Canucks endure season of lows
Remember September? The predictions for the Vancouver Canucks’ season all hinged on conditions. If everything fell the Canucks’ way, they stood a chance to be competitive.
If they caught a few breaks along the way, they might be able to stay in the playoff mix until the late stages of the schedule.
If their veterans led and the young players followed, maybe they’d hang around in the hunt.
But everything had to go right for the Canucks this season.
And then the season started with Loui Eriksson putting a puck in his own net on opening night. That hardly qualified as things going the way the hockey club needed, and from there the long, slow descent to the bottom began.
The issues plaguing the organization this season have been both deep and varied:
Anton Rodin; Eric Gudbranson; Jake Virtanen; Philip Larsen; Jacob Markstrom; struggling Sedins; power plays; penalty killing; player deployment; questionable call-ups; conditioning problems; mumps; food poisoning; skills competition injuries; mixed messages from management; defensive permissiveness; offensive challenges; international airlifts; short on elite-level skill; a lack of pushback, particularly up front; road woes to start the season; a record-setting home ice tail spin to finish it. And empty seats. Oh, so many empty seats.
That, in a nutshell, describes the past six months for the Vancouver Canucks. These have not been the best of times.
The question now is: Have the Canucks reached rock bottom or is there more pain to endure?
Brock Boeser, has captured the hope of Canucks fans after a debut that saw him score twice in his first three NHL games.
While the club has certainly bolstered its prospect pool through trades and free-agent signings over the past year, it’s still unclear where the offence will come from.
As it stands right now, it’s hard to see a measurable bump in the team’s goal-scoring next season. The Canucks hope Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi and Brock Boeser are laying the foundation to lead the way for the next decade.
But Horvat, whose 12-game goal-drought — heading into tonight’s game against San Jose in Vancouver — doesn’t diminish a fine third season in the NHL, is getting a first-hand look at just how difficult it is to lead a hockey club at this level. He will grow from this experience, but it may be a stretch to suggest his point totals will jump noticeably, if at all, next season.
Markus Granlund surprised many, producing a fine 19-goal season with a wonky wrist, but it’s still hard to know whether there is more to give offensively or if his ceiling is that of a 20-goal scorer.
Beyond that, the Canucks will be banking on bounce-back years from the 37-year-old Sedins and Eriksson, whose first season in Vancouver can only be described as a disaster.
Can the Sedins be expected to reinvent themselves at this stage of the careers? I still maintain Eriksson is a better player than his bottom line has shown here this season, but it’s easy to say that and it’s now squarely on him to prove the doubters wrong next year.