VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks are on a roll. They’ve won once.
Hey, you can’t count to two without one.
But as the team tries in tonight’s rematch against the Calgary Flames to build on Saturday’s 3-1 win, which ended a six-game losing streak, the Canucks aren’t thinking about one good win but three good games.
They outshot the Flames 46-19 and finally beat ex-Canuck goalie Jacob Markstrom on their fourth try, but have actually played pretty well over the last three games.
In their first two games last week, the Canucks outshot and outplayed the Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs but were unable to finish and surrendered late goals to lose.
Coaches always talk about the process, so in that context, the Canucks were trending positively before finally breaking through against Markstrom and the Flames.
Still, the bottom line is the bottom line and the Canucks’ poor start to the National Hockey League season means the pressure to, like, actually outscore opponents isn’t going to abate anytime soon.
“I like the pressure on,” Canuck coach Travis Green said after Monday’s morning skate at Rogers Arena. “I think it should be on if you’re winning or losing. When you’re losing, obviously it gets a little magnified. But when you’re winning, there’s still pressure to win the next game and wherever you are in the standings, to keep moving up. There’s lots of pressure on our group. We know that.”
Owner Francesco Aquilini’s emphatic declaration before Saturday’s game that neither Green nor general manager Jim Benning is going anywhere may have dispersed the latest pitchforks-and-torches assembly online. But it did nothing to fix the Canucks’ dire position in the North Division standings.
“I haven’t been through many of these stretches with losses,” winger J.T. Miller, whose career before Vancouver included long playoff runs with the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers, told reporters on Zoom. “We didn’t play bad in all those games. Greener, the staff and players, we do a good job evaluating games honestly. We’ve been playing well for a handful of games in a row now, and when we do that, if we trust our process and trust our game plan, more times than not we’re going to win these games.”
The Canucks have outshot opponents 112-64 the last three games.
They’ve simplified their game, eliminated most of the turnovers that had been killing them, are supporting each other around the puck and finally building some lineup and structural consistency.
“Well, I’m not going to say exactly what it is,” Green said of the tactical changes. “But I will say that our 200-foot game is more connected. Let’s put it that way. There are certain parts of our game that we’ve worked hard on with our team over the last three practices and I’ve seen remarkable improvement.
“When I say 200-foot game, that can involve a lot of different areas, obviously. But they’re all connected. I’ve said that many times; your forecheck is connected to your breakouts, and in between that is the 200-foot game. We’ve been a lot better in a few areas we’ve worked on, for sure. It’s helped our game.”
Just as the chaos inside the Canucks’ blue line was the most obvious manifestation – besides losing – of the slack and careless play up ice before last week, the consistency on defence has been one of the starkest improvements.
Green has settled on pairings: Alex Edler with Nate Schmidt, Quinn Hughes with Jordie Benn, and Olli Juolevi with Tyler Myers.
All are playing noticeably better than they did the first three weeks of the season and Juolevi, especially, looks like a different player after the rookie was healthy-scratched for seven straight games. Juolevi’s return three games ago coincides with the uptick in Canucks play.
“I think the break off has helped him,” Green said. “He’s been able to watch some games, probably get a little bit of good practice time in. His game looks sharper than it was. I think that’s just a young defenceman kind of finding his way. There’s going to be some ups and downs with young players, and we’ve got to understand that as well.”
The Canucks can pass the Flames on points if they win tonight, although Calgary has played four fewer games. The teams conclude their four-game mini-series Wednesday in Alberta.
