Vancouver Canucks: Turkey day check in on the season
American Thanksgiving is used as a tipping point for NHL predictions. The Vancouver Canucks are on the outside looking in thanks to their tailspin of a losing streak.
It’s Turkey Day south of the border. To our American readers, Happy Thanksgiving! Before everyone does their shopping or watch people fight over TV’s on YouTube, let’s check in with the Vancouver Canucks.
NHL experts like to use the American holiday since it is roughly the one-quarter point of the season. It goes like this. If you are in a playoff spot now, you will likely be in the postseason in April. Now, this isn’t perfect. Teams can go on some unbelievable runs late in the season and current bubble teams have crumbled, blowing their chances at the postseason.
After last night’s loss, the Canucks are no longer in a playoff spot. They are on the outside looking in and on the surface it doesn’t seem too bad since they are only a point back behind the Ducks. Here’s the problem. If we are going with the predictive ability of this trend, it is less likely that the Canucks will stick.
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To make matters worse, the team has lost seven straight games and eight of their last nine. Last season, the team had one seven-game losing streak from March 3-20. Looks like they hopped on the train early.
The Pacific Division is a steaming pile of garbage this year. Only two teams have a positive goal differential and the Canucks are near the bottom of the division at -15. It’s funny since Anaheim is at -16. They really do belong with the Kings (-24) in the league’s basement.
Speaking of the Kings, Willie Desjardins did what he did best, losing 7-3 to the Avalanche last night. The Kings are dead last in the league and are seven points behind the Canucks. Thanks to the monsters who made the schedule, the Canucks have played more games than any other team in the league (24). Los Angeles has three games in hand, so last place is not as far our of reach as you think.
Now, you may be saying that the Canucks are only five points out of first in the division. And that is correct, except Calgary and San Jose both have two games in hand on the Canucks. This losing streak has been devastating for any momentum built up earlier. The same people proclaiming playoffs in October have gone quiet in the last two weeks and I can’t blame them.
There are definitely positives outside of Elias Pettersson. Bo Horvat has been a workhorse this season. He has 21 points and having to spend the last couple of weeks with fourth line wingers. At this point, it doesn’t seem to matter who plays with him. I have to say I’m very impressed. At even strength, he is nothing short of dominant and having Pettersson on the power play has helped a lot. Penalty killing is the worst part of his game, but it feels like nobody can kill penalties anymore.
Nikolay Goldobin is on pace for 51 points and his detractors are looking more foolish with each game. Don’t worry. They will return with pitchforks and knives for one defensive mistake, ignoring players like Derrick Pouliot, who is serving up more pizzas than Luca Sbisa.
Jake Virtanen is working incredibly hard to break out of this bottom six projection. He hasn’t dropped off yet and could be a solid middle six option going forward. Virtanen still circles the net instead of driving the lane, but you can’t be too upset with his current play.
But the penalty killing, defence and goaltending are getting tough to watch. I’ll give Jacob Markstrom a break because the best goalies in this league would not hold up with this Canucks defence in front of them. I give a lot of crap to Erik Gudbranson, but at least he is an NHL player.
Pouliot is minor leaguer masquerading as an NHL player and Michael Del Zotto is an over the hill veteran who can’t cut it in this league anymore. It feels like the team is only dressing four defencemen out there. Scratch that, empty space wouldn’t turn over the puck as often.
With that in mind, maybe the Canucks have a chance. Whether or not the losing streak continues, I have my doubts. A few of their divisional opponents have had bad luck that could swing the other way over the next few months.
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The Canucks don’t have that luxury. But hey, if the games are still fun, losing at the end of the day should pay off in the long run. I would like this to be the final year of tanking, but we will see. The NHL can be unpredictable, but American Thanksgiving has been fairly consistent.