Canucks: Change is needed sooner rather than later

The Vancouver Canucks gave a pitiful effort against the Colorado Avalanche and should be embarrassed. It was a 7-1 loss and it was 3-0 ten minutes into the game. The Canucks managed only one shot on target and Thatcher Demko was once again doing the heavy lifting before Jaroslav Halak took over in net for the third period.

The Avalanche also didn’t have Nathan Mackinnon in the lineup and it could have been much worse if he was.

At the time of this writing, the Canucks have a 5-7-2 record and are second-last in the Pacific Division, 11th in the Western Conference, and 25th in the entire NHL.

This is not acceptable since they want to get back into the playoffs.

There have been plenty of problems plaguing the Canucks. They have been giving up the first goal in 12 of their 14 games. The penalty kill is an absolute train wreck and it sits last in the NHL at 62.8%. The team has struggled to score goals at times and star forward Elias Pettersson has not looked like the player he is capable of being.

It has been a poor start for Vancouver.

The loss against Colorado was by far the lowest point of the season and this team is a sinking ship. After a loss like that, some kind of change is needed.

Travis Green and a possible coaching change

Head coach Travis Green has faced a ton of criticism from Canucks fans on social media and Sportsnet 650’s post-game shows.

A common question asked is “has Green lost the room?” From the way the Canucks played against the Avalanche it seems like it but we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.

With the penalty kill struggling and the goal-scoring being inconsistent, it looks like the system Green has is not working.

A coaching change is a viable option. The loss in Colorado is the type of game that gets a coach fired.

Some names available include experienced head coaches Bruce Boudreau and Claude Julien. The Canucks may decide to go with the “interim” coach route and have Brad Shaw in that role.

A coaching change isn’t going to change things right away but it could spark the team. One example is the St. Louis Blues firing Mike Yeo on November 19, 2018, when they had a 7-9-3 record and Craig Berube took over as the interim head coach. As we all know, the Blues went from being last in the league at New Year’s time to Stanley Cup Champions.

However, don’t expect that kind of situation to happen with the Canucks. Unlike Vancouver, St. Louis was a consistent playoff team throughout the 2010s and has won multiple playoff series. The only time they missed the playoffs was in 2018. (They had 94 points.) The Blues iced better lineups than what the Canucks have now and were considered cup contenders in the mid-2010s while the Canucks have made the playoffs twice (one was the bubble run.) since 2014.

The Vancouver Whitecaps were a struggling team over the summer and they fired Marc Dos Santos and hired the passionate Vanni Sartini as interim head coach. He changed the dynamic of the team and now the Whitecaps are in the playoffs. Different sports, but a new voice in the locker room could change things.

You can blame Green all you want but let’s address two other people in the organization.