Throughout all the adversity the Vancouver Canucks have endured this season --most of it unavoidable, but some of it not so much -- you keep hearing reference to them having a quality depth roster. Nowhere was this more perfectly highlighted than on Saturday night, at home to the Edmonton Oilers.
Despite facing a team which has the best record in the NHL since Nov. 27, the Canucks outplayed them on the night and deservedly won 3-2. However, don't think this means things are now guaranteed to get better in Vancouver, with them still sitting outside of a playoff spot at the time of writing.
This is still the same Canucks team which has not won consecutive games since the end of November, and has just seven total victories in the 22 games since. There remains tepid confidence in them at time point, as reflected in the latest round of NHL power rankings among some of the major sports media outlets.
Canucks ranked in the bottom third of the NHL
We begin with The Athletic (subscription required), who have the Canucks ranked worst out of the media outlets we reviewed, at number 22. For what it's worth the rankings were produced prior to the win against the Oilers, but in any event, they saw a significant drop from 15th in Sean Gentille's and Dom Luszczyszyn's rankings the previous week.
The Athletic usually comes up with an intriguing weekly theme, but this time around they have just shared some thoughts about all 32 teams. With the Canucks specifically, they commented on a shocking -13 goal difference and decidedly average record since the beginning of December, with Quinn Hughes the only one showing any consistency.
There was another indictment of the Canucks in NHL.com's latest Super 16 power rankings, in so much as they fell from 14th place last week, to out of the Super 16 altogether. Individually speaking there was some love from four of the 15 NHL.com staff voters, albeit only peripheral with Derek Van Diest and Nicholas J. Cotsonika ranking them at number 15, while Adam Kimelman and Bill Price placed them at number 16.
No movement for the Canucks
The Canucks' most favourable ranking came from Bleacher Report, who kept them at 15th spot for a second consecutive week. Now Lyle Fitzsimmons did write his latest rankings prior to the past two games, which means not including the 5-1 humiliation at home to the Los Angeles Kings, but also the impressive victory against the genuine Stanley Cup contender from Edmonton.
In any event, it sure seems as if Fitzsimmons does retain more belief that most in the Canucks. Consider that he kept them ranked 15th, despite mentioning the 6-1 demolition by the Winnipeg Jets, as well as the fact Rick Tocchet's team was a terrible 1-3-2 in their past six games (at that time).
Finally we come to Sportsnet, who are usually a bit more 'supportive' of the Canadian teams. In this respect, they did keep the Canucks in the same position as last week even though it would have been so easy to move them down, but at number 19 it still doesn't look great.
This week's theme had Ryan Dixon looking at each team's goalie situation. For the Canucks, he states the only reason Thatcher Demko's lack of playing time and average performances aren't getting more headlines, is due to all the other drama taking place in Vancouver. (He isn't wrong there.)
Dixon goes on to write that it will be interesting to see how Demko performs over the remainder of this season and next, before being eligible to become an unrestricted free agent. At some point, no matter how talented a player is, it won't mean a thing if they are constantly injured and struggling to rediscover their form, as we've noted before.