Vancouver Canucks Make History in 5-2 Loss vs Flames

The Vancouver Canucks entred their names in the NHL record books with a fourth straight 5-2 loss.

We are all fans of our beloved Vancouver Canucks and will stand by the team through good and bad. But how much more will we have to take?

Vancouver suffered four consecutive losses against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Minnesota Wild, Anaheim Ducks and now the Calgary Flames. That is one way to entre your name in history books, but the Canucks probably would have preferred to end this streak sooner.

Okay, finishing four straight games with the exact same score is not that bad. The Pittsburgh Penguins had four straight 3-3 ties in 1979 and four straight wins would fall into this category as well. But can you even remember the last time the Canucks won four consecutive games with different scores? That’s hard enough.

The Canucks are the first team to get this record with straight 5-2 losses. Not 2-1 losses or something close like that, no. Four consecutive terrible efforts with terrible results.

What? You say nobody wants that record? Ha! Jealousy at it’s best! It’s ours, ours, ours! Sigh…

It did not even happen against some of the best teams in the league. The Ducks are currently ninth in the standings, so that one is acceptable. But Minnesota, Calgary and Toronto? They are 19th, 25th and 30th, respectively.

By now, you might think I am here to rip the team apart. To be clear, that is not the case. The team is doing that well enough.

The Vancouver Canucks are a rebuilding team and this is a lost season, okay. Nothing wrong with that. Vancouver is the team that suffered the fourth-most quality-adjusted man-games lost — they just couldn’t do better.

However, effort is something that should always be there. It is up to the players as well as their coach — be ready for every game, be motivated for every game, simply be prepared.

When I watch the Canucks play, there is none of that there. For the most part, the team looks completely unmotivated and certainly unprepared. It took the Flames exactly one minute and 41 seconds to take the lead. Vancouver had not even attempted a shot at that point.

Still, the Canucks managed to out-shoot the Flames 14-7 in the first and actually took a 2-1 lead in the last five minutes of the period. When that happens, you need to back to the locker room, get fired up, go back out there and finish the job!

What do the Canucks do? They get out-shot 8-19 and out-scored 0-3. But that is not enough. Again, it only took the Flames 2:07 to find the back of the net. Talk about prepared.

Looking at what the team is doing right now, they can’t complain about being accused of tanking. Because what they are doing looks like exactly that.

Next: Finishing the Rebuild in 2016

While I am certainly hoping for a high draft pick this year that could bring in a player like Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi, Jakob Chychrun or Olli Juolevi, I do not want the team to lose the way they are for many more games.

Put in some effort, guys. That new record of yours won’t get you far.