With the news that Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko were returning to the Vancouver Canucks lineup on Friday, part of you might have been intrigued by how this would affect the on-ice product. Maybe you were a little bit excited about the prospect of Pettersson scoring a goal or maybe of a potential Demko shutout. Maybe this was the game where the Lotto Line re-united and put up four goals on the board, ending with a giant group hug where even though words were never spoken, you could just tell that all the emotional fences had been mended by a shared love of hockey.

Well let me quickly clear that up for you by quickly stating this was the most boring game of hockey I have watched in many years. It wasn’t even comically bad, where you could have a laugh at the madness unfolding in front of you. No, this was a game where it felt like the Canucks put in a serious effort to make you hate the game of hockey. And although the Lotto Line played together for a handful of seconds, it was a mere distraction from the fact that we are all on a slow, inevitable march towards death, a march that you kind of wished was just a tad bit quicker while you were watching this game. It may have ended 2-0, but even seeing a zero beside the score felt a little too charitable for the offensive zone results the Canucks got on the night.

It was the kind of game that left you scrambling to see where their 14-shot performance landed on the all-time worst list, and while it didn’t quite match their franchise low of eight shots against the Devils on Dec 18th, 1996, at least that team scored a goal in the 2-1 loss.

You know what the worst shot production result of the modern era was? A seven-shot game from the Washington Capitals way back in 1978. And even THEY scored a goal in that game, when Guy Charron finally found the back of the net.

Fun fact about that Washington team: The wide assortment of basic a$$ first names on the starting lineup: Jim, Larry, Guy, Bill, Dave, Bob, Rick, Gord, Mark, Mike, Gerry, Robert, Bill, Bob and Bryan. The lone outlier? Garnet, who I assume was never invited to team parties.

The point is, anything I can do to not talk about this game is for your benefit. I think I’m at the point now where I honestly wonder if there is any strategy a coach could utilize that would make this produce offence on a consistent basis.

Don’t get me wrong; I am still confused about how a team that has a defence that has shown an elite level of not being able to move the puck at all (unless it’s Quinn Hughes) has one win in the last seven games, cannot find time for the puck moving Erik Brännström in the lineup. I will die on that hill that even though he’s not tall, he can at least skate with the puck, a skill their back end is in dire need of.

But with that being said, I think we’re at the point where we can firmly point the fingers at the General Manager and President of Hockey Operations about the mess the Canucks are currently in.

Moving on from Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov without replacing their skill sets? Did not work.

Betting on Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers to repeat their performance of last season while also having to step up their game with a weaker defensive depth behind them? Failed.

Signing Vinnie Desharnais and Derek Forbort to play meaningful minutes of any kind? Blown up in their faces.

Maintaining a leadership balance in the locker room to keep Team Miller and Team Pettersson noise to a minimum? Complete miss.

The eventual return of Fil Hronek will clearly help this team, but unless Hronek starts carrying his own defensive pairing, it’s hard to put too much faith in the idea that this team will sort its shit out to enough of a degree to be dangerous in the playoffs.

Rick Tocchet might play boring hockey, Rick Tocchet might be an old man screaming at the clouds when you talk about East/West puck movement, but at the end of the day, the roster Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford rolled the dice on in the off-season? It simply hasn’t been good enough. And that failure is all on them.

Not being able to move the puck on your back end in today’s NHL is a hill so steep that it’s often hard to overcome. And as much as Rick Tocchet probably fantasizes about coaching a team like the 2012 LA Kings, even they had a remarkably solid and deep blue line.

So unless roster changes are made, or unless the Canucks start finding their groove again, the outlook on this season feels a little bleak if we’re being honest with each other.

But the Canucks also once got more than 30 shots in a game this week, so hey, maybe anything is possible?

Let’s gut this one out and go over this game.

Best coming back into the fold

Tonight against Carolina marks just the 5th time this season the #Canucks will have Miller, Pettersson, Demko and Hughes in the lineup.

— David Amber (@DavidAmber) January 10, 2025

The best part of the game for the Canucks was the first few minutes, back before anyone knew about the giant overflowing toilet bowl of a game they were about to watch.

And it was no surprise that Quinn Hughes was the guy doing his best to carry the team on his back, as he danced his way around the offensive zone before just barely missing the post on a shot and/or pass:

Brock Boeser’s highlight of the game? Stealing the puck on a pass from Dustin Tokarski and trying to beat him back into the net with a quick shot:

Two things to note in this clip.

One, you just witnessed 7% of the shots the Canucks took in this game on that one play.

Two, yes, that is Dustin Tokarski in net, former Canadian World Junior teammate of Cody Hodgson, aka the team that gave us that Jordan Eberle goal, aka the team led by the legendary Pat Quinn, which I will now post a video of so you can remember what it felt like to feel something when watching a hockey game:

If at any point during this article, you feel like weeping at the State of the Canucks game, please scroll up and watch this video. This is your emotional support clip.

As for Elias Pettersson, he played 20 minutes of hockey but was unable to generate a shot on the net despite getting some good looks throughout the night. One such look was on a nice give-and-go with Conor Garland, in which he dangled toward the net only to have the puck knocked off his stick at the last second:

So, in terms of “good starts,” I guess you would list this as a decent first 10 minutes for Vancouver in that they didn’t get scored on and also looked mildly threatening at least twice during that period. It’s a low bar, but we work with what we’ve got around here as we’re firmly in the “standing ovation for Loui Eriksson beating out an icing” era of the Tocchet Canucks.

Best depth charge

YES SUTER DEFENCE THANK YOU

— lio ❅ (@kw1nli) January 11, 2025

Pius Suter, known more for people making finger guns after he scores, is also one of the Canucks most reliable players on the defensive side of things. So when Washington tried to expose the GOTI of the Canucks, it was no surprise that Pius locked that down real quick:

Clearly, we’re going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for highlights in this one. If this game was a mall ranking, you’d be hard-pressed to put it below the International Village, but that’s mostly due to the fact that at least they have a cat cafe and the best escape room in Vancouver. But even with that being said, we have to give kudos to Pius Suter for being a very efficient bottom-six player. Should the front office ever improve this roster and fix things up, Suter is the kind of guy you keep around.

Best example of time and space

There has to be a better option than Juulsen lol

— Lekky88 (@NHL_Lekky88) January 11, 2025

It’s not just Noah Juulsen of course, it’s the entire defensive depth minus Quinn Hughes (and Fil Hronek, to be fair).

With the inconsistent play of Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers, the Canucks have a unique collection of defencemen trying to keep things moving anytime Quinn doesn’t have the puck. The disparity between Quinn Hughes and the majority of the league is noticeable, but even more so when it’s compared to the Canucks current roster.

So, while you don’t expect your defenceman to dance and wiggle their way out of every little jam they get into, you would hope they at least wouldn’t consistently send passes fueled by a bleaker combination of hopes and dreams than my parents, thinking I would give them grandkids.

The results from non-Hughes defenceman tend to either be icing the puck or turning it over, which Noah does here by trying to feather in a backhand pass to centre:

To quote the meme, you’re not that guy, pal, you’re just not.

There is a sadness that envelops you when you realize that as frustrating as icing the puck is, that tends to be the more efficient play from this Canucks defence. They just don’t have the puck control, passing or edge work to escape pursuit, so they just simplify it up most of the time by dumping it out.

Because when they do get fancy, they’re sending the puck in the general area of a teammate, which leads to a high chance of being picked off.

And these are plays that happen all game long, to be honest. I just normally don’t include them because a) that’s going to ruin the tour, and b) they happen in such high volume.

All of which brings me back to the question of why not Erik? I get it; he’s not tall, but your team has one win in seven games, and nobody on the back end can move the puck to save their lives. Wouldn’t even just simple curiosity spur you into seeing if he could change things up?

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think Brännström is “the answer.” I think the roster needs a bigger overhaul than that by far, but at the very least, I want to understand the process I’m seeing on the ice.

And right now? Erik being in Tocchet Penitentiary just feels a bit bizarre.

Best to be fair

If Höglander made that Miller mistake he'd sit for the rest of the game #canucks

— SoapVox (@soapvox) January 11, 2025

The Hurricanes got their first goal of the game after JT Miller did one of his vaunted no-look backhanded passes, leading to a turnover, leading to a goal against:

Now, I am the first guy to scream at a JT Miller no-look giveaway, but this one didn’t bother me all that much.

When JT Miller gets cute on the power play, and it ends up with a breakaway goal against? Those are the ones that kill me.

Here, JT Miller gets the puck, and the Hurricanes have the walls plugged off. So his option is to try and get it over the D-man and out of the zone, or he can try a slick pass to two of his teammates, with a high chance of leading to a good offensive rush. He also has a third option of skating in the boards and scrumming it out.

So the fact he tries the slick little pass doesn’t bother me because he is good enough to pull this off and has done so many times. Nils Höglander doesn’t have the resume of offensive contributions JT Miller has, so there will clearly be a different leash at play.

All that being said, the real trouble begins when Jake DeBrusk pokes at the puck and sends the puck to the point. JT Miller sees the impending point shot, so he rushes to block the shot. Jake doesn’t check his blind spot to see Miller skating up, so he seemingly panics and rushes the point shot as well.

The end result is Jordan Staal is all alone in front, and his weird flub of a shot ends up being the perfect off-speed shot to fool Thatcher Demko.

In a perfect world, Jake sticks with his guy and protects the GOTI. Instead, he just sort of vibes and goes wherever his heart takes him, which is kind of par for the course with DeBrusk. For all his offensive prowess and blue paint specialty, his in-zone defending tends to be pretty mediocre.

So in the space of one turnover and a couple of mistakes, the Canes were up 1-0 over the Canucks.

Best whatever happened to scoring first

#Canucks have given up first goal in 24 of 41 games. Last season, 29 times all season. They were incredible front runners last season. Get the first one and pull away from there

— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) January 11, 2025

It bears repeating that a lot of things went right for Vancouver last season.

I’m not saying they didn’t play well, but a lot of things went their way during last year’s remarkable journey.

That being said, I don’t think the Canucks are as bad as they’re showing, but I also think this blue line is going to prevent them from enjoying too much success. When you have a head coach openly sighing about the fact you can’t play Quinn Hughes for 60 minutes, you have to think he agrees.

Best double tap

Can someone tell me why JT, upon seeing Soucy was beat, didn’t attach Svechnimov? #Canucks

— islandcanuck (@rickcochrane_re) January 11, 2025

Soucy and Juulsen are unable to defend. #Canucks

— Kerry Banks (@bad_kicker) January 11, 2025

For every “he’s back!” Carson Soucy game we get, we seemingly get three “wtf happened to Carson” games, and Friday night was no different. The pairing of Juulsen and Soucy was the weakest of the bunch on the night, a point hammered home when Soucy got absolutely dog-walked by Andrei Svechnikov on the Canes’ second goal:

Soucy’s bread and butter is hard-nose, smart hockey, so it’s surprising to see him chase a player and not keep him stapled to the walls. Instead, he goes for a wraparound poke check, and Andrei simply skates back in the direction he came from. Nothing fancy about this one, it’s kind of like wondering why someone would steal your wallet when you leave it full of cash, sitting on the table at Wendys, all while you openly complain about how life is so hard for someone as rich as yourself.

Noah then tries to contain his check, and JT Miller offers up the equivalent of a shrug emoji on defence, as Svechnikov is basically allowed to walk in all alone by himself.

This goal just feels worse due to the fact that Vancouver struggles so hard to generate a shot on net, let alone a goal, yet here’s a dude just walking right into the lobby and letting himself into your office.

Best Captain Planet moment

Fifty frustrating years of watching this Canucks team. When will the pain end? I know when I drop dead.#Canucks

— 🍁🇨🇦🍁Phil from New West🍁 🇨🇦🍁 (@Fildo_Baggins) January 11, 2025

I just want to take a moment to appreciate a fellow New Westy, but also someone who turned their name of Phil into a solid Lord of the Rings name.

Fildo is right, though, as no joke, this was the best offensive chance of the game for the Vancouver Canucks:

Kiefer Sherwood and Pius Suter touch tips battling for a loose puck in the crease before a flailing swipe from Kiefer sweeps the puck out of harm’s way.

Remember, Tokarski is an AHL goalie. Simply getting shots on net should be your first goal in life. Instead, you’re docking with your teammate in a panic to try and remember what it feels like to get a puck behind a goaltender again.

The effort and desire were there, but the execution was not.

Best low volume results

One of these teams played a game last night and has an AHL journeyman in goal. Can you guess which team that might be?

— David Quadrelli (@QuadrelliD) January 11, 2025

The Canucks had five shots almost halfway through the game, but if “almost shots” counted, heck, they’d have had maybe eight or nine of them.

Want an example of this? Here is Quinn Hughes trying to create something out of nothing by dancing around the ice before trying to send a slick pass down to Conor Garland, who just misses the puck, before Chaos Giraffe rushes the puck toward the net and just misses the net:

The amount of heavy lifting Quinn Hughes does in a game for the Canucks is absolutely wild. He’s literally skating laps around the rink trying to find teammates open, trying to find a way to get the puck on net, but nothing seems to be working.

Quinn would later try a pass into the crease to Brock Boeser, but it too ended with no shot on net:

Watching these games without Hronek has really hammered home to me why Quinn Hughes would be so adamant about the team retaining Fil and why I have serious doubts about the Canucks splitting them up anytime soon. It feels very much like how I imagine a very skilled player feels like when playing beer league hockey with me. They appreciate my efforts, but sometimes they just want a night playing with someone who can think the game on their level, you know? They’ll have post-game beers with me, and they love me as a person, but oh my god, why didn’t I see the open lane and skate into it for them?

Best asked and answered

Any chance of getting a shot on goal #Canucks

— Paul Fleming (@Paulfleming__) January 11, 2025

You want the first shot of the second period? Here you go, it’s JT Miller with a shot that, sure, you know what, maybe it could have gone in:

See? Maybe Dustin stumbles there, or faints due to a low iron count, and that goes in. Stranger things have happened.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take as Michael Scott via Wayne Gretzky once said.

Best lack of push back

#Canucks playing with no urgency. Looks like they're the ones playing the back to back. 🤦

— MalMarvel (@MalMarvel) January 11, 2025

I will say this, it sure feels like teams are teeing off on Quinn Hughes lately. Which, as we discussed last article, I very much understand. He’s the Canucks most important player; clearly he should be put into as many Bullet Train scenarios as possible if you’re the opposing team.

So when Jordan Martinook takes out Quinn Hughes, I get it, I very much understand it:

What I don’t understand is the lack of push back from the Canucks.

Look, I am not a huge “must drop the gloves if a big hit is thrown” kind of guy, but when it’s your team captain, your best player, playing hurt, and another team is taking liberties with him? Automatic dropping of the gloves. Just thrown down the leather and go to pound town.

Hell, Danton Heinen almost got a statue made for his first career fight defending a teammate, imagine what people will do if you’re defending Quinn Hughes.

We STILL talk about Ryan Miller coming to the defence of then-rookie Troy From Richmond when Matt Martin jumped him. This is a town that deeply respects “the code” when it comes to fighting for honour and whatever.

So yeah, winning the game is the first thing a team should focus on. But when you notice a pattern of teams taking liberties with your top guy, somebody needs to step up.

And hey, maybe it’s not a fight, maybe you want to play it safe. At the very least throw a big hit on their top player to let the other team know that you’re both on a path to mutually assured destruction.

You want to attack Quinn Hughes? Fine, we’re going to take a chair to the head of Svechnikov and/or this baby kitten.

Sometimes a man’s gotta have a code, damn it.

Best failure to launch

really hope allvin is cooking something up because this team ain't it #Canucks

— s (@canucksabs) January 11, 2025

Speaking of examples of the Canucks defence looking as confused with the puck as Quadrelli is with corn starch, here is Derek Forbort sending the puck to absolutely nobody at the mere thought of defensive pressure:

This is the kind of thing that is happening all game long. The other team presses on the Canucks defence when they have the puck (again, when it’s not Quinn Hughes), and they, more often than not, just send the puck into space. It’s hard to have a cohesive offensive plan in action when the majority of the time you’re chasing the puck, and when you finally get it back, dumping it in for a line change because you’re exhausted.

Again, the puck just sort of dies in the offensive zone when it gets onto the stick of a D-man on this team. Again, here is Forbort getting the puck and just sending it to nobody:

For a team that preaches North/South hockey and likes to work the puck to the point as much as they do, it’s no wonder they struggle to produce shots when they field so many tall defenseman that can’t handle the puck.

Take away time and space from Quinn Hughes, he laughs at you as he undresses you and leaves you behind in a cloud of dust and an ACME sign that says “Help me” on it.

Take away time and space from the other five guys, and it tends to result in a panicked pass to nobody.

Best doing his best

#Canucks with 2 shots through 16 minutes of play in the 2nd against an AHL goalie. 🤯 #Canucks #GoCanucksGo #NHL

— Canucks Watcher (@canuckswatcher) January 11, 2025

Thatcher Demko was solid on Friday night, and did his part to keep the Canucks in the game:

So again, I think the roster is the main issue with this team, but that doesn’t mean I am letting Rick Tocchet off the hook.

See that East/West pass through the middle the Hurricanes executed? That led to a really good shot on net. It’s the type of play the Canucks only really try on the power play. Otherwise it’s a lot of dump and chase and working the puck to the point. Moving the puck East/West seemingly upsets Rick Tocchet.

For a team like Vancouver, one that has a lot of shots blocked and can’t seem to find the net to save their lives, you have to wonder if they can try and approach the game of hockey from a non North/South way once in a while to maybe open up some space and shooting lanes on the ice.

Ironically Quinn Hughes plays the most East/West game of anyone on the team, and he tends to generate the most time and space. I’m not daring to suggest anyone is even close to being able to do what Quinn does, but at the very least, it would be nice to see a cross-ice pass from someone else once in a while.

Though far be it from me to suggest the Canucks stop tossing back door tap in pass attempts at 100mph. You do you boo.

Best dump it in, rinse and repeat

So…. Just “never” carry the puck into the zone? Like… ever?

— Blake Price (@justBlakePrice) January 11, 2025

This game was truly unbearable to watch. Just stupid, dumb hockey to watch, which got to a point where Quinn just sort of took it all in when trying to find the best outlet plan late in the second period:

That’s probably his best option there, as well.

This team just cannot move the puck with possession to save their lives unless it’s one guy trying to skate end to end all by himself.

Best speaking of which

Elias Pettersson gives up on his defence moving the puck to him, takes the puck from behind his own net and rushes it up ice himself to draw a penalty. #Canucks

— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) January 11, 2025

Hey, passes from your defence aren’t working? Just go end to end all by yourself, like Elias tried here:

Elias is probably the most elite penalty drawer in the league in that he draws a lot of penalties, and he embellishes them just enough to get the calls. He’s not the world’s fastest skater by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s a testament to his skills of knowing just how much he should sell a trip to get the call. Personally, I think it’s how he sticks his legs up in the air that helps the most.

Sadly the Canucks power play is back into that “cousin you ignore because their political views are a bit much” mode, so the closest the Canucks came to scoring was an almost shot from Elias:

Almost shots are almost fun, am I right?

Sadly the best chances on the power play overall went to Carolina, who got three shots alone off of this counter rush:

Go scroll back up and watch that Eberle goal again. I’ll wait.

Best theoretical shots

#Canucks playing so awful tonight they Deserve get shutout tonight

— Thomas Farnell (@Thomasfarnell31) January 11, 2025

Hey, you know what’s better than almost shots that miss the net? Almost shots that get blocked:

Jonathan Lekkerimäki had the best look of the period, only to find his shot blocked, which was quickly followed up by Carson Soucy going full Alex Edler and blasting a puck into some shin pads.

Did I mention how tedious this game was?

Best play it again, Sam

#Canucks Petey is so good at drawing penalties

— proogle (@o128965) January 11, 2025

Once again Elias Pettersson is asking his team to score on a power play he drew with an elite dive:

You’ll notice I have no clips to showcase about the impending power play due to the fact the Canucks failed to register a single shot on net.

Meet pressure with pressure, baby!

Best sure, why not

idk if it’s the coaching or the construction of the team or both but this shit has been a snooze fest to watch all year #canucks

— Ayrzy (@ayrzyz) January 11, 2025

With the team needing a miracle of sorts to get a goal in this game, Derek Forbort instead punched a dude in the face:

We’re at the point where people are kind of pining for the Jim Benning era of defence. At least they were mobile. Couldn’t play defence, sure, but at least they could skate and make a pass.

That’s how low the bar feels like it’s fallen.

Best put us out of our misery

When you get shutout by a 35 yr old goalie wearing a mask with other teams colours that is not a good thing. #Canucks

— Graham 🇨🇦 (@GWVcr84) January 11, 2025

The game mercifully ended minutes later, but I would be remiss if I didn’t show Max Sasson getting an almost goal:

I don’t think we need to ask his dad how to pronounce “no goal” but hey, at least Dustin Tokarski had a brief moment where he wondered if his shutout was going to be ruined. That’s the kind of sad, deflating moral victory I can get behind!

Best finishing touches

NHL GameScore Impact Card for Vancouver Canucks on 2025-01-10: pic.twitter.com/RRsT1yVLIg

— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) January 11, 2025

The stats tell the story. Just an absolutely bleak performance from the Canucks.

Post-game, Rick Tocchet felt it was a case of missed opportunities and missing the net that was the key factor in this loss. He spoke about how they had a lot of O-zone time, which I guess is his idea of a positive. When pushed by reporters on his team being a low shot volume team, Rick pointed out how Carolina is a high volume team and they were limited to 18 on the night. Which to me, that’s just due to the Rick Tocchet system. As much as it limits his own teams shot production, I do agree it does a decent job of limiting the opponent as well. It’s defensive in nature for a reason.

The problem arises when, yeah, you’re at the bottom of the league in shot production, and can’t seem to buy a goal during a long losing stretch, and that’s with your team being a top five team in terms of shooting percentage. That’s when you start to wonder how much of it is the roster at play, and how much of that is on the coach.

And as I said in the beginning of this article, I put a lot on the roster construction of the Canucks. But I also wonder, what else could Rick be doing to get more out of this team?

Because as it stands currently, we’re witnessing a pretty awful product on the ice, even if having ample O-zone time is a delightful positive.

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