On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal broke down the Vancouver Canucks’ offensive struggles, as they continue to rank near the bottom of the league in scoring.

Harm opened the discussion by pointing out the lack of game-breaking showings from Vancouver’s top forwards.

“The top guys don’t have nights where they take over — like unequivocally dominate and put the team on their back,” said Harm. “You’ll have these occasional performances where they play well, but they’re not unstoppable. We saw it last night with Montreal; their top line was dominant. Sure, Pettersson played well individually, but Vancouver’s top forwards as a whole once again got outplayed by the opposition’s top forwards. That’s happened countless times this season.”

Even when the Canucks generate offensive pressure, it doesn’t always translate to dangerous scoring chances.

“Sometimes during the game, they’ll look threatening, but in reality, it’s not that dangerous if you’re just piling up medium-danger looks from your bottom-six grinders who aren’t good finishers,” Harm continued. “The analytics will say the Canucks generated chances in bunches, their expected goals were high, and they’re unlucky, but when you look at their individual expected goal leaders, not many of them are high-end finishers. In order, you’ve got Dakota Joshua, Pius Suter, Drew O’Connor, Elias Pettersson (who scored), Teddy Blueger, and Nils Höglander. Outside of Pettersson, it’s a list of grinders who struggle to finish their chances.”

The Canucks’ offensive struggles stem from multiple factors, including a lack of high-end talent and an overreliance on players better suited for middle-six roles.

“It’s a mix of things,” Harm explained. “The forward group is littered with middle-six guys. They don’t have any true first-liners — nobody on this roster would be a first-liner on a good team. They don’t have any speedy players who can drive zone entries besides Filip Chytil, who was a third-liner on a contending team.”

While Vancouver has also had some bad puck luck, Harm was quick to emphasize that bad luck alone doesn’t account for their offensive issues.

“They’re shooting just 6.4% at five-on-five since January 1st, which ranks 31st in the NHL,” he noted. “We know what efficient shooting can do as far as influencing our perception of how potent an offence is. They’ve been a bit unlucky, but we all know they don’t generate enough shots and chances in the first place. You can’t chalk it all up to not getting bounces.”

Another major issue has been their inability to generate offence off the rush.

“They consistently have been one of the worst teams in the NHL at generating rush offence, and that goes back several years — even to the Travis Green days — where they just can’t create much in transition.”

Beyond personnel challenges, the Canucks’ offensive system itself has become predictable and ineffective, particularly in sustained zone time.

“What I don’t like about the Canucks’ offensive attack — and this is something I believe the coaching staff has control over and hasn’t made enough adjustments to — is their in-zone attack,” Harm continued. “This team will win a puck down low, go low-to-high, point-to-point, and just spam point shots. There’s not enough east-west movement, very rarely do the defencemen move off the puck, and the forwards seem preoccupied with crashing the net. All three of them are down low, so the defenceman has no choice but to take the point shot.

“When you get the puck at the point as a defenceman and all three forwards are low, you’ve got no passing options. I’d like to see a forward come high in the zone, implement some give-and-goes, and get the D moving. The in-zone attack, how basic it is, and the lack of movement is a bad look strategically for coaching.”

With their offence stagnating, the Canucks will need to find solutions quickly if they want to stay in the playoff race this season. Whether that means system adjustments or a change in approach from their top forwards, something has to give sooner or later.

You can watch the full segment below: