Jannik Hansen didn’t mince words during his latest appearance on Sportsnet 650 when discussing Tyler Myers’ performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
Hansen, who spent a decade playing with the Canucks, has become a more regular guest on the radio station in recent years, often sharing his honest, unfiltered opinions — positive and negative — about the team’s performance.
In conversation with Dan Riccio and Satiar Shar on Friday’s edition of Canucks Central, Hansen skewed considerably more to the negative when talking about Myers.
Myers scored his first goal of the season in the 4–3 loss to the Lightning, but he also made a series of gaffes which resulted in a pair of goals against.
There was the inexplicable pass up the left side of the defensive zone onto the tape of Lightning forward Nick Paul, who scored Tampa’s first goal of the game seconds later.
Then, there was the moment he inadvertently tackled Elias Pettersson — this time, on the right side of the defensive zone — allowing Paul to set up Nikita Kucherov for the eventual game-winning tally.
Myers giveth, and Myers taketh. To hear Hansen tell it, enough is enough:
Jannik Hansen: I know a lot of people were riding [Myers] for that pass he tried to make to the centre. There’s a lot of issues with it […] But him barrelling out and taking out Petey, I think it is — that just sums up Tyler Myers in one picture right now. It’s just mistakes upon mistakes that just ends up in the back of your net. Because I’m sure he’s got the best intentions of going out there, pinching a Tampa player, clearing the puck, but instead he goes out there and he takes his own guy out, and they go back the other way and it’s a 4-on-2 in front of the net and they put it in the back of the net. It’s those little mistakes, but right now, for some reason with Tyler Myers, it just happens more often, if you will. He’s stood out. Against Tampa, those two were blatant, but there’s instances in the second Edmonton game, in the Philly game, where whether it’s lazy or these penalties that you hate them taking. It’s too many mistakes on one player where it’s hard not single him out. I hate to do it, because obviously he’s trying his best, he wants to win, too. He hates us talking about him like this, too, I’m sure. It’s not like he wakes up in the morning and says, ‘How do I piss off Vancouver media today.’
Myers, 33, is playing in the final season of the five-year, $6 million-AAV contract he signed with the Canucks back in 2019.
The 6’6″ right-handed defender is averaging a shade over 18 minutes a night through his first four games with the Canucks this season. He’s picked up a goal and assist thus far.
The Canucks will look to get back in the win column after back-to-back losses when they take on the Florida Panthers on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. PT.