It’s time to give the Vancouver Canucks some credit

With the Vancouver Canucks off to a quick start out the gate to the 2023-24 season, Daily Faceoff President and insider Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk shine some light on the Canucks and the Ottawa Senators for getting the job done early in the season while dealing with injuries and other roster issues.

Tyler Yaremchuk: There is a bit of a sigh of relief when it comes to the Vancouver Canucks and Ottawa Senators. Both teams are off to solid starts, and both those teams desperately needed to get those starts. Maybe a sense of calmness comes over that sensation in the locker room, and you say “not everything is going to work against us; we know we can win early in the year, and we’re not going to blow our feet off in the first 10 gam.es” 

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, so what I would say to that is it’s a little early still to say you’re out of the woods, but some promising returns. I think what drove me crazy through the first five days of the season is everyone was talking about ‘what’s wrong with the Oilers? What didn’t they do?’ Well, how about we start giving some credit to the Vancouver Canucks. Attention to detail, effort, compete, all of it was there. I loved the way they responded on Saturday night; I thought they were going to get run out of Rogers Place. 42 seconds in, five shots on goal, Casey DeSmith was under siege, the Oilers were up 1-0, and they responded in a big way to the opener in Vancouver. But yet, the Canucks settled in, that team works.

Frank Seravalli: I think what’s maybe what’s the best sign for both the Canucks and the Senators is they’re doing it in spite of what could be some crippling injuries. I think Carson Soucy’s injury on the Canucks backend is a big deal; you take a team that’s five defensemen deep and make them four. And what about the Sens? with Josh Norris injured and Shane Pinto unsigned, two core players of your centre group, you take those off two off any other teams, and they’re going to struggle. Not to say the Sens are out of the woods; we don’t have an update on Norris, and Pinto is still not signed as they refuse to pull the trigger. But with that said, there’s every reason to say, ‘Oh, we stumbled out the gate again and stubbed our toe,’ but they haven’t done that, and I like the pushback from both teams.

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