What we learned

Canucks coach Willie Desjardins said after the morning skate that his team is surrendering about 15 scoring chances per game, which is down from an average of 21 last season.

The problem this year has been the Canucks’ failure to find a winning balance between defending and attacking. When the team’s “structure” was tightest and Vancouver wasn’t yielding many chances, the Canucks couldn’t score. When they began scoring, their defensive play eroded. Desjardins insisted the Canucks should be able to play well at both ends.

“If we play the right way defensively, we’ll get lots of chances offensively,” he said. “I think our guys believe that. It just hasn’t happened so far.”