It's no contest when it comes to which team has faced the most adversity so far in 2024-25. With apologies to the Buffalo Sabres and their current 11-game losing streak (which is more about the level of incompetence within the organisation), it has to be the Vancouver Canucks.
Which other NHL team has had to deal with a combination of challenges including a cancer diagnosis, a family bereavement, a one-of-a-kind hockey injury and a player taking a leave of absence for personal reasons? Never mind just in 2024-25 specifically, the accumulation of these situations would be seen as a high level of adversity in any season.
That the Canucks find themselves in a playoff spot at the time of writing is, quite frankly, extremely impressive. Particularly with the above alluding to the absence of Thatcher Demko and J.T. Miller, as well as injuries to other quality players including Filip Hronek and Brock Boeser.
Dissent in the locker room?
Unfortunately for Canucks fans, it seems as if more adversity is afoot, and it's the type which can potentially tear apart a locker room. There's speculation that part of the reason for Miller's absence, was due to not getting on with others in the locker room, including Rick Tocchet and Elias Pettersson.
We're not entirely convinced that Miller has had issues with Tocchet, but the rumours about a disconnect between the alternate captain and Pettersson have been doing the rounds for a while now. However, this possible locker room issue isn't limited to those two.
This has been brought up by The Athletic's Sean McIndoe, who regularly produces a top five crisis rankings for NHL teams. In fact he's extended it to seven teams this time around, as he can't remember a season where so many teams felt like full-fledged disasters.
As a result, the Canucks have found a place on McIndoe's latest crisis rankings, at number six. He does stress they're well-placed in the standings and not in bad shape in the grand scheme of things, and yet he's still concerned about Vancouver's NHL team.
An unhappy Tocchet
In particular, McIndoe referenced recent comments by Tocchet, following Saturday nght's 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, which was arguably the Canucks' worst and most demoralising performance of the season to date. As per Jason Brough of Sportsnet 650, Tocchet said:
"Let's face facts, we have four or five guys who are struggling to get emotionally invested in the game, and that's my job to get certain guys, we've got to find another gear for them. They've got to understand it's the NHL and you can't play one good game or two bad (games) or whatever. This is a sport where you've got to be jacked up to play the game. Sometimes (some of the guys) take 30 minutes to get into the game for whatever reason."
Now we should point out that since those comments -- and indeed McIndoe's crisis rankings -- the Canucks have bounced back with an impressive 3-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday night. However, as much as a win can often cure all ills, it will probably take more than that one performance to bring harmony back to the locker room.
In truth, we were somewhat surprised by the talk of locker room discourse in the first place, just because of how much else the Canucks have already overcome, combined with a winning percentage which is over .600 percent. Heck, let's also not forget that they've been particularly impressive on their travels, where they have they best road record in the league ahead of Wednesday's slate of action.
Overall though, we appreciate that the Canucks have had a lot on their plate already in 2024-25, and perhaps this is why frustrations have boiled over in the locker room. In any event, we predict they won't spend too much time in The Athletic's regular crisis rankings.