At 10-2-1, the Vancouver Canucks’ road record is the single biggest reason the hockey club resides above the playoff bar in the National Hockey League’s Western Conference standings. And, by extension, the team’s dreadful 4-6-3 record at Rogers Arena is the single biggest reason this group hasn’t been able to separate itself from a crowded chase pack. If the Canucks aren’t able to figure things out on home ice in a hurry, they will surely find themselves falling off the pace and likely slipping out of their tenuous hold on a playoff position.
They currently sit tied with Edmonton and Colorado – all with 32 points – and one ahead of Calgary. The good news is the Canucks have games in hand on every team around them. The bad news is that six of their next eight are on home ice where they have just four victories in 13 tries – and the list of conquests isn’t exactly anything to boast about having defeated Chicago, Pittsburgh, Columbus and a Calgary team playing on back to back nights and at the end of a hellish five game in eight night stretch.
Those four home wins by the way match Chicago and Utah for the league low in that department and no other team above the playoff bar has fewer than seven wins on home ice, so the Canucks certainly have some catching up to do.
But put the results aside and focus more on the process. After Sunday’s 4-2 loss to Tampa, a game in which the Canucks competed hard but shot themselves in the foot with an untimely too many men on the ice penalty and an inability to kill it off, the club has now been outscored 50-39 in its 13 games in front of the paying customers. A year ago, the Canucks were 9-3-1 in their first 13 home games and had outscored opponents 50-28. What a difference a year makes.
This season’s version sits 31st in the league in goals allowed per home game at 3.85. Only Colorado – a team still waiting for any of its goalies to make a save this season – is worse. Even Pittsburgh, another team that hasn’t exactly basked in the glow of great goaltending this season, is better at 3.75 per game. These are the Canucks we’re talking about and their goalie is in conversation about being the team MVP so far. Yet still the struggles persist.
At the other end of the ice, the skaters aren’t doing a lot to help their goalies. If it seems the Canucks are struggling to sustain zone time and generate shots, you’re not mistaken. The Canucks sit 30th in the NHL in home ice shots per game at just 25.8 a night ahead of only St. Louis and Montreal and behind the likes of Chicago, San Jose and Detroit. And everybody else, for that matter.
The Canucks have opened the scoring at home only five times in 13 games and have yet to win when getting on the scoreboard first. The game’s first goal is supposed to matter. However, the Canucks are now 0-3-2 in those games including Sunday against Tampa and a recent game against the New York Rangers – when captain Quinn Hughes seemingly set the tone by finding the back of the net to give the Canucks a 1-0 first period lead. To no avail.
The Canucks have enjoyed just one 2-0 lead on home ice all season – on opening night against Calgary – when they took their only 3-0 lead in any of the 26 games played home or away. And, of course, they couldn’t make that 3-0 lead or a 4-1 lead for that matter stand up as they fell 6-5 in overtime.
If you’ll recall, Daniel Sprong scored the Canucks first goal of the season. Two months later, he remains tied in goals at Rogers Arena with Jake DeBrusk and Nils Höglander. He also has one more than Danton Heinen and Dakota Joshua and is just one behind Conor Garland and Teddy Blueger.
In other words, the Canucks need a bunch of players to figure things out at home – and in a hurry.
The fact of the matter is the Canucks aren’t going to play .808 hockey away from home for the balance of the season. There will be an inevitable drop in their road performance. And when that happens, the harsh reality is that the fate of their playoff positioning likely hinges on getting things sorted out at home. Getting Thatcher Demko and JT Miller back should help; of that, there is no doubt.
But much more of what this group has shown to this point at home and all bets are off about whether the Canucks will be a playoff team at all this season.
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