Routine losses grind away at morale
Frustrated Canucks admit losing every night ‘takes a toll,’ writes Jason Botchford.
You play pickup basketball in May, you play to win.
Winning beer-league hockey games seems to matter for a moment or two. On some random, rain-soaked January in Saturday, you’re hoping your kid can win her meaningless soccer game.
Heck, we’ve seen grown adults try to obliterate seven-year-olds in Skip Bo, a card game for kids.
For whatever reasons, whomever you are, winning matters.
Now, think how much it means to ultracompetitive, world-class athletes playing hockey, a sport where extraordinary emphasis is placed on the team and its success.
Wins are like ecstasy — the feeling, not the drug — though you could make the case for both.
Unfortunately for the Canucks, there’s been much more sorrow than euphoria.
They have won just twice in the past 15 NHL games.
Asked directly if this is what he signed up for when he came to the Canucks as a free agent, Michael Del Zotto suggested it was the toughest stretch of his career.
“It’s frustrating. It’s not easy on you when you lose consecutively and go on a stretch like this,” said Del Zotto. “That’s why it’s been the toughest of my career.”
Jacob Markstrom has been telling people how much he hates losing since he arrived in Vancouver.
“It’s awful,” he said. “It absolutely sucks.
“I wish I could say we’re playing 60-minute games every game. We had a great 60-minute game in Toronto, but they got two goals in the third period, which isn’t great.
“Then, we go into Montreal and have a bad game there. Then, we come to Washington and have one bad period and it’s enough (to lose).”
It doesn’t seem to take much to beat the Canucks these days. People are playing the “when will they win again?” game. But the NHL is odd. Often teams win games when no one thinks they can.
But until that win comes, it’s going to be very difficult for the players.
It’s easy to understand why. In the NHL, bad teams play .500 hockey. Sink below the waterline and players will feel like they’re being waterboarded.
“No one wants to lose,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said. “These are professional athletes.
“We’ve said from Day 1, we’re going to get better. Right now, it’s not resulting in wins. We have to keep pushing the team and our compete level has to be high.”
There was hope in the Canucks’ organization that last season was the low point. They finished with 69 points. They scored the secondfewest goals in the NHL. They gave up the sixth-most goals.
This was supposed to be the beginning of an upswing. But even with Brock Boeser, who has electrified the city like few other rookies in Canucks history, the team is bottom five in the NHL in goals for and against.
The record is worse right now than it was a year ago. After 43 games, the Canucks have 38 points. Last year they had 44. That’s a significant difference.
The Canucks are now on pace for 72 points. Of course, they still have a couple of months to turn things around with both Brandon Sutter and Bo Horvat in the lineup.
The problem is, Horvat is still two weeks away from returning.
“We’re going into each game with a positive attitude,” Del Zotto said. “Look at Toronto. We deserved the win there. In Montreal, we didn’t play well, but we were tied in the third period.
“(Tuesday) night, I’m not saying we played well, but we played two good periods against a good hockey club that’s been together for a long time.
“Losing takes a toll on you. But we’re not getting down around here. We have a lot of veteran guys who have been through this league, and we’re trying to teach the kids along the way.”
The Canucks made some offseason moves that haven’t worked out. Alex Burmistrov is gone. Anton Rodin left, too. Sam Gagner hasn’t raised his game, and may not hit 40 points.
Del Zotto hasn’t given the blueline the offensive punch the Canucks were hoping when they signed him to a two-year, $6-million deal.
In fact, the biggest area of concern has to be the defence. Collectively, the group has scored eight goals. The six who played Tuesday in Washington had scored four goals, combined.
Winning in the NHL becomes exponentially more difficult when there’s no offensive push from the defence.
It’s not like the Canucks haven’t noticed. They’ve brought in Del Zotto, Troy Stecher and Derrik Pouliot, hoping they could help.
Right now, none of them are making significant contributions.
If this team is going to rebound, and prove last year really was the bottom, that needs to change.