J.T. Miller blasts Canucks' lousy effort in embarrassing loss to Devils

The Vancouver Canucks got spanked at home in Rogers Arena during Wednesday night's 6-0 shutout loss to Nico Hischier and the New Jersey Devils. J.T. Miller knows it, and the Canucks know it: that performance was not good enough at any level.

Miller, who ended up on a highlight reel in this game for all the wrong reasons himself, was the first to say that he and his Canucks teammates were not up to the standard they hold themselves to, as well as the one the fans hold them to.

"We make it way too easy on the other team. There's not enough 'F-you' in our game," TSN's Farhan Lalji quotes Miller as saying after the loss.

Follow Farhan Lalji here.

There was some "F-you" in the Canucks' game at one point, when winger Conor Garland dropped the gloves with Devils forward Erik Haula. The 5-foot-8 Garland was handily defeated in the bout after chirping with Haula earlier in the game, but his efforts went to waste. Miller was not happy about that either.

"You'd think maybe we'd play a little better after that. That sucks. The guy gets punched in the head for you, and you'd think maybe that would light the team."

"Gars does an unbelievable job in that scrap. That was a hell of a fight," Daily Hive Vancouver's Noah Strang quotes Miller as saying. "You'd think maybe we'd play a little better after that. That sucks. The guy gets punched in the head for you, and you'd think maybe that would light the team

"We haven't played 60 minutes to our identity yet this year, so we just need to play harder. Play like you want to win the game, not hope we win the game."

Follow Noah Strang here.

J.T. Miller makes mistakes, too

As noted above, Miller is not totally absolved in this mess of a performance. Nobody is when you lose 6-0 at home.

Miller, who was on the ice for a power play (which went 0 for 4 on the night), created a back-breaking goal with an unforced error. With Quinn Hughes nearby, Miller went to leave a puck for the captain via a handoff at the blueline. Hughes apparently was not aware of that plan, and Devils captain Nico Hischier stole the puck and went racing the other way with it.

Canucks give Arshdeep Bains a big opportunity with Elias Pettersson

Miller was the only Canucks defender back on the play and did well to cut off the pass, except Hischier ricocheted a shot-pass off of Arturs Silovs, which Dawson Mercer picked up and deposited into the top left corner. That made it 2-0 Devils with a shorthanded goal, and there was no coming back from that.

That was a humbling loss for the Canucks, who have an away date with San Jose, currently on a two-game win streak, on Saturday.