Okay, this is kind of getting deeply concerning now with the Vancouver Canucks, who just seem to be free fallin', but without Tom Petty's wonderful song playing in the background. Thursday night's 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings was another demoralising low in a season of many, also coming at home where they are now an unacceptable 7-9-6 on the season.
In general, the Canucks just can't seem to string any winning streaks together, with the last one coming at the end of November. Since then, they have a total of six victories in 21 games, to take their overall record to 19-15-10 as of Friday morning.
Now that record might not sound too bad in its own right, but for some context, consider that the Canucks were 29-11-4 at the same point last season. In any event, they find themselves one point out of a playoff spot at the time of writing, and fortunate that the teams around them in the Western Conference standings are not performing that much better at the moment.
Is J.T. Miller really going to be traded?
We've referenced ad nauseam about all the adversity the Canucks have faced this season -- more than any other team in the NHL -- with the biggest issue being the reported growing rift between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. In fact it has apparently got so bad, that the team is now open to listening to trade offers for either of the alternate captains; unprecedented when you have two players of such high-level talent.
In theory Miller is the 'safer' player of the two, just by virtue of being the one who has a no-trade clause this season, and yet there is a growing belief that it is him who the Canucks would prefer to trade, if the situation truly is irreparable. This belief has been given legs by how things have gone of late for the 31-year-old.
Earlier this month, we wrote about how Miller had a much-needed bounce back game against the Montreal Canadiens. Even though it ultimately ended in a 5-4 overtime loss, his season-high four points included his first goals in 13 games and could conceivably provide a springboard for better production moving forward.
Instead, the 2024 All-Star has responded with a season-worst run of five games without any points, and encompassing a -5 rating in the process. What's really concerning though, is that this has coincided with a decrease in his playing time in recent games to further compound his struggles, and he is projected to easily have his lowest average ice time in a season since arriving in Vancouver (17:51).
Canucks coach gets straight to the point
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet is not exactly renowned for his bed-side manner, in many ways representing the old-style approach of tough love. As per Trevor Connors of Hockey Feed, this was clear when asked about why Miller's play had decreased recently, as Tocchet said:
"He’s not hurt. ... He needs to be better, he knows it."
In fairness to Tocchet though, he did then expand on what he meant, as opposed to leaving it and really giving the hockey media something to use as negative ammunition. He said:
"It’s tough. Guys like that want to play on the edge, so he’s trying to temper it; he doesn’t want to take dumb penalties, things like that. He’s at his best when he’s driving play."
As you'd expect, Miller was also asked why he hasn't been playing as much recently. Also as per Connors, he said:
"I don’t know. Probably could play a little better, I don’t know."
It has to be tough for Miller right now, given all the speculation surrounding him. You have to imagine the pressure is getting him down, which would explain why he took his leave of absence for personal reasons, although you do wonder how much good this has actually done him?
In many respects it's stunning to see how far Miller has fallen this season, following on from a campaign where he led the Canucks with a career-high 103 points. While there is no doubting he is still a supremely talented player, it doesn't matter if he's not producing.
It truly is tough to know how Miller and the Canucks are going to get out of the funk they are in, but the solution needs to come soon. Otherwise, you will conceivably have a team which misses the playoffs, and a player who ends up leaving Vancouver for pastures new.