Daily Faceoff Live: Can the Canucks overcome their struggles?

On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna discussed the Vancouver Canucks’ horrendous start to their season and what is the most concerning part of the team’s struggles. 

Frank Seravalli: The Vancouver Canucks, we’re still talking about them at this point, especially after their disastrous home opener loss. You think about Saturday night and all the different things we can unpack from that 5-1 defeat. There’s a lot going on here in terms of the comments from their President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford who casually threw out the “R-word” as in rebuild, in an after-hours interview.

Then, there as also the comments from Bruce Boudreau who effectively called out his team’s effort, and we will follow that up with the comments from Bo Horvat where he basically said “I’m not entirely sure we’re going to have a chance to win here, it just feels like it’s never going to happen like we’re never going to win again.” Mike out of all three of those comments, each alarming in its own right, which one caught your attention the most? 

Mike McKenna: Well that’s Horvat’s. That’s the captain up there saying “we’re never going to win again” and listen, we’re at a point in time Frank where I think we may overshare a little bit and this is one of those scenarios where I think that team needs their captain to project some strength and to say we can do this if we just put our mind to whatever we need to fix. Not to dwell on any negative but yeah, I know that feeling, you get to the third period, and especially for the Canucks, you’ve been outscored 13-1 in the third period, it seems daunting. Like look at the makeup of that team Frank, you got four entry-level contracts, they’re very thin on defense, especially when Quinn Hughes doesn’t play as he did against Buffalo.

I think what’s frustrating is that the Canucks have been pretty serviceable at 5-on-5, especially for the first two periods of games. But man, they’re just getting crushed on the penalty kill and crushed in the third period and if you’re getting beat in the third period that’s just a sense of winning, that’s a feeling. If you’re getting crushed on the penalty kill, you’re not working hard enough and those are two bad things to have creep into your game which is what I think fed into Boudreau’s comments and then subsequently what we’ve even heard from Rutherford. 

Frank Seravalli: They also unfortunately for the Canucks at this point haven’t really got the goaltending either. Thatcher Demko was so unbelievable last season and has struggled a bit, he’s also you know, expected save percentage is in the .700s still. Hard to expect a lot more from him at this point but when you look at the comments going back to Bo Horvat, how much of that is real? How much of that do you really think he’s feeling or is that frustration from being in the moment? When I hear them I think of a guy that’s like, “Well I’m not in a contract for next season, maybe I just want out.” Do you get any of that sense? 

Mike McKenna: I think yeah there’s a bit of a long play in that, Frank. It’s like, how long are we going to do this for? It kind of echoes what’s going on in Winnipeg. Think back to Scheifele’s comments at the end of the year. There is some self-doubt creeping in. But the funny part though is he scored four goals, Frank, like Horvat has played decently well for this club but those third periods need to be better. Like look at the value, but I can’t imagine he’s happy with this situation whatsoever. 

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I don’t know why he would be. 0-4-2 start and it feels like the wheels are falling off, the proverbial 18-wheeler off a cliff in Vancouver with their start to the season. 

You can watch the full episode here…