Though it wasn’t a surprise to see the Vancouver Canucks fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the game showed just how many holes are on this team — and how far away they are from contending.
What happened to the Vancouver Canucks? Doesn’t seem that long ago where they took down talented teams like the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings over a four-game span.
Vancouver played the NHL-best Tampa Bay Lightning tough at Rogers Arena six days ago — falling 4-2 in what was a hard-fought contest. But the Canucks gave Steven Stamkos and co. one of their easiest wins of the season on Thursday.
The Lightning were yet again far too much for the Canucks, taking this game 5-2. The defence was as awful as it’s ever been since. Even worse, the offence once again relied on the ‘Killer B’s’ line to do the scoring. On this night, it was Brock Boeser and Sven Baertschi who found the back of the net.
So the Canucks continue to plummet in the standings, and it’s hardly surprising at this point. Jacob Markstrom can only do so much with little support in front of him. Anders Nilsson‘s last victory was on Nov. 30. That’s nearly two-and-a-half months, for those bad at math.
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Don’t get yourself excited if the Canucks win the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes and start him in the NHL next year. Don’t think there will be a fast turnaround if Elias Pettersson is centering the first line in 2018-19. There are way too many flaws on this team. You don’t have enough fingers to count them.
There was one thing this team had at the start of the year — depth. The Sedin twins and the ‘Killer B’s’ have been fine. Ditto for Thomas Vanek.
But Jake Virtanen hasn’t taken the next step we expected. Sam Gagner and Loui Eriksson are carrying two of the NHL’s worst contracts at this time.
The Canucks blueliners have contributed 11 goals on the season. Alexander Edler leads the group with 20 points on the season. And while the Canucks defencemen are busy not scoring, they’re occupied in allowing 32 shots per game, according to NHL.com.
The good news is that there’s a chance Finnish standout Olli Juolevi could make the team next year. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be ready for the NHL. He and Chris Tanev will not mask all the other blueliners’ flaws.
General manager Jim Benning may get the chance to fix this again in the offseason, maybe not. The team hasn’t given him an extension in his contract year. Whoever is GM this summer, the task is simple.
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They just need to find three or more speedy forwards, three quality stay-at-home blueliners, a big-time scorer and a legitimate No. 1 goalie. Find all of those, and this team should be back in the playoffs before long.