With some time now to digest the 2015-16 Vancouver Canucks season, it’s impossible to suggest there was a single turning point that led to the team’s dismal 31 win performance. Sure, February 9th in Denver – the night both Alex Edler and Brandon Sutter suffered season-ending injuries – was likely the night reality hit home that this year’s Canucks wouldn’t make the playoffs. Perhaps, that was already evident three weeks earlier when captain Henrik Sedin needed help off the ice in Brooklyn after getting steamrolled by Mikhail Grabovski in front of the Canucks bench.

The bottom line is this year’s edition of the Canucks wasn’t good enough – or deep enough – to be any kind of factor in the National Hockey League’s Western Conference. Although the notion of a playoff berth still existed at January’s All-Star break, so many warning signs about the team’s ultimate demise were evident from the first few weeks of the season.

Looking back, here are five losses that should never have happened. This isn’t to suggest that with a different result in these games, the Canucks playoff fortunes would have been different. This is simply a list of five of the team’s most disappointing and most telling losses among the 51 setbacks (38 in regulation & another 13 in overtime/shootout) the Canucks suffered this past season.

For the purposes of this list, the losses selected occurred while the Canucks were still chasing a playoff spot. What happened after the trade deadline – the nine-game losing streak (including three straight shutout losses) and the forgettable back to back no-shows in Alberta in the final week of the season – did not factor into the decision-making.

The Canucks took a 2-1 lead to the third period against a good Capitals team. The Caps got the two goals they needed including the winner from Alex Ovechkin with under five minutes to play. But it was the way the Canucks approached the third period that should have set off alarm bells. Knowing the Caps were going to push for the equalizer (and then the winner), Matt Bartkowski played 8:04 (compared to 6:31 for Alex Edler) and Derek Dorsett logged 6:42 and Brandon Prust played 5:27 while Daniel Sedin saw 6:03 of third-period ice-time. At the other end of the spectrum, Sven Baertschi got two shifts (:17 total) and Jared McCann got on the ice once in the third (:35). The shortened bench strategy blew up in the Canucks face as they tried to preserve their lead rather than extend it. The loss was the Canucks fourth straight on home ice to start the season and the squandered third-period lead was a sign of things to come 

The Canucks opened a season-high seven game road trip in a game that marked Ryan Miller’s return to Buffalo. That was the storyline heading into the game and it should have been all the motivation the Canucks needed. Instead, the Canucks fell behind 2-0 and although they managed to tie the game, gave up the winner to Rasmus Ristolainen with just 17 seconds to go. The goal came with the Sedins on the ice and Daniel’s turnover just inside the Sabres line proved costly as Buffalo went the other way and scored the winner. Miller, who had started for the 13th time in 14 games to start the season, was not impressed: ‘“We tried to back check and I don’t want to fault them, but we had two and maybe three guys looking at the puck.It’s been the script for our third periods and at some point we’ve got to take issue with it. We’ve talked about it but it’s becoming a bigger issue. Maybe that one will be a wake-up call.” Maybe not. The offensively-challenged Canucks managed just two goals on 37 shots against Sabres rookie netminder Linus Ullmark 

Coming off a disappointing loss in Toronto, the Canucks stormed into Montreal and jumped out to a 3-0 lead and skated to an easy win. Oh, wait – that’s how it should have ended. However, that’s not how things shook down at the Bell Centre. Yes, the Canucks grabbed a 3-0 lead on goals by Adam Cracknell, Jared McCann and Daniel Sedin. But that’s where the fun ended and the horror show began. The Habs chipped away and tied things up late in the third before David Desharnais beat Jacob Markstrom off the rush in overtime to cap the Canadiens comeback. Sure the Canucks were near the end of a long road trip and yes the Habs had some firepower in their lineup, but allowing a three-goal lead to evaporate was inexcusable. The loss dropped the Canucks to 0-6 in games decided in 3-on-3 overtime. Notably, the game marked the NHL debut of Hunter Shinkaruk who got 9:35 of ice time (but only three shifts in the third period) in what turned out to be his one and only appearance in a Vancouver Canuck uniform 

A night after getting blanked 4-0 in Anaheim and being called out by general manager Jim Benning for a lack of response to getting roughed up by the Ducks, the Canucks got an early power play goal from Daniel Sedin and tried to win the game 1-0. That proved to be a flawed strategy. The Canucks were able to hold the Kings off the board through 40 minutes, but the third period was spent almost entirely in the Vancouver end and after a Bo Horvat penalty, Drew Doughty beat Jacob Markstrom to tie the game at one. It was remarkable the Canucks – due mainly to Markstrom’s heroics – managed to get the game to overtime, but it was more of the same in the extra session. When Alex Edler’s errant pass was intercepted by Jeff Carter and fed to Anze Kopitar for the game winner, it ended a night that saw the Canucks outshot 3-0 in overtime, 15-1 in the third period and 40-16 overall. It was one of the best performances the Canucks got all season from Markstrom and one of the poorest showings from the skaters in front of him 

After being held to 16 shots in Los Angeles and generating 17 shots  the following game in a 4-2 loss to Dallas, the Canucks hosted the Boston Bruins on the first Saturday of December at Rogers Arena. Surely, the hated Bruins would bring out the best in the Canucks. If fans believed any sort of rivalry still existed between the teams, that notion was dispelled as the Canucks rolled over for the Bruins. They lost the game 4-0, but the story of the night was the lack of response.  Brad Marchand, relishing the role of villain in Vancouver, opened the scoring just 2:54 into the game and Torrey Krug made it 2-0 later in the first period. The Bruins tacked on another in the second period. Down 3-0 and playing for pride, the Canucks generated just five shots on Tuukka Rask in the final period and only 17 on the night. That gave the Canucks 50 shots for the week and two months into the season it had become evident that goal-scoring, generating shots and mounting any sort of emotional push was going to be a problem for this hockey club for the remainder of the season

Those were just five troubling losses for the Canucks this season. There were certainly others — 6-2 in Minnesota in mid-December was a disaster on many levels. So was 5-0 to LA on home ice to close out 2015. And a 5-4 loss in Pittsburgh in late January had a foul stench to it after the Canucks held a two-goal third-period lead. So there were options – lots of them.

In the end, all of the losses added up to a remarkably disappointing season that has left the Canucks waiting to see how they fare in the April 30th NHL draft lottery. It just seems that with some time to reflect on it, a few of the losses stood apart from all of the others.