Canucks: No need to worry yet despite recent struggles

November hasn’t been kind to the Vancouver Canucks, who’ve lost four in a row. But it’s still too early for fans to worry. The team will be just fine.

The Vancouver Canucks were due for a couple of losses following an eight-game point streak, but few could have expected them to go through four straight losses.

After dropping a close game to the St. Louis Blues last week, the Canucks dropped consecutive road games to the Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks — both of which were extremely lackluster efforts.

Vancouver then fell flat to the New Jersey Devils on Sunday, dropping a 2-1 decision on home ice to one of the NHL’s worst teams. The Devils now own an 11-game winning streak over the Canucks.

Don’t ask why or how, I don’t know either.

It’s easy for fans to grow concerned about the four-game losing streak, especially since November has been brutal to this team in the past. Don’t forget that the Canucks dropped eight in a row during November last year, and Vancouver endured a stretch in which they dropped 12 of 13 games.

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Two years ago, Vancouver went through a stretch in November where they lost seven out of 10 games. And before we knew it, they were out of the playoff race, and the team would never recover.

So it’s easy to understand why folks are worried about the Canucks enduring another slump in November, one that could derail their early-season momentum.

This Vancouver team is simply much better and deeper than the 2017-18 and 2018-19 clubs that unraveled in November.

Last year, the Canucks didn’t have J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson, Micheal Ferland, Quinn Hughes or Tyler Myers.

A year ago, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser weren’t in the midst of true superstar-like seasons. The former is putting up over a point per game, while Boeser has 18 points in 18 games. The two young stars are already better this year compared to 2018-19.

Last year, the Canucks weren’t better constructed and organized from top to bottom. This year, they have a top-tier goaltending duo, plenty of scoring depth, an elite special teams unit plus a vastly improved blue line.

And in case you didn’t notice, the Pacific Division is weaker than ever before, and that obviously bodes nicely for Vancouver. They can afford a mild slump this early in the season, because nobody is running away with the division this early. In fact, the Canucks are probably the most complete and well-rounded team in the Pacific right now.

So one more time, I caution Vancouver fans to not worry too much about this early November slump. This team is simply too good and too talented to endure another long losing streak that will crush their playoff hopes.

Slumps happen. Every team goes through a rough patch. But this four-game losing skid is nothing to worry about in Vancouver. They’ll turn it around shortly and push hard for a playoff spot throughout the course of the year.