Vancouver Canucks aren’t giving Sedins a reason to return
The Vancouver Canucks lost again in ugly fashion on Monday night, 3-0 to the Los Angeles Kings. As the losses pile up, Daniel and Henrik Sedin must be wondering if it’s worth coming back next season.
There’s missing the playoffs and then there’s coming nowhere close to the playoffs for a third consecutive year. The Vancouver Canucks continue to self-implode, and they look destined to finish in the bottom-three for a third-straight year.
On Monday, the Canucks tuned in one of their worst efforts in franchise history, and fell 3-0 to the Los Angeles Kings. TSN 1040’s Mike Halford summed it up best on Twitter:
This is the 3rd time VAN has missed the playoffs for 3 (or more) straight seasons. 1st: 70-74 (expansion team), 2nd: '96-'00 (Keenan, Messier etc). Even the brutal 80s teams had postseason/meaningful games. This is, quite literally, one of the worst periods in franchise history.
— Mike Halford (@MikeHalford604) March 13, 2018
Though Canucks fans can once again look forward to a top-five pick in the NHL Draft, the players need to figure out solutions. You have to wonder if this team will be without Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who’ll be 38 in September and haven’t committed to playing beyond this year.
Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province had an interesting observation during Mondays edition of ‘The Provies’, asking if the Sedins would come back and tolerate another season of losing:
Someone messaged me tonight and asked why the Sedins would want to return for another season of this.The Canucks hit 75 points two seasons ago, 69 last year and currently thinking about them getting to 65 looks is akin to thinking about me and you accomplishing a winter summit of K2…The twins can’t carry this hunk of lead down a driveway, let alone up and down 200-feet of ice for three periods. No one should expect them to do it at this stage of their careers. I can’t help but wonder what could have happened if they just loved Vancouver a little less.How would their careers have ended if they were able to fit as secondary players on some Cup contender in their final years?…Do they really want to endure all this losing again?Because there’s not enough young talent on this team to believe next year will be any different from this one…But I do think this is as bleak as it’s ever felt for the Sedins. Given how close they are to the end, I can’t imagine it’s ever looked more hopeless than it does right now.
Botchford hit the nail on the head with this one. The Sedins just haven’t gotten enough out of their young players, excluding Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat.
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Why should the twins want to come back for another year if their aging bodies have to carry so much mileage once again? Especially if their hard work will only result in draft lottery spots, not playoff contention.
We already know the Sedins don’t want to play for any other team. It’s either the Canucks or go home. Given their abilities to put up 40-50 points each, plus their leadership in the locker room, we know the front office would bring them back in a heartbeat.
But again, the Sedins aren’t being given much of a reason to come back for another year.
Unless they absolutely love mentoring the kids (Jake Virtanen, Nikolay Goldobin, etc), so much that they can handle a gruelling 82-game losing season, then you can’t help but wonder why the twins would want to come back.
The quickest way for general manager Jim Benning to fix this team would be to sign a bunch of veterans in free agency, but a few things (lack of cap space, the fact this team’s rebuilding, and so on), suggest he won’t go that route.
Vancouver will keep injecting its young players into the lineup, until it finally all comes together. And who knows how long that could take? The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres have been stockpiling top-five picks for years, and both are in awful positions like the Canucks.
So if the Sedins are strongly considering retirement, Benning and president Trevor Linden will have a fun task in trying to sell them the idea of coming back for another year. And all they have to do is be honest: We’re going to be losing a lot next season, want to come back anyway?
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The Sedins have constantly said how much they expect the team to improve each year. If they’re starting to accept the fact that the dark days are far from over, then we shouldn’t be surprised if this winds up being their final ride in the NHL.