VANCOUVER — It is difficult to be the voice of reason around the Vancouver Canucks when so little about the team makes sense.
Their impassioned market can be riotously reactional even when times are good. And when the team has two wins in eight games and their two alpha forwards, who cost the Canucks nearly $20 million annually, have combined for no goals and four assists in the last six games, well, you’ll find more civility at the start of The Hunger Games.
At least Katniss Everdeen killed quickly.
Of the many people purporting to know the relationship between struggling centres Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, extremely few do.
But the whole salacious discussion about the closeness or distance between Miller and Pettersson — and why them not being best friends should shock or alarm anyone — misses a bigger point about the team.
Miller, himself, told Sportsnet two years ago that his relationship with Pettersson was an ongoing project.
“Petey and my relationship has come a long way,” Miller told us before a game in Nashville. “We’re still working at it. We’re completely different people, you know what I mean? You’re not going to be BFFs with everybody, but at the same time you come to work together. I think we’re putting in the time to at least try to get to know each other a little better. We are polar opposite in a lot of ways, but we’re working at it. We’ve come a long way.”
His candid assessment was sparked by Pettersson’s defence of Miller, then only a month removed from his nadir with the Vancouver fan base, against criticism during the After Hours segment of Hockey Night in Canada.
“He’s a guy that wants to do everything to win and he’s a great teammate,” Pettersson said then. “I know, obviously, there’s people who want to. . . I don’t know if s— on a player is the right (term). He’s passionate and all he cares about is winning. And yeah, he plays with a lot of emotion and so does the rest of the group.”
That was the season, by the way, that Pettersson had 102 points. Last year, Miller had 103. And knowing who their core teammates would be, both Miller and Pettersson signed lucrative contract extensions to remain with the Canucks because they believe the team can win a Stanley Cup.
That team goal trumps all individual relationships.
You think Trevor Linden and Pavel Bure were friends when the Canucks went to the Stanley Cup Final in 1994? And on the 2010 Vancouver team that lost to the Boston Bruins, you couldn’t find teammates more different than Ryan Kesler and the Sedins, Henrik and Daniel.
But all those players knew they needed the others to have their best chance to win.
“It’s not about any individual player,” Canuck coach Rick Tocchet reiterated after Sunday’s practice. “It’s always about the crest. Always.”
He added later that he sees no signs that any of the Canucks, obviously referring to Pettersson and Miller, are putting themselves or their problems ahead of the team.
“It’s my job, the organization’s job, to pinpoint when a player is not about the crest,” Tocchet said. “There’ll be signs, and you look for them. With this, I saw a large sample size last year of success (including Pettersson and Miller). I think it’s just been a really weird year, a roller coaster ride. So it’s really hard to pinpoint anything right now, other than the fact that we’re an inconsistent group.”
After Tocchet chided the media before Saturday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators for not requesting to speak to either of the parties in the alleged dressing-room rift, reporters briefly questioned Pettersson post-game.
“I don’t know why people still try and make s— up, excuse my language,” Pettersson said. “That’s my response.”
On Sunday, it was Miller’s turn.
“You guys, in a sense of that outer world, have created this thing,” he told reporters in the hallway outside the Canucks dressing room. “Like, this isn’t a thing. So am I bothered? No, but you guys are just wasting your time. I don’t care. You guys want to talk about it? You want to ask me? Ask me all you want. I can bring up Petey, we can do the interview together if that would make you guys happy.”
Then, nearly 3 ½ minutes into his four-minute media availability, Miller said this: “Listen, I have a lot of stuff to worry about right now for myself. I’m not worried about any (outside) noise. The noise is between my ears, and I’m trying to figure out how to play a good 200-foot game for the team.”
The noise between his ears is worth remembering because it was only six games ago that Miller ended an extraordinary 10-game leave of absence for personal reasons.
It is naïve to think that whatever issues the 31-year-old was navigating suddenly vanished with his re-appearance in the Canucks lineup.
Clearly, the Canucks need Miller and Pettersson to be better. The team has managed to tread water through a rolodex of first-half challenges, but obviously requires both players in order to win. Just like Miller needs Pettersson, and Pettersson needs Miller. Not for dinner or PlayStation, as Tocchet said Saturday, but on the ice.
“A lot of players have. . . a lot of things on their plate,” the coach said Sunday. “You always try to coach the way that you want the player to leave the rink mind-free (as far as hockey). I think when you leave cloudy all the time, it affects your play. So each player deals with a lot of different things, and it’s our job to create a safe environment for everybody.”
Famously volcanic as a player, Tocchet has managed to project calmness — and, usually, clarity — during the upheaval of the Canucks’ first 33 games, and especially the last two weeks.
“When you’re in this business, you’ve got to let these things not bother you,” he told Sportsnet. “I mean, it’s hard. You walk into a market like this and there’s fireballs everywhere. If I listen to this stuff, how am I supposed to coach? So, I don’t listen to this stuff, and that’s my suggestion to players.”
ICE CHIPS — With point-per-game 18-year-old Macklin Celebrini coming home to Vancouver for the San Jose Sharks’ visit on Monday, the Canucks will have Nils Hoglander back in the lineup after last season’s 24-goal scorer was healthy-scratched the last two games. He practised Sunday beside Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. . . Defenceman Quinn Hughes was ordered to take a maintenance day after another virtuoso performance (and 26:20 of ice time) against the Senators. . . Thatcher Demko, who watched Kevin Lankinen play the last two games, is expected to start in net for Vancouver.
