Vancouver Canucks: 3 takeaways from 4-1 loss to Sharks

In what has become a disturbing trend, the Vancouver Canucks generated very little on offence and couldn’t do much to prevent pucks from getting into their net. Here are three things we learned from their 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks.

The Vancouver Canucks knew 2017-18 was a rebuilding year, but the expectation was this team would score just a tad bit more. Maybe defencemen like Erik Gudbranson, Ben Hutton and Troy Stecher would mature more in their own end. Perhaps free agent pickup Michael Del Zotto would shine in a top-four role.

But there was nothing really new in last night’s 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. The Canucks couldn’t keep up with their bigger, faster, stronger and hungrier Pacific Division opponents. In short, the Canucks had no hope in leaving the Shark Tank as satisfied Orca whales in this one.

So general manager Jim Benning — who received a multi-year extension — will have quite the offseason task in repairing a team that’s just overly flawed. Perhaps more flawed than any other team in the NHL.

How does he find suitable bottom-six forwards? Another big-time goal scorer? Three more quality shutdown defencemen? We don’t know. Hopefully he’ll be able to find some solutions in the near future.

For now, here are three takeaways from last night’s loss in San Jose.

Dear coach, make some lineup changes

Head coach Travis Green deserves some patience and trust from Canucks fans. He’s their fourth coach in six years, and he should eventually get things going with the rebuilding club.

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But man, it’s long overdue for him to overhaul the lineup a bit.

Doesn’t matter if Loui Eriksson costs $6 million a game. Make him a healthy scratch and have him reflect on his play.

The effort has to be be better. He used to be a consistent 20-goal and 50-point man. No excuses to be performing like this. Give him a couple games off then put him in the bottom-six. See if he gets the spark he needs.

Why do the Canucks promise to roll with younger players when Jake Virtanen gets less ice time than Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Reid Boucher and Darren Archibald?

Come on coach. The ice time leaders up front should include Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, Jake Virtanen and Nikolay Goldobin. Let’s make some changes here and give the kids their opportunities.

Erik Gudbranson getting traded?

Erik Gudbranson has been far from the team’s best blueliner in 2017-18. Yet coach Green gave him 22:10 of ice time on Thursday. Only Alexander Edler logged more minutes on Vancouver’s blue line in this contest.

Heading into this contest, Gudbranson averaged just 17:43 time on ice per game, according to Hockey Reference. You have to think the Canucks are trying to showcase Gudbranson as they look to trade him by the Feb. 26 deadline.

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Good. Remember the talk a couple of weeks ago about how they were trying to work out a multi-year extension with him? Makes no sense, right?

The Canucks may finally be realizing that trading Gudbranson is a no-brainer. Not buying it that he just coincidentally played over 22 minutes just 10 days before the trade deadline. Benning has to be onto something here. Right?

Anders Nilsson’s on a short leash

This stat is kind of tough to type, but Anders Nilsson hasn’t won a start since Nov. 30 against the Nashville Predators. For those of you who are bad at math, that’s two and a half months, which is kind of silly.

Nilsson has played in 10 games since his last win, and he hasn’t won a single one of those decisions. On top of that, he’s allowed four-plus goals in six of those games. Simply not good enough for an NHL goalie.

The Canucks haven’t been providing very good defence in front of their goalies, that’s no kept secret. But we’re seeing Matt Murray mask an otherwise mediocre group of blueliners for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Carey Price has been single-handedly carrying the Montreal Canadiens for the bulk of the past five years.

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Nilsson has just one year left on his contract after this season. You wonder if the Canucks will look to trade him and bring in Thatcher Demko to back up Jacob Markstrom next year. That may be Benning’s only option if Nilsson doesn’t start turning things around.