the game’s final 47 minutes were as dreary as they were predictable.
The Canucks have to try to sell something to the faithful next season. It likely won’t make a great deal of difference, but a new coach offers something.
n And finally, it’s unclear if Jarome Iginla will be back for another NHL season, but, if this is the noble Iggy’s swan song, he’s leaving behind some nice moments.
Last week he recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick against the Oilers in Edmonton, then two nights later, scored his 625th career goal against the Canucks, tying him with Joe Sakic for 15th on the all-time list.
Iginla’s coming-out party was in 2001-02, when he scored 52 goals for the Flames, and, with Sakic, played a lead role in Canada’s gold medal win in Salt Lake City.
Think about that for a minute. That was 15 years ago, a season when Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi finished behind Iginla in the NHL’s scoring race. Bertuzzi would have one more superstar level season before, for so many reasons, he plateaued.
Naslund would have three more seasons at the top of his game.
In 2011-12, Iginla was still scoring 32 for the Flames, and if he’s no longer the game-breaker he once was, he still battles like a Hun most every night.
In the end, that will be Iginla’s legacy. He was a sublime talent, but he was also a warrior on the ice and the consummate professional off it.
It was also telling that, after tying Sakic, he could tie it back to that time 15 years ago when his own journey was just starting.
“That one is definitely very special to me,” Iginla said after the Kings’ 2-0 win on Friday night.
“I got to play with him at the Olympics, play with him at the World Cup. He’s a guy I looked up to growing up and got to be on his line and watch him do his thing. It was pretty cool. I’ve been very blessed. It’s awesome to get there.”
Pretty cool to watch, too.