Boom and bust
Boston comes into Rogers Arena and puts the boots to Vancouver, who had deemed it a must-win game
It’s hard to know what constitutes a full-blown crisis in this market because such weighty issues as the fourth-line’s ice time is often enough to trigger mass hysteria among the faithful.
Still, there’s something about the Canucks current situation which registers as something far more serious than those petty talk-show intrigues which pass for controversy. Saturday night, in a game head coach Willie Desjardins billed as a “must,” well, something for his team, the locals surrendered a goal on the game’s first shot — to arch-villain Brad Marchand no less — and meekly capitulated to the Boston Bruins 4-0.
The Canucks now have three wins in their last 16 games, which is concerning enough. But it’s the larger image — the lifelessness, the lack of initiative, the sense that this team has run out of ideas 27 games into the season — that is far more troubling. This streak has done several things to damage the sensitive balance between this franchise and its fan base.
But, mostly it’s reawakened the nightmare images from the Year of Torts; a year in which the Canucks brand suffered severe damage. Can it withstand another season like that?
The sad truth is we might be in the process of finding out.
Three minutes into Saturday game, Radim Vrbata turned the puck over at the Canucks’ blue-line, leading to a sequence which ended with the evil Marchand snapping a wrister over Jacob Markstrom’s glove hand.
And that was pretty much it for drama for the night.
Sure, there were 57 more minutes to kill. But they played out in what’s become a familiar and predictable pattern. Four minutes after Marchand’s goal, Torey Krug blew a slapper over Markstrom’s glove hand.
Midway through the second, Landon Ferraro beat Markstrom, you guessed it, over his glove hand to make it 3-0 for the Beantowners, who were playing their second game in as many nights.
To that point, the Bruins had 10 shots on goal. Someone named Tyler Randell, who wears No. 64, also scored in the third period. The Canucks, for their part, had 12 shots through the first two periods without producing anything resembling a scoring chance and ended up with 17 shots on Boston goalie Tuukka Rusk, who may or may not have needed a shower after the game.
In their last three games, the Canucks produced 16, 16 and 17 shots on goal.
Yes, the more we think about it, the more this is a full-blown crisis.
“Again, we’re obviously not good enough,” Jannik Hansen said. “We’re missing a lot of things. Turnovers, not getting the puck out, we’re not creating enough.
“We have to go back to keeping it simple. We don’t have the skill on this team to rely (on skill). We have to rely on hard work and system.” If only it was that simple. But, as depressing as the story was on the ice, it might have been worse in the stands — and that’s the other take-away from the latest loss. On a Saturday night against a team that was once considered the Canucks’ blood rival, there was no life or energy in Rogers Arena. There were, however, patches of empty seats all over the lower bowl and that doesn’t figure to change with the state of the on-ice product.
The Canucks were once bulletproof in this market. Between 2002 and 2014, they sold out 474 consecutive games while generally playing exciting, entertaining hockey.
Those days now seem like a distant memory, but look at the bright side. Sort of. When you assess the NHL standings, you’re hard pressed to find a team, any team, to which the Canucks are demonstrably superior. That means the race for the first overall pick this season might be a lot more interesting than the race for the playoffs, which might be the best thing for this team in the long run.
As for the short run, well, the Aquilini ownership hasn’t exactly demonstrated patience over the years when things go south. That might mean the fun is just starting.