A three-game losing streak might sound an alarm in the regular season, but not today. Not by a long shot.
The Vancouver Canucks suddenly find themselves with a losing record in the preseason, thanks entirely to a winless record over their three road games. With only one game remaining on their exhibition schedule, head coach Rick Tocchet has one more opportunity to ice an NHL-complete roster before the regular season begins.
But how many preseason games you win doesn’t matter in the slightest. Granted, it’s better to start your year on a good note than a bad one, but as we’ve seen before, you can go from losing 10-0 to division champions in a single year. Or go from losing to the last-place Sharks all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. All you need is talent and the mentality to overcome the obstacles.
That final tune-up will be all the more crucial after the team elected not to play a more established lineup against the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night. The Canucks trimming the majority of the training camp roster Tuesday morning was merely a formality. Now, the real tests begin.
But for now, we have conclusions to jump to.

Best Depth in the NHL

Looking at this lineup and knowing they’d be facing a stacked Oilers roster, you would’ve been forgiven for expecting a bloodbath.
But the Baby ‘Nucks roster handled a stacked Oilers lineup exceptionally well, given the skill discrepancies. They matched Edmonton in scoring chances, goaded them into penalties, and even held them to just a single powerplay goal. It was a downright miracle by most teams’ standards.
Even after the Oilers snagged the lead midway through the second period, the fourth line came right back with a strong shift, and Nate Smith put himself in the perfect spot to deflect Kirill Kudryavtsev’s shot to tie the game.
The Canucks even gave the Oilers a run for their money in overtime, although they did give up a number of two-on-ones that Kevin Lankinen had to be sharp on.
Even though they didn’t walk away with both metaphorical points, their effort can’t go unnoticed. Dragging Edmonton kicking and screaming to a shootout is a legitimate moral victory. Hopefully that energy makes its way to Abbotsford as well.

Kiefer Sherwood, future unsung hero award winner

The Canucks’ depth has certainly improved in recent seasons, but they’ve lacked that “bull in a china shop” skater who can flip between creating scoring chances and chaos on a dime. We think Kiefer Sherwood fits that bill.
Sherwood was noticeable on every shift, disrupting Edmonton’s breakouts and setups with four takeaways, four hits and a shot block in 15 minutes of ice time. In fact, the Oilers didn’t manage a single shot on goal when Sherwood was on the ice.
But Sherwood’s best contribution came on the powerplay in the second period when he feathered a gorgeous cross-ice pass to Arshdeep Bains that wound up in the back of the net. The type of play that you knew would turn into a goal before Bains even let the shot go.
The addition of Sherwood to the bottom six already looks like a clear winner for the Canucks, if he can replicate this energy once he officially sews up his spot in the lineup. There’s ‘fan favourite’ written all over him.

Bains-Suter-Sprong is the new West Coast Express

They didn’t officially end up contributing any points together, but Pius Suter, Arshdeep Bains and Daniel Sprong were thorns in the Oilers’ side all night.
First, they put together one of the Canucks best scoring chances in the early stages, creating a scramble in front of Stuart Skinner’s net that they just couldn’t bury.
Suter’s hounding of Connor McDavid in the third prompted Corey Perry to challenge him to a fight (only once he knew he had a size advantage,e of course). And in 3-on-3 overtime, Daniel Sprong nearly ended up with the winner had it not been for a few well-timed trips by the Oilers, earning the Canucks a late power play. But the message was clear: these guys can hang with the best.
That’s undoubtedly why Arshdeep Bains will be among the final roster decisions after avoiding the latest round of cuts. And even though they won’t be put in these types of situations once the top six is dressed for duty, the Canucks’ staff can rest easy knowing they have a forward corps that’s truly ready for any situation the league throws at them.
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