VANCOUVER — J.T. Miller was on the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning team that won 62 times during the regular season and didn’t lose more than two games in a row until they were swept in four by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That Lightning team had the best National Hockey League regular season in 23 years, but was eclipsed last year by the record-breaking Boston Bruins. They won 65 games and amassed 135 points before getting upset in a seven-game, opening-round loss to the Florida Panthers, who were 43 points adrift of Boston in the regular season and had to win their final six games just to make the playoffs.
“I played on a team in Tampa where we won 62 games,” Miller said Monday, sitting in the Vancouver Canucks dressing room. “We kind of just won all the time and never really experienced adversity. And you go into the playoffs against a desperate hockey team that stuck to staples and blocked shots and kicked our ass. I mean, look at Boston last year. There’s a reason the President’s Trophy winners never win (the Stanley Cup); there’s not a lot of adversity for them before the playoffs.
“I don’t mind what we’re going through. I know that’s easy to say because we have 42 wins right now. But I don’t mind; it’s a good learning experience. A lot of guys haven’t had to deal with this. That’s why it’s so important. You don’t just waltz into the playoffs and turn it on. And the guys that have been around and been in playoff games, that’s what we talk about all the time. We know we’re going to be a playoff team. Like, it is what it is. But we don’t want to be hitting our stride in Game 2 or Game 3 (of the playoffs). We want to be hitting it now.”
The Canucks, who haven’t played playoff hockey games in front of fans since 2015, have led the Pacific Division for 2 1/2 months but are suddenly scuffling again on home ice after seemingly rediscovering their A-game during a road sweep of Anaheim, Los Angeles and Vegas at the start of March.
They collapsed in the third period of a 4-3 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche last Wednesday, then suffered a similar stall in the middle of Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Washington Capitals.
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet has been trying to sound the alarm, saying it’s “go time” and that the Canucks need to “get out of third and fourth gear.”
After noting that ramping up intensity ahead of the playoffs is “uncharted waters” for many Canucks, including some of their core players, Tocchet said Saturday: “It’s my job to get them to break that seal; there’s more in the tank. There’s always more, and we’ve got to break through it. Find it.”
The Canucks’ place in the standings looks comfortable, but they can’t afford to be comfortable on the ice. That feeling is really what Tocchet is trying to break with 14 games to go and the Buffalo Sabres visiting Rogers Arena on Tuesday night.
The only playoff games logged by core Canucks Elias Pettersson, 25, Quinn Hughes, 24, Brock Boeser, 27, and injured goalie Thatcher Demko, 28, were in the fanless, antiseptic Edmonton bubble in 2020. It’s the same with winger Conor Garland, 28. Defenceman Filip Hronek, 26, has never played an NHL playoff game of any kind.
So Tocchet is right when he describes this degree of preparation as foreign to many Canucks, even if veterans like Miller, Ian Cole, Teddy Blueger, Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov have playoff experience from other places.
“Every play on the ice matters more,” Cole said after Monday’s lively practice. “You don’t know what little, miniscule detail is going to be a turning point. Because of that, you need to elevate. You need to give more because everything matters more.
“We need to embrace the idea of elevating our play (now). You’re never going to know truly how it feels until you’ve done it, but if we’re able to mentally prepare for that. . . we can at least have our first step in the right direction before we actually step into the fire. You just don’t know what you don’t know until you experience it.”
Hence the urgency around the Canucks these days.
“We have a lot of people that are learning what it’s like to be in meaningful games this time of year,” Miller said. “I mean, a lot of our core hasn’t been in, quote-unquote, meaningful games. That’s the reality. There’s a sense of gaining a level of maturity (and). . . we’re just going through that evolution.
“We took a big step this year so far. But, I mean, our team is going to quickly learn that it doesn’t mean much to win in the regular season. Like, it really doesn’t. It’s great, it’s nice. But at the end of the day, you want to win in April, May and June. I think that’s what the message has been all year. You don’t just turn it on when you have to; we need to be playing like that all the time.”
Miller said the Canucks can not be losing games in March due to substandard performances like they had against Colorado and Washington. Losing while playing your best is one thing, Miller said, but the team can’t be giving away games in March while searching for its identity.
“Maybe we don’t know what it’s like,” Hughes, the Canuck captain, said of playoff intensity and playoff preparation. “But this is a lot easier (challenge) than what we’ve been through in the last couple of years. We need to pick up our game and everyone needs to do it and I need to do it. But in the grand scheme of things. . . this is 10 times easier than being out of the playoffs for three straight years.”
Hughes said the Canucks have been learning as they go all season, and the objective has always been to play their best each game. It’s just the games are getting progressively harder.
“There’s some guys, they want to play better,” Tocchet told reporters on Monday. “So what are you willing to do? There is more (to give). There’s three more strides to get back in your end even though you’re dead tired. Or blocking a shot. . . there’s going to be some moments where you need that guy to block that shot. It doesn’t matter (the) number or name on the jersey. That critical moment, that’s a breaking-a-seal moment. I think that’s something we’re trying to get at.”
With the Canucks generating little offensively the last five periods, Tocchet switched his lines for Monday’s practice, promoting Garland to play with Pettersson and Nils Hoglander. Pius Suter was reunited with Miller and Boeser, while Ilya Mikheyev was dropped to the third line with Elias Lindholm and Sam Lafferty. The fourth line was Blueger between Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Aman.
Tuesday is Game 4 in a nine-game homestand that ends March 31.
