VANCOUVER — The stick slam is not the problem for the Vancouver Canucks. It’s what comes next.
Since cavemen learned to hunt with clubs, people have been slamming sticks in frustration. Hockey merely provides compelling evidence that maybe we haven’t evolved as much as we would like.
But the real problem with frustration among senior Canucks, whom coach Adam Foote blasted Monday for their negativity — “our veterans are the ones that feel defeated first” — is how their angry or disappointed moments affect their next shift or shifts.
As Foote also noted after the 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders, which gave the Canucks an 11-game winless streak that is the franchise’s longest since 1988, these problems of negativity and tactical discipline have been a “culture” issue in Vancouver since before the coach arrived three years ago.
As the National Hockey League’s worst team prepared for Wednesday night’s game against the Washington Capitals, the Canucks’ culture and Foote’s stark criticism feel especially important as management starts the process of deciding which veterans should remain as part of the team’s rebuild.
“When your coach has a comment like that, it makes you look in the mirror in different ways,” winger Jake DeBrusk said. “I think that, you know, it’s on us all, especially us veterans. Obviously, frustration is part of the game. I don’t think anyone here likes to lose or accepts losing, and sometimes that gets in the way of that. I think that’s human nature. I’ve even been bad with it at times. (But) you’ve just got to go on to the next shift and kind of reset. I think that’s what he was talking about.”
DeBrusk arrived two summers ago from the Boston Bruins, whose bullet-proof culture was built around Patrice Bergeron and others. In a little more than a season-and-a-half in Vancouver, DeBrusk has known only upheaval and team disappointment.
“Honestly, from my experience of Boston, guys were breaking sticks there even when we were winning,” he explained. “I’ve seen players that I have looked up to my whole career do that in moments of weakness or moments of frustration. In Boston, there was less of those kinds of frustrations, but it definitely happened. So in terms of that, it’s not so different, actually.
“The rest, obviously, it’s different. As one of the older guys now on the team, I’ve seen so many changes since I’ve been here. Sometimes it’s hard when there’s a lot of changes and different things. But I think that, especially now, we need to come together and work through this as a group.”
Senior defenceman Tyler Myers said: “I don’t think we need to make this bigger than it is. We had a couple of stick slams on the bench, and we got a little negative when things weren’t going our way. So, clean those things up (and) we’re fine.”
But Foote’s point was that the negativity, which he said energizes the opposition, spills out on to the ice and has done so for years.
The key is not allowing frustration to lead to a semi-invested shift or lazy line change or neglect for the game plan.
“That’s part of growing as a person and as a player,” Myers said, “learning that kind of stuff, it’s just wasted energy. We’ve all been there. Things aren’t going our way right now. I would say, that’s the easy route of just getting frustrated. But we have to show some maturity and stay positive. That’s part of maturing as a group and getting better on the ice, too.”
“Struggles happen,” veteran forward Conor Garland said. “That’s just part of the game. You’re not going to go perfect the whole way through. But first and foremost, you’ve got to be worried about the team winning, and how can I help the team win when I’m not scoring or producing or things aren’t going your way? You’ve got to find another way to help the team. And I think that’s probably what we have to be preaching in here.”
The Canucks, who have never finished last-overall, went 0-10-2 near the end of the 1997-98 season. The most inept run in franchise history was a 0-10-3 hibernation in 1973, three years after the team joined the NHL.
Their present freefall is 0-9-2, but their last eight losses have been in regulation time. The Canucks have been outscored 37-12 in these games.
Foote’s rare public criticism of his players on Monday feels like an intervention, or at least an attempt at one.
“They’re going to respond,” Foote predicted after Wednesday’s morning skate. “Like I said, they’ve been so resilient, dealt with a tonne of adversity. I just don’t want it to get to where a bad bounce or a call they think should happen, whatever it is. . . a mistake, gets us off (our game). We’ve worked so hard not to be that way, to be resilient and build a winning culture. And they’re all about that.”
ICE CHIPS – Forty-four games and three months since being injured in Washington, Canucks centre Teddy Blueger returns to the lineup tonight against the Capitals. Aatu Raty will be scratched to make room for Blueger. . . Kevin Lankinen starts in goal for Vancouver. . . Centre Filip Chytil, concussed by Tom Wilson’s open-ice hit in that game in Washington on Oct. 19, took the morning skate but won’t play until at least Friday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
