VANCOUVER — By definition, higher standards mean a lower threshold for disappointment. People have high expectations for the Vancouver Canucks, and they have high expectations for themselves.
Saturday’s 5-1 home loss to the Boston Bruins might have been the most disappointing game of the season, and that’s saying something as Vancouver has just five wins in 16 games at Rogers Arena question.
The Canucks have had some similarly baffling performances — “dumb” coach Rick Tocchet called them “dumb” during a particularly dismal home game in November — even as the team struggled to win. The challenges faced during the half were almost unimaginable. National Hockey League season.
Saturday’s loss was one of the most puzzling yet, a performance that came two days after the team was almost back to full strength with a 4-0 victory over the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. As good and complete as the Canucks have been this season.
JT Miller is back. Thatcher Demko is back. Brock Boeser is fully healthy. Jake DeBrusk is scoring and Conor Garland is playing the best hockey of his career. Elias Pettersson was playing his best hockey of the season until Miller returned two games into Saturday, as did Quinn Hughes in this way.
Then, after an off day on Friday, they were defeated by Brad Marchand’s team in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final on Saturday, 16-4 in 20 minutes. Natural Stat Trick gave the Bruins 11-0 of their high-danger scoring chances.
Boston opened its Western Conference road trip with scores of 5-1 in Winnipeg and 8-1 in Seattle. Boston scored twice in the first quarter, twice in the second quarter, and opened the third quarter. Scored twice in 26 seconds.
“Let’s face it, we have four or five guys who are struggling,” Tocchet told reporters after the game. “They’re trying to get emotionally invested in the game, and it’s my job to get those guys (invested). Certain guys, we’ve got to find other gear from them. They’ve got to understand, this is the NHL, you can’t have a good game. Games, two bad games.
“It’s a game, it’s a sport, the NHL, you have to pick yourself up to play the game. You have to be emotional in the game. Sometimes, for whatever reason, it takes guys 30 minutes to get into the game.”
It was Tocchet’s harshest criticism of a player since he said the Canucks couldn’t beat the Oilers “with 12 men” in the second round of the playoffs last spring.
Speaking about this season, Canucks captain Quinn Hughes said: “I mean, we were able to win some games without those guys (who were out) just because we competed at a high level and with a high intensity. Big. I think that’s the end result.”
Trailing just 2-0 after the first quarter thanks to Demko’s performance in his second start in nearly eight months, the Canucks were still in the game as the middle period began.
Tocchet consolidated Garland, Boeser and Miller on a single line. On the second play of the quarter, the Canucks gave up a breakaway goal to Pavel Zacha in a neutral zone faceoff at 1:12, when defenseman Mark Fried Mark Friedman pinched Carson Soucy, who was stranded on the wrong side of the ice.
By any measure, the Canucks are terrible in their own zone, with or without the puck. They can’t get through, or don’t even try. They tipped pucks off the glass, or tossed them up the ice, or simply handed them back to the Bruins, allowing them to regroup in the neutral zone and mount another offense.
“I just didn’t understand the first paragraph,” Tocchet said. “I mean, we have a lot of games to play and we’re putting the puck on the cake. Or the forwards have a five-foot puck to play with and we throw it in. I don’t know if it’s nerves. I Don’t know what it was. We had a day off yesterday, maybe a day off. I don’t know.
“To me, the icing on the cake is unforgivable for all of us. I don’t just blame the defense; I blame the defense. It’s the forwards. To me, it just puts the blame on other teams. A lot of motivation.”
It’s not just a matter of defense, the Canucks’ blueline on Saturday, aside from Hughes and Noah Juulson, was not up to NHL standards, let alone up to par for a team aiming to improve on a 51-win season Standard. Started a year ago.
Tocchet said this week that the home hex is now more mental than physical, although it certainly looked that way on Saturday.
It was so bad for the Canucks that respected rookie Max Sasson couldn’t celebrate the first NHL goal he’d been waiting and dreaming of his entire life.
Miller set him up at 10:13 of the final period and then quietly collected the puck for Sasson. At least he got it.
“I don’t know why, but for whatever reason, people are nervous at home,” Tocchet said. “We seemed a little more relaxed on the road. Here, for some reason . . . we just wanted to kick the ball away as soon as we got it. So we’ve got to figure that out.
“We just watched a video after the game; there were 10- to 12-foot passes available and we were turning the puck over. Not just the defense, but the whole team. But some guys tried tonight, so I can’t let all Shame on people. Some people worked really hard tonight.”
After one of their best games and one of their worst games of the season, the Canucks are now 2-2-1 at home and face the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Arena on Monday before playing in Utah and La. Vegas plays back-to-back road games.
They are 15-9-5 on the season, but honestly, no one is sure which team the Canucks will be on Monday.
“If we want to be a really, really good team, we’ve got to find a way to put those (good) performances together,” Hughes said. “Like you said, we played really well against Florida. But tonight it wasn’t there.”
borneol — After returning to the lineup Thursday from injury, defenseman Derek Forbott is ruled out for Saturday’s game with some Canucks ailments. Goaltender Kevin Lankinen also left the team, leaving Artus Silovs to serve as Demko’s backup against the Bruins.
