All was looking up for the Vancouver Canucks. They managed to stay afloat during a long stretch of games where they didn’t have their Vezina calibre goaltender, Thatcher Demko, top-pairing right-shot defenceman, Filip Hronek, and last season’s leading scorer, JT Miller.

With Hronek out long-term, the vibe around the team was that once they got Demko and Miller back, they would be saved. However, it really hasn’t worked out that way. And after poor performances, there is a big talking point in this market surrounding a potential rift between the Canucks’ top two centremen: Elias Pettersson and JT Miller.

Former Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau joined TSN’s OverDrive and shared some interesting details regarding this rift and how it stemmed back to his days as a coach.

“Well, I mean, the easy thing would be to say yes,” Boudreau said when asked if this rumoured feud is a problem that the team needs to address. “It is a problem. And I knew they had a little bit of a problem between them before I got there. But I thought that was all straightened out and everything. So, I’m hoping it was a coincidence.

“What I think the point production wise, is that Miller was always getting [Brock] Boeser and [Conor] Garland – this was before [Jake] DeBrusk starting scoring – and you’d end up [with] Petey getting [Ilya] Mikheyev and [Dakota] Joshua as a line. So I think the line discrepancies in Vancouver, scoring-wise, he didn’t have the wingers he needed to score. Like, when he was getting 100 points the year with me, he was playing the wing with Miller and Boeser, or he was playing the wing with [Bo] Horvat. So, I think a lot of it has to do with who he’s playing with and how good the rate of the power play is going with him.

“I don’t want to find out whether they’re having a problem with each other. Because I think they’re both great players, and it shouldn’t be happening. But I’m one of those guys that wants to dig my head in the sand right now and not know if they hate each other. It’s one of those things. Like I said, you get attached to players when you coach them, and I like those two guys a lot and don’t want to think one is being a real butt-head to the other one.”

We don’t want to speculate if/what might be going on between the two highest-paid Canucks players, but there is something to be said about the differences in on-ice performances.

In the 10 games Miller missed during his leave of absence, Pettersson had points in eight of those games; six of those eight were multi-point games and totalled 15 points. In the four games since Miller has returned, Pettersson has zero points with a minus-three rating. In fact, Pettersson’s line as a whole has not even been on the ice for a 5-on-5 goal. The two have alternated a spot on the top power play in back-to-back games.

Boudreau highlighted what to do as a coach when there’s a rift in the locker room and his outlook on the Canucks amid this feud for the remainder of the season:

“Well, if there’s a rift in the locker room, it’s up to the coach in all of these situations. I know the coach is the easy one to move but it’s up to him to read the room. And if something is wrong, to fix it and to fix the room and bring the guys in and talk to them about it. Vancouver’s not doing too bad; they’re 16-9 right now. They haven’t played as well as their record would indicate from last year, but [Thatcher] Demko just looked like he’s starting to get going [with] the way he looked last game. I anticipate them to really turn on a pretty good streak and contend for the Pacific Division. But it hasn’t happened yet, so we all want to surmise that certain things are happening, whereas I don’t think they are. I hope JT Miller, for example, when he took his month off, I hope it was for him to get back together. And I hope Petey is back to playing the way he can cause he’s a great hockey player.”

The Canucks wrap up their short two-game road trip tonight when they take on the Vegas Golden Knights, hoping to return home with a win and some production from their top two centremen.