Mission accomplished: 29th place
‘We’re going to get a good draft pick again and we’re going to keep building’
EDMONTON
Vancouver Canucks goalie Richard Bachman stoned Connor McDavid on two separate show-stopping plays.
Twice the Canucks hauled down Edmonton Oilers on breakaways. On neither was a penalty shot awarded.
Vancouver head coach Willie Desjardins, trying to win right to the bitter end, challenged an Edmonton goal late in the second. He won, it was overturned. It feels like it’s been years since this many things went the Canucks way. The Canucks still got embarrassed, gutted by Edmonton in a 5-2 rout which had Jordan Eberle getting a hat trick and Connor McDavid getting to 100 points for the season.
It felt like with better luck McDavid could have got all 100 points in the game.
“I hope everyone is disappointed,” Daniel Sedin. “It’s a little bit embarrassing.
“But we’re going to get a good draft pick again and we’re going to keep building. The young guys need to be better and the two of us (the Sedins) need to be better too.
“This (game and season) is not good enough.”
It was the kind of season-ending humiliation which can disgrace a fan base, a game in which the Canucks were outshot 43-16. But this one had a wonderful twist.
This, the Canucks 2016-17 season finale, was a game the Canucks had to lose. Turns out, that was never in doubt.
The Oilers could have rested their team, collected 23 revellers early Sunday morning off Whyte Avenue, given them skates and sticks, and still won.
The Canucks have been that bad for that long, the worst team in the NHL since January 21.
But for it all to be worthwhile, Vancouver needed to lose to the Oilers.
A single point would have moved them ahead of both the New Jersey Devils and the Arizona Coyotes. It would have meant Vancouver would have the fifth best lottery odds, and there would be the potential of drafting as late as eighth.
The Canucks have lost way too often and scored too few goals to be drafting eighth in June.
The finish put an end to the debate about whether the Canucks should retool or not. The team isn’t good enough for it to be an option anymore.
“It’s pretty comparable to last year. We end up in the same spot,” Daniel said. “It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s an 82-game schedule.
“For the past two years, we had moments we played really well. We had a long winning streak this season. But we have got to keep that going.
“We have too many lows where we don’t play the way we can.”
The tough part is, the pain and heavy lifting that comes with a rebuild is just starting. For the Canucks to be competitive, they don’t just need a star. They need several of them.
If all goes well, maybe they get one of the top two draft picks in June. For that to happen, they need some luck at the draft lottery at the end of the month.
The only thing they’re guaranteed right now is they won’t pick lower than fifth.
With the season Vancouver just had, Canucks fans will take it.
Most are guessing that Desjardins will not be back. He was asked after the game if he had any regrets.
“You always do when you lose,” Desjardins said. “After a game you lose, you always think I could have done this, I could have done that.
“But I wouldn’t do anything differently with the information I had at the time. At the time I made the decision, I believed in what I did.”