Vancouver Canucks will be luckier, better next season

The Vancouver Canucks are just an injured team with bad timing and luck. With only a few games remaining, this team will limp into the summer. But fresh faces means a better team in 2018-1.

The Vancouver Canucks have seen a lot of bad moments this season, whether that be Brock Boeser being launched into an open gate on the bench, Bo Horvat breaking his Talus bone on the boards or Chris Tanev injuring pretty much everything in the song “head and shoulder, knees and toes”.

It’s been a turbulent season, with high peaks and low valleys this team has kept it’s twitter active almost as much as the 2011 message boards. The Canucks could have iced a healthy squad that would have had a chance to compete for a playoff spot with half decent goaltending.

I miss you and your secure goaltending Ryan Miller. I mean, Anders Nilsson has a .900 save percentage and actually I’m not going to get started on this right now.

Let’s talk injuries.

Health is key

If I would have told you at the start of season that Derrick Pouliot would be sixth in games played for the Canucks you would have called me crazy. If I would have told you he would score three goals in 67 games and be a -23 would you still call me crazy?

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Jake Virtanen has been healthy all season aside from an illness that kept him out for a game at the beginning of January and besides being benched seven games this season he has looked like he can play a full season at the NHL level.

Virtanen has Canucks fans hoping that he can take another step next year and add some consistency to his game, show us these flashes of speed and strength at a regular basis.

The Sedins have only missed one game this year, Daniel being the culprit for that one. Henrik and Michael Zel Dotto are the only players who have played in every game this season for the Canucks.

A big shout out needs to be given to these guys as we can look throughout the rest of the lineup to understand how hard playing every game in an NHL season truly is.

Injuries, oh that’s cold

Derek Dorsett, the Bill Masterton award nominee for the Canucks, had to call it a career after the best 20 game stretch of his 10-year career. It was amazing to see Dorsett return from neck surgery in the offseason.

It truly was inspiring to me that this guy worked so hard for a return and through all of it was playing some of the best hockey of his life. Dorsett truly deserves his Bill Masterson nomination and I hope the NHL gives his story the appreciation that it deserves.

Chris Tanev, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi and Troy Stecher not only am I naming off arguably the top five Canucks players, but I’m also naming off the players that each missed more than 15 games for this Canucks team.

Losing Baertschi and Horvat at the beginning of January was devastating for this team as “The B-53s line” was just starting to take off and look similar to a real NHL first line. The rookie Boeser was left all alone without the teammates he was developing massive amounts of chemistry with. Prior to the injuries to Horvat and Baertschi, Boeser was on a scoring tear that saw him pot 18 goals in only 20 games.

Remember those days? They were so much fun…

Upper body, thumb, mouth,lower leg and knee is what Tanev dealt with this season, is he injury prone or just terribly unlucky?

Currently the Canucks are fourth in the NHL in games lost, only trailing the Golden Knights, Sabres and Canadiens. Vancouver has bee most injured franchise since 2008-2009 according to ManGamesLost.

The Canucks have 316 man games lost, compare that to the Toronto Maple Leafs who have only lost 97 man games, that is ignoring Joffrey Lupul‘s situation. Toronto is in the top three for least amount of games lost.

So can we blame it on something or is it just pure bad luck. The team completely changed their medical staff a few years ago but I don’t think we can put the blame there as these doctors are professionals and I’m sure at the top of their fields in sports injury management.

Then there’s the travel that the Canucks have to do right? They probably travel the most and have a lot of back to backs that cause these injuries!

Wrong.

The Canucks will travel approximately 44,265 miles by the end of the season, that is actually seventh in the NHL. The Colorado Avalanche are first with over 48,500 miles travelled due to the Sweden games I’m guessing and they are followed by the Calgary Flames with just under 48,000.

This could mean longer trip from home and I can see how that could wear on a player but don’t see how that would generate such an outrageous number of injuries.

The Vancouver Canucks will also only have played 10 back to back games this year, that is the second lowest amount in the NHL with he only team playing less back to back games being the Winnipeg Jets who play nine. The Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins will have played 19 back to back games this season, that’s 38 games in total each.

It’s just bad luck folks, but did I have to tell you that?

I guess you could say it’s just The Canuck Way…

Freeze me until 2020

Now im almost ceratain that “Freeze me until 2020” would have been a great name for a movie in the 80’s, but there will be a better story that plays out next season in Vancouver.

The Canucks will have some key additions to their team not only on the opening day roster but at the AHL level too. So when the injuries come, the Canucks will be more prepared to have players step up into bigger roles with the team.

There’s the young group of guys coming into play next season that Canucks fans are clamoring for Elias Pettersson, Olli Juolevi, Adam Gaudette and Kole Lind to name a few. Canucks fans need to know that these guys may take some time in the AHL to develop but if they are the best players available to the Canucks after training camp then they should be on the NHL roster to start the season.

Next: Tanking is important to me, but it does not have to be for you

All in all, the team will be more entertaining next year, whether that be with or without the Sedins, with or without Demko and with or without Rasmus Dahlin. We’re winning that lottery. BELIEVE!

There will be some players that will take a jump to the next level and there will be players that jump to the NHL level for the first time, it’s time for Horvat to take over the captaincy and take this rebuild into the stages of building. Now that we have some of the core building blocks to do so and for once let’s have some good luck. Don’t forget to pray to your Hockey Gods every night!