For all intents and purposes, the Vancouver Canucks have been one of the biggest underachievers in the NHL so far in the 2024-25 season - at least among the teams that are struggling but not outright terrible, like the New York Rangers.
Indeed, the Canucks are not a faultless team. They have many roster holes, especially on defense on the right side and among the depth forwards.
The person whose job it is to plug those holes, more or less, is Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin. Allvin, while acknowledging he wants more out of stars like Elias Pettersson, has run out of answers for the Canucks' deficiencies in general.
"I think there is a lot of frustration where we have seen in games that we play really well, but you've also seen in the same games, giving it away," Allvin told Sportsnet in a recent Q&A. "So, why is it? Why is it that we can't find a stretch of consistency? You're losing points here, which we all know is going to be hard to make up in the second half."
Allvin continued by explaining that the Canucks' stars, including Pettersson, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, and others, have not played their best hockey, which has probably cost the team some.
"If those guys would have performed to their capability, we probably would have won a couple of more games, so it's hard," Allvin added. "Do I expect more from them? Absolutely. I think we've been very fortunate up to this point that some of the other players have actually chipped in and helped us out a lot."
The most maddening of all, in Allvin's eyes, was the Canucks' historic loss to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. After leading 4-1 with under five minutes to go, Vancouver self-immolated, ultimately losing 5-4 in overtime and placing themselves, as well as the Kraken, in the NHL history books.
"Yes, 100% the hardest . We're up 4-1 with five minutes to play. Like, why is it? Is it the pressure that hits the players?" Allvin questioned again. "That's something that always talks about - meeting pressure with pressure. And I think in those environments, you should thrive, like, ‘Let's lock down the game here.'"
Having to question the mentality of your players is not a spot Allvin and the Canucks want to be in at the end of December, but after the way the Canucks have lost some of these recent games, what else is Allvin to think?