Canucks: 3 takeaways from last night’s 7-3 blowout loss to the Canadiens

If the Vancouver Canucks showed signs of life on Wednesday, it was snuffed out last night in an embarrassing 7-3 blowout loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

In a season that has already seen multiple disheartening defeats, last night might’ve been rock bottom for the team. After trading goals with Montreal during the opening minutes of the game, the Canucks seemed to lose their spirit for the remainder of the match, especially during a second period that saw them let in four unanswered goals.

Here are three takeaways from Vancouver’s 7-3 loss to the Canadiens.

Where’s the defence?

Six games into the season and the least amount of goals that the Canucks have allowed in a game is three.

I don’t think I’m going on a limb by saying that this strategy doesn’t do a great job of maximizing the team’s chances of winning.

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We all knew that the departures of Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher in the offseason will negatively impact Vancouver’s defence, but I don’t think anyone expected them to be hit this hard. If you dive deeper into the team’s personnel, however, it might make more sense.

Currently, the Canucks only have two blueliners who play a more defensively oriented game: Alex Edler and Travis Hamonic. The former is now a 34-year-old who’s well past his prime while the latter has seen his game deteriorate rapidly in recent years and also went 10 months without game action before the start of the season.

Yes, the blueline is better than it was last year in a vacuum, but that’s mostly due to its improved offensive prowess and puck-moving skills rather than defensive abilities.

Moreover, forwards such as Adam Gaudette and Jake Virtanen haven’t shown any improvements in this regard either. They’re still playing sheltered minutes and haven’t earned the trust of the coaching staff defensively, which puts even more pressure on the Canucks’ top six to produce offensively while also being reliable in their own zone.

There’s no doubt that this is the most concerning problem with the team right now.

Goaltending is still not the issue

After allowing seven goals, you’d think that the goaltending has been poor, right?

Wrong.

Like every game, the scoresheet might look ugly, but Vancouver’s goalies have not been the problem with the team.

Every single goal against was scored off of odd-man rushes for Montreal or high danger shots from close range. There were probably half a dozen breakaways for the Canadiens last night alone; it’s almost as if the Canucks thought that they were participating in a shootout rather than an actual game.

Oftentimes, the defenders in front of Thatcher Demko actually got in his way and made life even more difficult for him. Much of this was caused by the relative youth on the blueline, as Brogan Rafferty, Jalen Chatfield, and Olli Juolevi were all thrust into larger roles in the absence of Edler and Hamonic.

I sure hope those two won’t be out for long, or this could get even uglier in the games to come.

The penalty kill was better… sort of

Before yesterday, the Canucks were only 14/22 on the penalty kill, which placed them in the bottom five of the league.

Fortunately, they had more success while shorthanded in last night’s game, although that isn’t a very high bar to reach. Vancouver successfully killed off 5/6 of their penalties, with the lone goal coming during garbage time when the game had already been decided.

Outside of that final shift, the penalty kill units seemed to be more in control and weren’t scrambling as much as they were in previous games. The ironic part is that the Canucks actually allowed more goals when they were on the power play rather than shorthanded, but that’s an issue for another day.

It’s a small sample size, but at this point, we’ll take any positives that we can find.

Other notes

• Elias Pettersson struggled once again, and he was responsible for one giveaway that led directly to another Tyler Toffoli goal. There’s no doubt that he’s lacking some confidence right now, but it only takes one bounce for him to turn things around, so I’m still not too worried about the 22-year-old.
• Rafferty made his season debut last night, and his defensive limitations were put on display. Of course, the team as a whole is struggling in their own zone at the moment, but Rafferty in particular had a few miscues that led to goals and other scoring chances for Montreal. Again, it’s only one game, but it’ll be interesting to see how he responds if he’s back in the lineup on Saturday.
• The power play shouldn’t be a concern anymore, at least not offensively. On the other hand, it’s very relevant to wonder what the team can do to prevent shorthanded goals. Vancouver has already conceded three such goals in just six games, and they had the largest positive goal differential with the man advantage last year.

The Canucks are back in action tomorrow against, you guessed it, the Canadiens again. It’ll be the third meeting in four nights for the two teams, and let’s hope that Vancouver will bounce back this time.