One team is feeling confident, the other decidedly not
When Willie Desjardins said everything is on the table after the Canucks were shutout on Thursday night for the fourth time in five games, he didn’t really mean it.
For example, the Canucks may yet split the Sedins, but they aren’t trading one of them.
Jannik Hansen isn’t going anywhere, and neither is Bo Horvat. Loui Eriksson will be with Vancouver all season, whether he scores an actual goal or not.
The future of the head coach, however, is another thing. It always is. It’s a story as old as Canada itself.
A National Hockey League team with high expectations — don’t laugh — torturously disappoints and the coach becomes an easy mark or, as Don Cherry once described Roberto Luongo, the “escape goat.”
It’s happened so often, firing a coach in-season comes with its own hopeless slogan.
“Well, you can’t trade all the players.”
It is why, increasingly, the conversation around the Canucks revolves around their head coach.
This is a team that disappeared into an abyss last season, mostly blamed it on injuries, and promised an improved, more exciting collection this year. Arguably, the Canucks have been worse.
The team has 16 goals in 11 games, a scoring rate so sad it will make history if it continues for the next few months.
Amazingly, the Canucks have been shutout eight times in their past 24 games, stretching back into March. They are last in evenstrength scores, and power-play goals, too.
Is it enough to make Desjardins the latest “escape goat?”
“I like the structure we’ve played with,” Canucks president Trevor Linden explained. “I think we’ve played well. We haven’t scored. Willie would need a long stick from where he’s standing.”
Linden is right, of course. Desjardins can’t put the puck in the net, and it wasn’t only his plan to improve the team’s defensive structure at the risk of shaving down scoring chances.
“I like the way we’ve competed,” Linden said. “I like the way we’ve played away from the puck.
“I look at the chances we’re giving up, the shots we’re giving up this year as compared to last year and I think we’re a better group. I think we’re playing with better structure.”
On that, there is no debate. The Canucks have cut down on shots and goals against. Last season, they were giving up 32.5 shots a game, and it’s down to 27.4. They ranked 23rd in goals against last season, and were up to eighth on Friday.
The improvements have been obvious. But playing safe is not without significant gambles. If you have your forwards peeling back into the neutral zone whenever things get a little dicey, you’re going to sacrifice opportunities to beat goalies.
And this is not a team blessed with many snipers, if any at all. The Ca- nucks not only need scoring chances, they need lots of them.
The team claims it had 35 scoring chances the past two games, most of which came when it was losing. None of those chances resulted in a goal. Is it possible for any coach to change that?
“The fact that we’re having a tough time scoring, I have trouble putting that on Willie,” Linden said. “I think our guys are working hard and eventually we’re going to break through.”
Desjardins being on the hot seat in Vancouver is a topic that’s been addressed this week by the national hockey media, so it’s a story gaining momentum.
Before Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Senators in Ottawa, Linden was asked if he was going to be patient with his coach and backed him totally.
“Yes, 100 per cent,” Linden said. “We’re just 10 games into the season. Stability is important to me. Patience is important. I understand people. You come out and you win four and then you lose one in overtime and then lose (six) in a row. Trust me, it’s been frustrating for everyone. It’s not easy for me. I understand it’s not easy for the fans. I know people want to win.”
The Canucks’ structure is going to be tested today against a fast, young Toronto Maple Leafs team.
The Leafs attack, but they also make mistakes and bleed shots against. If the Canucks don’t score in this one, it will feel like they may never score again. Toronto is young. The Leafs’ average age is nearly two years younger than the Canucks and it provides a fascinating juxtaposition with Vancouver. The Leafs’ front office is viewed by many as the one that’s getting team-building right. They have a collection of exciting players, and those players can already score.
The Canucks, meanwhile, are seen by some as the team without true direction, caught in the trap of needing a rebuild but wanting to compete for the playoffs. It’s something Linden doesn’t get.
“The whole ‘what are they doing?’ question, I’m not sure about it,” Linden said. “What has gone on here in the past two years is a pretty significant change from one group to another. When you talk about changing a core group of older players, it’s hard when you don’t have ... it’s a challenging thing to do. And it’s going to take some time.
“Had we won the (draft) lottery on May 1, would that have made a difference? We didn’t win.”
Maybe the people who wanted the team to tank all along had it right? Of course, the Leafs did win that lottery and with it got the right to select Auston Matthews.
If you have a player like that, it makes everyone look better. If you don’t, the improvements become harder to see.
“If we look at where we started at and where we are today, we’re a lot further. We’re a better group now with our youth and prospects that we’ve introduced,” Linden said. “Our oldest defenceman is 30 years old. There are positives. People use the word ‘rebuild’ as this dramatic thing.
“What is a rebuild to you? What’s a rebuild to someone else? What does transition mean?”
So where does Linden think his team is at in its organizational life cycle?
“Go back to the starting point, and that’s a well-documented place,” Linden said. “It was a challenging spot with the challenges we had in various areas of our organization, and that (spot) was borne out of success.
“Working through contract situations and older players, we are transitioning our group to a younger group. If you look at what our goaltending situation looks like, even below the guys that are (in the NHL). If you look at what we’ve done with the defence, we’re younger and we have depth there and prospects. We have some meaningful prospects at the forward position who aren’t here.
“We understood that the biggest challenge was when older players start to decline or move, can you backfill quick enough underneath? That’s always a challenge and we’re working through that now.”
Working through it one goal at a time.