Canucks Army Postgame: Same Story, Different Day

The Vancouver Canucks won 2-1 on Sunday afternoon… which is a good thing, right? 

Well…

First, let’s get it out of the way – congratulations to everyone’s favorite dancing, smiling defenseman on his first NHL goal!

Okay, now back to business. 

The game started off with the Islanders in control, but this was so much more than that. 

There were fights. There were (failed) breakaways. There were shots taken on goal – by the wrong team, but taken on goal nonetheless. There were 3 vs. 3 shots taken on that same goal – by the wrong team, once again – and there was an impressive shutout in the shootout by old man Miller himself. 

It was a fun game if you like heart failure and Ben Hutton. 

Are you kidding me with this? 

It’s one thing if the Canucks were outshooting before they got their first goal. Score effects are a real thing, and teams that are ahead occasionally slack off in the offense department now and again. 

The Canucks were never really in control of this game, though, and that’s worrying. 

Ryan Miller struggled with 3 vs. 3 earlier this season, and he’s reached an age where longevity regression is starting to become a legitimate concern. The more starts he gets each year, the more likely it is he’ll underperform just due to exhaustion from his age and the style he prefers to play – overly active goaltenders need to be at the top of their game, and a 35 year old making a ton of starts isn’t likely to be fully dialed in by midway through the season. 

Despite this, though, Miller looked good today. He was strong and efficient, holding off some quality shots in both regulation and OT. His shootout was nerve-wracking, but effective – and the team came away with a win, as Miller denied the Islanders a whopping 48 SOG and all three shootout attempts. 

The games aren’t looking all that winnable, but good goaltending can turn an unwinnable game into a two-point endeavor – and that’s what Miller brought to the team on Sunday. Those are the games that the goaltender deserves the majority of the credit for, by a long shot. 

There’s no two ways around it – the Canucks are winning because of luck and some good goaltending, which is a bad way to win. It’s generally unsustainable, and the crash is usually pretty severe – which is going to hurt for the Canucks, whether it comes this year or next.

The good flashes are good, but the bad are pretty inexcusable. The team was absolutely slaughtered possession-wise, and that’s becoming a recurring thing. Vancouver could be a playoff team this year – the Pacific is a pretty major crapshoot right now – but they’re doing their best to shoot that chance in the foot, and it shows. 

It’s not all doom and gloom, because the pieces that we most need to be performing well – the young guys like Jared McCann, Ben Hutton, and Bo Horvat – are all doing just that. The team has a future ahead of them (despite a still-questionable drafting record) and that’s ultimately a sign that even if this season doesn’t go as planned, things can still go well in the future. 

The way this particular season has been playing out, though, has been less than satisfactory – and for fans who want to see the Sedins win a Stanley Cup while playing in BC, that’s going to be kind of tough at the moment. The players that should be giving the young guns something to build off of aren’t doing that, the possession figures suggest there’s a crash in the future, and nothing is really changing. 

It may be the coach’s fault that players are playing poor possession hockey. It may be the GM’s fault for intentionally signing poor possession players to longer deals and sending out guys who could be helping out right now. Likely, it’s a bit of both – but it needs to change, and today wasn’t reason for that need to change to vanish.