It’s no secret that the Canucks roster is not at his best right now. Although they’ve gone through the majority of the season with their core players unscathed, the injury bug has hit during the playoff grind and the healthy core remaining needs to be better.
It’s one thing to be missing Brock Boeser, one of the team’s best snipers, but with their MVP goalie off the roster for the time being, and a rookie goalie expected to man the crease, the core needs to take more responsibility, shoulder a bigger role and ultimately play better defensively in front of Demko.
You can’t really blame them here. Demko had some bad looks but still managed to keep the goals against below four. He may be to blame for playing catchup, but he gave his team a chance to get back in the game. You can’t expect too much more from a rookie goalie, and that’s why the core needs to become the answer and find ways to win hockey games.
If Jim Benning wants to keep his job past 2020, he better make sure Green does what it takes to make the playoffs. It’s up to guys like Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat to rise to the occasion. They didn’t convert on Saturday and it cost them a big two points.