5 thoughts

I have to say, this is a weird start to the year in which the Canucks will win the Stanley Cup. Consistently inconsistent would be the synopsis so far. They go out and beat the Kings after spotting the opposition a two-goal lead. The Nucks then spot the Golden Knights the same lead, fight back to tie and then shit the bed in the third. Some nights the Canucks dominate the boards and hoard all the shots and other nights the Fort St John Flyers could beat them.

The good news is that the Canucks are just on the bubble of being a playoff team. I guess that could be bad news as well if you’re still carrying that #teamtank torch. The other bad news is that the Canucks are only 4 points up on 2^nd to last in the conference. I have more bad news:

1. The Canucks can’t score. 25^th in the league in Goals per game. Instead of the Sedins carrying the team scoring it’s Bo/Boeser/Baer.

The Sedins combined have 5 goals

Sutter has 1 goal

Jake has 2 goals

Granlund has 2 goals

Gaunce 0 goals

The Canucks are also 29^th in the league when it comes to shots for. They are 7 shot/games behind League leading Montreal.

2. Jake Virtanen is struggling. He is struggling while playing with the Sedins. You can complain about ice time, but he hasn’t done much with lots of offensive zone starts with the Sedins.

And now it seems there is more to the story of Jake as well.

Travis Green dealt with Jake last year in Utica when Willie didn’t want to. Those who question Green when it comes to Jake’s behavior on and off the ice should just stop.

3. The special teams are not special. Vancouver is 24^th in both PP and PK. At least that fac consistent. The PP is getting lots of opportunities but has too many games where they can’t convert and the odd game where they score multiple PP goals and it makes the PP look better than it is. I know…it doesn’t seem possible.

4. The defense core is suspect. I know this isn’t s shock, but it has to be repeated so people stop pointing to an oft-injured Tanev and say, “but he’s a top 2 guy in the league.” Tanev can’t play 60 minutes a night and his style leads to multiple injuries every year. Every defensemen after Tanev has good nights and bad nights. 50% of each seems reasonable to say. It’s nights like last night that really hurts. Pouliot, Hutton and Guds all had brain farts which cost the team goals.

5. Finally, Brendan Gaunce is playing. I hate making comments like this as I fear one day I may run into Gaunce and he’ll say, “Hey, I read your blog.” And then I wake up in the hospital with a letter that says, “You’ve been hit by Hands of stone Gaunce”. Some people believe that once Gaunce scores one, he will score a bunch. There has been no data or eye test that backs up the assertion.

Let’s hope an eastern road trip brings some wins....or else the lottery talk will start again.