The Vancouver Canucks have now just 1 win in their last 5 games - and that coming against the hapless San Jose Sharks who have the NHL's worst GAA (Martin Jones although they played his backup who is worse).
The Canucks goaltending has also gone in the tank going from top 3 to 20th.
One is reminded of the Tom Petty song "Free-falling" because that's what the Canucks are doing.
They can't score goals. Period. End of story. And they're 4 defensemen short of a full load. Right now they're having to play the 33-year-old Alex Edler almost 30 minutes per night. Chris Tanev is injured, already or as usual.
It's not a dumpster fire ... yet. But it's getting close.
They lost to Chicago 5-2 and Winnipeg 4-1 this week and they weren't close in either game. They have 10 goals in their last 5 games and that includes the San Jose game where they didn't play a goalie and got 5 goals.
They are now
8 wins
5 losses
5 ties
8 wins in 18 games. It's not bad... but 5 wins were against LA, Detroit and San Jose who are wretched.
They have 1 win against a team that made the playoffs last year (San Jose) who were absolutely putrid against the Canucks. There's no 60 minute win you can point to and say -- "that's a legitimate win over a good team playing well."
How'd it get here?
Bad drafting. Rounds 2-7 for the Benning regime have been a total shit show and there's no way to get around it.
They don't have centers.
They don't have defensemen.
And you need to draft those and they haven't.
You need defensemen that are 6'2" + and 225 pounds plus to survive in the NHL. They simply haven't drafted these defensemen that would be in the system now. They have nothing coming, nothing in Utica.
They can't score goals because they don't have centers.
Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson are not centers. I don't know how many times the Canucks have to score 1 goal in a game before someone in management figures this out because clearly the coach is not going to figure it out.
If I were coaching I would have Jake Virtanen at center with Miller and Horvat on his wings and on the second line I'd have Adam Gaudette at center with Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson on the wings.
Virtanen has been their best player over the last 6 games which makes sense because he's big enough and fast enough to play at the NHL level as the game speed has increased past game 15.
Virtanen clearly is a center. He clearly resembles Mark Messier (not the 33 year old one, the 22 year old one) when he's on the ice. He's a puck distributor and shot taker. He's a center. He's the very definition of a center. And like Messier he can skate like no one else can. He's got great vision on the ice. He's also as mean as they come and as strong as a bull.
Gaudette is noticeable when he plays center. Things happen. And they don't have any other options at center.
I'd play Virtanen and Gaudette each 22 minutes a night and I wouldn't give a flying Fadoo about the 3rd and 4th lines and their ice time because who gives a shit if Sutter plays or Beagle plays?
The objective is to score goals and they can't and they need massive changes to avoid a 10 game losing streak which is where they're headed.
On defense... I don't know.
I would certainly feature Fantenburg, Sautner and Rafferty and I would bench Hughes, Stecher and Tanev indefinitely. I would make a D corp that at least resembles a D corp and stabilize it until I can get Hughes back in maybe every second game.
When breaking in new D men such as Hughes you always ask yourself what would Barry Trotz do? And Trotz is playing new NYI D man Noah Dobson (who the Canucks could have drafted) about every second game. That's what you aim for with Hughes. It's too much, too soon for young Hughes and he needs to watch.
With those changes on D at least I have a decent size D corp that can get the puck and move it to the forwards. But that's the main problem on the D corp right now - they're getting bumped off the puck with ease and that can't happen and expect the forwards to score goals without the puck.
It's just too easy right now for opposing forwards.
Tyler Myers has been as advertised - he's been outstanding - a guy out standing on the ice. Jordy Benn has been steady and dependable. Edler has been terrific but playing too much. Tanev is injured. Benn and Edler need help. They need 210 pound D men back there to help them out. At least Fantenburg and Rafferty and Sautner look like they belong in the NHL (although Sautner got just cranked in San Jose by their big D).
IF they make those changes it's possible they could avoid the death spiral in November.
But it's just possible, not likely.
The real problem is at the GM booth. You have to draft properly. This shouldn't happen in year 5 of a rebuild. They should have had normal size defensemen moving into positions they spent a crap load of money trying to fill this summer and clearly failed.
As for forwards it's looking like Michael Ferland shouldn't have been signed. That was a no-go zone which Benning ventured into unwisely.
JT Miller's play has collapsed, as it has done in every place he's gone to (Mr. October) and he now looks like the player the Canucks traded a 1st OVERALL pick for.
As I said when they traded for Miller - he will be the most hated player in Canucks franchise history because it is going to cost them a 1st overall pick. And the next 2 years the 1st overall picks are true franchise players.
It's going to take a rebuild to rebuild this rebuild. It might start with new ownership before it can truly begin because the current ones didn't seem interested in rebuilding. They tried to avoid it and it's come back and bit them in the bum.
There are no shortcuts to rebuilding a franchise. But if you try to use a shortcut it can take 20 years to get back to respectability. You can stuck in the doldrums of No Man's Land forever.
Not good enough to make the playoffs and do something and not bad enough to get help the NHL draft.
They need to avoid that at all costs.
Is all lost?
No. Certainly the Canucks could salvage the season. They're still technically in the playoff race, for now. If they get a couple of wins... who knows? It could right itself.
But you always bet the trend.
And the trend for the Canucks, their track history over the last 5 years, is that this swoon will continue through the season.
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