What’s the Canucks’ biggest problem? Maybe it’s the players

MONTREAL — Bruce Boudreau is a gamers’ coach. It simply doesn’t seem to be the Vancouver Canucks are a coach’s gamers.

In the event you suppose president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford knee-capped Boudreau this week along with his public criticism of construction and accountability, look what the gamers did to their coach on Wednesday.

Forty-three seconds right into a recreation towards the Montreal Canadiens, veteran Tanner Pearson took his seventh minor penalty of the season — a lazy and apparent hook within the offensive zone — and 12 seconds after that, Nick Suzuki’s shot from distance went via Thatcher Demko’s pads to make it 1-0.

Later within the interval, Canucks chief J.T. Miller duffed no matter he was attempting to do with the puck underneath average strain, turning it over within the Vancouver slot to Kirby Dach, who bobbled it via Demko to make it 3-0 at 12:23.

Demko, the struggling starter whom Boudreau retains rolling out, couldn’t provide you with sufficient saves when it mattered and by the top of the Canadiens’ 5-2 win, had been outplayed but once more by the opposition goalie and was nonetheless caught on one win for the season. Demko didn’t discuss to reporters after the sport.

Canucks rookie Jack Rathbone, the proficient defenceman loads of followers wish to see within the lineup extra usually, made important errors with the puck on the ultimate two Montreal targets.

Positive, the Canucks pushed within the third interval, outshooting the Canadiens 15-5 and briefly reducing a 4-0 lead in half on targets by Luke Schenn and Nils Hoglander. However the errors the Canucks made — the turnovers, defensive breakdowns and inept penalty killing — are as unsurvivable in November as they have been in October.

That is the Nationwide Hockey League.

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The Canucks are 4-7-3 and most of their losses have regarded the identical. The order of the targets they give up is totally different, however the means and quantity are largely unchanged because the season started. The crew has allowed at the very least 4 targets in 10 of 14 video games, and fewer than three solely as soon as.

This doesn’t appear to be the efficiency of gamers who love their coach, even when the Canucks truly like Boudreau and wish him to proceed. In fact, why wouldn’t they like him? He retains taking part in them, retains supporting them.

However whereas Rutherford’s criticism of construction, and the implications of these feedback for the teaching workers, acquired a lot of the public’s consideration on Monday, one of the vital necessary and under-reported issues he advised Sportsnet 650 radio was this: “We’re at some extent now. . . the place we’ve to make gamers extra accountable. We’ll need to take the mandatory steps to get gamers’ consideration.”

As a result of the losses, to this point, don’t appear to have been sufficient.

“All turnovers damage,” Boudreau mentioned after the sport, “particularly after they find yourself at the back of your internet, whether or not it’s J.T., whether or not it’s Bo, Petey, all of them. You may’t make that play (that Miller did in entrance of his internet), however there was an terrible lot of different performs that we shouldn’t have made both.”

Later, he added: “These are irritating. The giveaways, the not with the ability to deal with the puck on a cross within the impartial zone, letting pucks bounce over your stick while you’ve obtained them, these are killers.”

At all times have been in hockey, all the time can be.

The Canucks have been capable of outscore their issues in three-quarters of their wins (since there have been solely 4, the arithmetic on that is straightforward). However there’s something inherently flawed with a crew that’s tied for seventh in NHL scoring, has a 12-goal scorer in Bo Horvat, an 18-point scorer in Elias Pettersson and a point-per-game defenceman in Quinn Hughes – and nonetheless has gained solely 4 of 14 video games.

“All of us may be higher,” Pettersson mentioned Wednesday. “I may be higher, I can choose guys up, I may be extra vocal with issues that I say. Everybody may be higher at doing what they’re good at.”

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There don’t appear to be sufficient guys good at defending.

And but, there have been the Canucks midway via the third interval, having climbed again to 4-2, hitting two posts on one energy play on photographs by Miller and Hughes.

“If I may bottle it up and discover out, I’d be a wealthy man,” Boudreau mentioned when requested in regards to the excessive swings in efficiency throughout video games. “Regardless of the way you push it, you simply by no means know which interval goes to be good and which interval goes to be unhealthy. For this crew to go anyplace, they’ve obtained to be constant, and we haven’t had a recreation but the place we’ve allowed lower than three targets aside from the Pittsburgh recreation. Except you begin defending, I imply, it’s not going to occur.”

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On not pulling Demko for in-form backup Spencer Martin, Boudreau mentioned: “I’ve obtained to maintain him in there. He’s obtained to battle via these items. Any of the nice goaltenders that I’ve had, they wish to keep in there, they wish to discover it. I believed in the beginning of the second he made a few good saves, and I believed it was going to be there. However then issues nonetheless leak via.”

On Rathbone: “I believe he makes rookie errors. There are occasions he does. He desires to do nice like each participant on the market. However typically you strive too onerous to be good after which the proper factor doesn’t occur.”

On Pearson ending with two O-zone penalties: “That’s not good and that’ll be addressed tonight and tomorrow. That ought to by no means occur to anyone, not to mention a man that’s gained two Cups and is aware of precisely what he’s imagined to be doing.”

We don’t know if Boudreau would have held Pearson accountable within the recreation. He left with an harm quickly after serving his second penalty.

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