Here’s my question; how do we find ways to be interested in the rest of the season when coaching seems to just be phoning it in as much as the players? Same lines, same routine, just asleep at the wheel? It’s more exciting to wait for the push notifications and intermissions.
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JPat’s Monday Mailbag: Will the Canucks score 200 goals this season?
Mar 2, 2026, 11:00 ESTUpdated: Mar 2, 2026, 12:20 EST
It included only four games, but February wasn’t kind to the Vancouver Canucks. And it’s unlikely that March will be much kinder. The Canucks went 0-3-1 in their four games last month and have just two victories since the start of 2026. The schedule says they must push on, and so they will. March opens with a sledgehammer of games against legitimate Stanley Cup contenders in Dallas and Carolina. And that will take the Canucks up to Friday’s NHL trade deadline. To help pass the hours until the trades start happening, we present this week’s Monday mailbag.
I must say I have found myself asking part of this question a fair bit lately. It’s clear the Canucks are a flawed bunch, but sticking with the same line combinations night after night after night makes absolutely no sense to me. And on Saturday, when Elias Pettersson was moved off the line with Evander Kane and Jake DeBrusk to a line with Nils Höglander and Linus Karlsson, it was described as a demotion. But was it really? On a white board depth chart, perhaps. But Kane-Pettersson-DeBrusk hasn’t really amounted to much for most of this season. Why wouldn’t the Canucks try Pettersson with Hoglander and Karlsson?
Why wouldn’t the team try Liam Ohgren with Pettersson for a few games? The status quo isn’t producing goals or wins, so shake it up a little. And perhaps the team will be forced to if they’re able to move some players between now and Friday. But if a 32nd-place team going nowhere fast can’t experiment with some new look line combinations, then what is the point of all this? So I get your frustration. I hear it from many these days. And it does seem there has been an inexplicable stubbornness on the part of the coaching staff to keep Elias Pettersson and Evander Kane together for far too long now. Hopefully, that duo won’t be an option by the end of the week.
152 goals as a team with 23 games left. Will this team crack 200 goals this season?
First things first, the Canucks have actually scored just 148 goals. The standings show them with 152 based on the team’s four shootout victories. But in terms of actual goals put in the net during the run of play, the number is 148. At their current rate, they are averaging 2.51 goals per game. That projects to another 58 goals over the final 23 games, which would get them to 206. But a closer look at their scoring rate since Christmas shows that they are averaging just 2.09 goals per game over the last 23 contests.
At that rate, that would amount to another 48 goals over the final 23 games, which would have them come up short of the 200 mark. Last season, San Jose was the lowest scoring team in the league with 208 goals. The year before, Chicago was last at 178. I think the Canucks will finish somewhere in between those totals. But if you’re putting me on the spot, I’m going to say they come up shy of 200 on the season. With all the other hot spots around this team, has anyone noticed the Canucks power play is in a one-for-24 funk over the past dozen games? Perhaps that, more than anything, is going to make reaching 200 goals awfully difficult.
Do you think Allvin and/or Rutherford stay employed once the season ends?
I absolutely think somebody will pay for this dreadful season with their job. How many people and how high on the organizational pecking order the heads will roll has yet to be determined. I could absolutely envision another front office house cleaning like the one we saw in December 2021. This is a results based business and let’s be real, the results this season have stunk.
The people in charge have to understand the stakes of a dismal season like this. We never hear directly from ownership so it’s impossible to truly know how this season is being received by the ones that foot the bill. But there should be no shortage of embarrassment in and around Rogers Arena. So I can’t specifically say who will be handed their walking papers, but let’s see how much this management group is able to accomplish on the trade front. Another trade deadline of inactivity like last year, and I have a feeling the fan base may run the entire front office out of town themselves.
If Myers gets traded, who comes up from the farm? Woo?
The obvious answer is Victor Mancini, and I think he would be the first one recalled. But in a lost season where results don’t matter, I’d like to see Jett Woo finally get a few NHL games. He’s 25, and he’s in his sixth season with the Canucks organization. He’s battled hard for the club’s minor league affiliates in both Utica and Abbotsford, and it just seems like it would be a feel-good story at the end of a season that hasn’t had very many. Throw the guy a bone and make his dream of playing in the NHL come true. Give the fans the chance they’ve waited for. Give them at least one game to scream Woo!
The team’s efforts seem to be (I’m being charitable) lacklustre.I’m wondering if this is a group of individuals rather than a team of players. The lack of accountability to each other seems very concerning.Is it a room thing or a coaching staff thing?
It’s pretty clear the culture in and around this team needs a serious overhaul. I still believe there are players on the current roster who are better than they’ve shown this season. But this collection of players has lost its way. Certainly, the centre depth issue proved to be far more fatal than management imagined, and with the lack of quality at the centre position, just about every winger has suffered this season. But beyond the production levels, the overall hunger of this team on a nightly basis has been lacking. As you astutely point out, this doesn’t look like a group that wants to play for each other or the crest on the jersey.
As the rebuild takes shape, the Canucks need to find players who have each other’s backs. They need a leadership group that pushes the rest of the team to get better. Obviously, this team needs more skill, but it also has to get so much more difficult to play against. Sure, coaches have a say in the way a team plays, but this group’s short-comings go far beyond coaching. I keep waiting to see the losing take its toll on this group of players, but aside from the occasional defiance from Teddy Blueger or Tom Willander, there seems to be acceptance that this season is in the sewer. I keep waiting for professional pride to rise up and take hold, but with 23 games to go, it feels like perhaps that ship has sailed for this season.
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