Critics around the National Hockey League were not shy to share their opinions on how terrible the Vancouver Canucks were going to be this season – and the players are keeping receipts.

Fresh off being named the NHL’s third star of the week, Paul Cotter met with the media at Tuesday morning’s practice before the upcoming road trip and expanded on his postgame comments against the Vegas Golden Knights. As a refresher, Cotter was asked what he has learned from his team now four games into the season, to which he replied, “For a team that everybody in the world has said is going to be last in the league, I’m pretty happy with how we’ve been doing.”

Here was his response on Tuesday morning when asked how much of this doubter talk he consumed over the offseason:

“At the end of the day, it’s about the guys in this room as well as the coaching staff, the organization as a whole. I tend to stay off social media as much as I can, but I’d be dumb if I didn’t hear or see some things about, whatever, just people talking about how terrible we were going to be. I think every [post] that I saw, I saved just to have some receipts. I mean, that’s the type of stuff that motivates you along the way, you know, if you’re the biggest underdog in the league.

“We had high expectations coming into this. I’m happy with how we’ve started; obviously there’s a lot of things to clean up with where we want to be. But yeah, if no one has confidence in us, then it’s on us to prove them wrong.”

Cotter is off to a hot start to the season. His four goals tie him for the league lead with Evan Bouchard and Nick Schmaltz, and six total points tie him for third league-wide with Jack Eichel and teammate Elias Pettersson. His efforts earned him league-wide notoriety as the NHL’s third star of the week. Cotter joked with the media, saying, “I think I owe the boys something; might get the team cookies or something tonight,” when asked about the honour.

After finishing last in the NHL standings last season, critics were hard and heavy on the Canucks, who were a shoo-in to repeat last year. However, the Canucks are off to a decent start. With a 2-2 record through four games, the Canucks upset the Edmonton Oilers on opening night and stayed in the game against the Golden Knights, both teams competing for the Pacific Division title this season.

That notion has found its way to the Canucks’ locker room. Instead of taking the criticism to heart, this group is using it as bulletin-board material to prove the doubters wrong this season. Safe to say, they’ve done an admirable job.