It's fair to state that this season hasn't exactly gone to plan so far for the Vancouver Canucks. Yes it's still extremely early and we do expect them to be a serious contender come playoff time, but that doesn't exactly help or appease the fans as of right now.
After blowing two third period leads to open the 2024-25 campaign and having to settle for a couple of 'loser' points, it got worse on Tuesday evening as the Canucks lost 4-1 in regulation time to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here are our three takeaways from a dissappointing result in the first road game of this season:
1) A slow start
The Canucks' home opener versus the Calgary Flames had been marked by a blistering first period and frenetic pace. They outshot the visitors 15-5 and built a (seemingly) unsurmountable 4-1 lead after 20 minutes.
Well, Tuesday evening's first road game of the campaign saw the Canucks come out in effectively the opposite manner. They were outshot 13-7 by the hosts and were extremely fortunate to only be trailing 1-0 at the conclusion of the opening period. (More on this in a little bit.)
Pure and simple, the Canucks played poorly in the first 20 minutes and had no sense of urgency. This is totally unacceptable, for a team which entered the evening with two losses to begin the 2024-25 campaign.
In fairness though, the Canucks didn't try to hide from their lethargic start to the game against the Lightning. As per the team's X account on social media, head coach Rick Tocchet said: "We weren't ready to play the first period. I know it was only one-nothing, but I didn't think we won a battle."
Connor Garland, who scored the Canucks' only goal of the game, agreed with his head coach. As per Corey Long of NHL.com, he said: "Our start ... we just didn't come out on time. It's unacceptable on the first game in the road trip. We put ourselves behind the eight ball."