‘Some Positives’: How the Vancouver Canucks are Learning to Lose in the Right Way
The Canucks are on pace for a historically bad season, but they're losing in a more positive way than in recent seasons. That's a small positive.
Trailing the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 in the second period of Tuesday night’s game, amid a one-win-in-13-game stretch, the Vancouver Canucks could've easily given up.
They’d been on the wrong end of a first-period hooking call against Liam Öhgren that completely shifted the game. It wiped away what would’ve been a 2-1 Canucks lead and enabled Anaheim’s potent power play, which put the Ducks in control.
No one would’ve blamed a rebuilding Canucks team for going out with a whimper, especially against a Ducks team that features one of the league’s most exciting young cores and a punishing power play—but that’s not what happened.
With just over 13 minutes left in the second period, Jacob Quillan, playing in just his second game for the Canucks, continued to forecheck. He lazily let his stick rise into the air, where it clipped Ducks goalie Laurent Brossoit.
The 33-year-old veteran netminder hit the ice, and 6’2” Ducks defenceman Travis Mitchell stood up for his goalie, picking a fight with the 6’1” Canucks forward. Quillan, who had already fought the 6’5” Roger McQueen in the first period, was up to the challenge. He dropped the gloves, landed a few shots, and a few minutes later, Linus Karlsson scored to cut the deficit to one.
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View post ↗Fighting Means Something in a Dismal Skid
While the Canucks lost, moving their record to 3-13-1, the sequence was a highlight.
As expected, the wins have been few and far between for the Canucks so far this season. Yet, no one can say this team is playing without fight or heart—outside of a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings— and that’s an encouraging sign for a group that hasn’t always looked so cohesive over the past few years.
“There were a lot of elements within the game that we’re happy with in terms of the level of compete and push back and sticking up for one another,” said rookie head coach Manny Malhotra after the game. “There were some positives to tonight.”
Those positives are worth celebrating. This year will be a success if the Canucks can start building a positive culture under Malhotra. The former face-off wizard had success doing so in Abbotsford and should be judged this year on whether he can get buy-in from players. It’s a message the 46-year-old has espoused since training camp.
“There’s a very big difference between losing games, which is inevitable; every team is going to do it, and playing losing hockey,” said Malhotra back in training camp in early September. “The measure of our group will be on playing the right way, doing the things that we’re talking about, having details to your game, which is going to give us an opportunity to win.”
“Those are the measures that, when you look back on a game, did we check the boxes? That’s where the pride or the joy will come from: knowing that we are learning, we’re doing the things that we’re asked, and it’s getting better.”
The recent 5-4 loss against the Ducks, which featured five fights, surely checked those boxes.
Other games this year have, too. The Canucks played the San Jose Sharks hard and lost by a single goal. They also showed up against the Toronto Maple Leafs and in an emotional game against the Minnesota Wild and former captain Quinn Hughes, keeping it close despite being clearly overmatched in talent.
Elias Pettersson Offers Glimpse of Past
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View post ↗It’s not just the bubble players who have embodied this attitude. Elias Pettersson is playing his best hockey in years, leading all NHL forwards with 24 blocked shots and scoring 18 points in 17 games. It’s been an encouraging start for the team’s struggling superstar, who looks more like his old self than at any point over the past few years.
For fans who keep spending to watch a rebuilding team at Rogers Arena, and those surrendering their time to an ever-exhausting television and streaming watch, the Canucks playing with heart and being entertaining counts for a lot.
No one likes to feel robbed, and so far fans have mostly been treated to entertaining games. When they’re blown out, it’s because of a clear talent difference more than a lack of hustle—this Canucks team? Well, they’re really trying.
Vancouver hockey fans understand this rebuild will be a process, and there’s an appreciation amongst the hardcores that the team is finally going down this path in a seemingly intentional and strategic manner.
In the meantime, fans want to see a group that cares as much as they do, and so far this year, the players have done exactly that. From Quillan to Pettersson, if everyone on the roster keeps this up, this season is on track to be called a success, even if it ends with an historically poor record.
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Noah Strang is a contributor to Sports Page BC and has previously covered the Vancouver Canucks and BC sports for Daily Faceoff Vancouver and Daily Hive Offside. In addition to Sports Page, his work can be found on the Strang Stack.
