Canucks have long journey ahead
Ducks may miss playoffs despite strong play, and their roster is way better than Vancouver’s
As we contemplate the road the Canucks must travel to return to the land of the living, we invite you to consider the following:
The Anaheim Ducks came into Tuesday’s meeting with Vancouver on a six-game undefeated streak and riding a stretch of exemplary play that started a couple days after Christmas.
Their lineup, which was ravaged by an absurd run of injuries over the first three months, has been restored to something approaching full health and is both deep and balanced. They have eight players in double digits in goals. They have a blue-line populated by young puck-movers, led by the wildly underrated Hampus Lindholm and Cam Fowler.
And, on Tuesday, they added former University of Denver star Troy Terry, who is fresh off a turn with the U.S. Olympic team.
In short, the Ducks are everything the Canucks are not, from their roster right down to their win-loss record, and they represent a dangerous bit of business for any team in the playoffs.
That’s if they make the playoffs, which is the really scary news for the Canucks.
“We knew it was going to be a battle at the start of the year, but it’s crazy to think you might need 100 points to qualify (for the post-season),” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said.
Crazy for him, yes, and crazier for the Canucks, who are as close to being a 100-point team as Jupiter is to the Sun.
Carlyle, who isn’t exactly a ray of sunshine at the best of times, had a couple of things on his mind Tuesday and they weren’t his team’s win streak or their 23-10-5 record since Dec. 27. Rather, the veteran coach was preoccupied with a pair of substandard performances in his team’s two previous outings that resulted in, well, an overtime loss to Winnipeg and an overtime win over the Oilers in Edmonton.
That’s three points in four games if you’re scoring at home, but that didn’t mollify Carlyle one iota.
“We were very porous in Winnipeg and weren’t very good in Edmonton,”
he said.
I know, Canucks fans. Cry me a river.
The larger concern for Carlyle and his team is the hyper-intense playoff race in the West, a race in which the Ducks are battling Los Angeles, Colorado and St. Louis for two spots, with two points separating the four teams before Tuesday’s games. The Ducks have five games left and understand one misstep could be the difference between a legitimate shot at the big prize and an ignominious ending that would invite a number of uncomfortable questions.
This, we remind you, is also a team that’s been hit just as hard as the Canucks by injuries this season. They’ve just responded to their
adversity a little differently.
“There’s been a turmoil with a lack of bodies,” said Carlyle, who has missed Fowler, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Smilin’ Ryan Kesler and Lindholm for at least 10 games each this season. “We had to manufacture a lineup. But that’s over with. I just like our record since (Christmas). We’ve given ourselves a chance.”
On Tuesday, the Ducks also hustled Terry into their group after signing him to a three-year entry deal Monday. This was the same day the Canucks signed their own college star, Adam Gaudette, who wasn’t in the team’s lineup Tuesday night, and therein lies a story.
The Ducks, who are fighting for their playoff lives, chose to play Terry while the Canucks, who have nothing
to play for, chose to sit Gaudette. A case could be made, one supposes, that the Canucks erred on the side of caution with a young player, which is a pattern we’ve seen before with this organization.
The Ducks had no reservations about Terry, who was taken with the 148th pick of the 2015 draft, one spot ahead of Gaudette in what is shaping up to be one of the greatest fifth rounds in draft history.
“I think it’s important when you bring in a young kid, he’s just not sitting around,” Carlyle said.
“We’re in a situation where we can use his skill. We feel he can step in and help our lineup. We’ll find out.
“Everyone is looking for that player. We think this young player can come in and provide a level of
offence for us.”
Gaudette, meanwhile, will make his debut Thursday against Edmonton in a much-anticipated event for the Canucks and their faithful. If the scriptwriters get his story right, he’ll become a foundational piece for the rebuild, a two-way centreman who says he patterns his game after Boston’s Patrice Bergeron.
The Canucks envision a centre-ice position with Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson and Gaudette in the forthcoming years and — who knows? — maybe one day they’ll occupy the territory in which teams like the Ducks now reside.
That’s nice to think about, but there shouldn’t be any illusions about the length or difficulty of that journey.