Vancouver Canucks: Why the November collapse happened

Well, that was downright terrible. The Vancouver Canucks are falling out of the playoff picture quickly after losing 10 of their final 11 games this month. So what went wrong after a promising 10-6-1 start to the season?

All the hard work of building up a 10-6-1 start to the season went to waste, as the Vancouver Canucks lost 10 of their final 11 games in November.

Had I seen this coming earlier, I would have told you to “Wake me up when November ends.” But this isn’t a time for sad songs anymore, but rather a time to reflect on these past three dismal weeks for the Canucks.

When Vancouver traveled to Beantown and crushed the Boston Bruins 8-5 on Nov. 8, they were playing with so much confidence and poise. Nobody could have predicted that an eight-game losing streak would follow.

So after sitting atop the Pacific Division, the Canucks are now 11-14-3 . They’re four points behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card spot and four behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the third seed in the Pacific Division. Vegas and Dallas have one and two games in hand on Vancouver, respectively.

It’s time to take a look at what went wrong for the Canucks, and if the damage can be reversed.

Defensive miscues/third period meltdowns

The Canucks now rank fifth-worst in goals allowed per game with 3.50, per NHL.com. They sit a respectable 15th in shots allowed per contest with 31.7, but the blueliners have left Jacob Markstrom hung out to dry far too many times — especially in big moments.

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Remember when the Canucks led the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 with two and a half minutes left on Nov. 10?

The Canucks gave up two late goals because of careless play in their own zone. Buffalo won in a shootout, and Vancouver didn’t recover from that one.

Two days later, the Canucks visited the New York Rangers. Brett Howden scored the lone goal in the final frame, and Vancouver couldn’t recover. Another game decided in the third period, and the Canucks were on the wrong side of it.

On Nov. 17, the Canucks hosted the Montreal Canadiens and led 2-1 mid-way through the third. Predictably so, they gave up the tying goal then let Jonathan Drouin score the game winner with just under three minutes left. And with that, Vancouver went home without a point.

The there was Thursday’s game vs. Vegas. The Canucks scored twice in the third to erase a 3-1 deficit, only to let William Karlsson score the game-winning short-handed goal late in the third. That was caused via a defensive miscue by Ben Hutton.

Lack of secondary scoring

While Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson carried the bulk of the scoring, the Canucks were getting good production from the likes of Nikolay Goldobin, Jake Virtanen and Markus Granlund. Heck, even Loui Eriksson was chiming in with some timely offence.

But all of the sudden, the Canucks haven’t been getting much scoring from players not named Elias or Bo. Though ‘Goldy’ is contributing a handful of assists, he only has four goals on the season — and just three dating back to the second game of the season.

Granlund has two goals in his last 13 games. After a strong start to the season, Virtanen has gone goalless in his last eight outings.

And since general manager Jim Benning refused to shake up an unproductive defensive unit from last year, nobody should be surprised that Hutton leads all Vancouver blueliners in scoring with 10 points. Yes, that’s enough to lead all Canuck defencemen in scoring.

Can they turn it around?

The Canucks might just not be talented enough to make the playoffs, even if Pettersson and Horvat give them a great 1-2 punch at forward. The defence just isn’t good enough, the bottom-six has been largely unproductive, and Markstrom isn’t exactly Patrick Roy or Dominik Hasek. He’s not going to steal you 30 wins per season.

If there is any hope of turning it around, Benning better start making changes to that blue line, which I’ve just accepted won’t happen. Asking the rest of the forwards to simply score more goals is easier said than done.

What you see is what you get with these Canucks. The playoffs seem like a pipe dream now, and despite all the young talent in place, it’s hard to see how they’ll turn it around after a very forgettable month of November.

Especially when you consider that their Pacific Division foes are all starting to pick it up agian.