Canucks Takeaways: Overdue for a change, Vancouver takes another two steps back 

As another year dawns, “out with the old, in with the new” sounds pretty good to a lot of Vancouver Canucks fans.

The National Hockey League team, having already manufactured one of the most disappointing starts in franchise history, was unable to overcome another putrid second period Saturday and lost 3-2 to the Calgary Flames to stagger into 2023 a game below .500 and six points out of a playoff spot that was supposed to be the Canucks’ minimum target this season.

The same core of players that has failed the last two seasons to make the playoffs was unable at the end of 2022 to sustain any kind of momentum, drive the team’s own standards for consistent effort and execution or build a positive identity.

Instead, the two steps back the Canucks took this week in road games against Calgary and the Winnipeg Jets were representative of the team’s inability to survive its own mistakes and fully recover from the disastrous 0-5-2 start in October.

They were close against the Flames the same way they were close against the Jets in Thursday’s 4-2 loss: only on the scoreboard.

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After playing their way into a 3-0 deficit on Saturday with another dreadful second period, when the Canucks should have been trying to take advantage _­­­of their good fortune and goalie Spencer Martin’s outstanding work to keep the game scoreless through the first, Vancouver got a lucky, bunted goal from Sheldon Dries at 15:28 when the puck bounced up and over Calgary goalie Jacob Markstrom.

And Elias Pettersson punished Flames’ defenceman Noah Hanifin’s unforced error with a rebound goal to make it 3-2 at 4:06 of the third period. But that was one of only seven shots the Canucks managed in the final frame. Martin, meanwhile, faced a couple of Blake Coleman breakaways and kept his team alive with another brilliant backdoor save against the Flame.

The Canucks surrendered a pair of two-on-one goals, including the seventh shorthanded marker against Vancouver this season, on turnovers by J.T. Miller. On the first goal by Elias Lindholm at 1:21 of the second, Miller ambled on the backcheck. And on the second by Blake Coleman at 9:32, he went for a line change.

Canuck general manager Patrik Allvin has been making trade calls on a bunch of players but Miller, with a seven-year, $56-million-US extension locked in starting next season, is not one of them.

Substantial change on the Canucks has been inevitable since the first two weeks of the season. Thirty-six games in, it feels overdue.

NO TALK BUT NO WALK

Honestly, it doesn’t matter that Miller waved and yelled at his goalie to go to the bench for an extra attacker at the end of the Winnipeg game. The NHL isn’t kindergarten and Miller’s teammates aren’t going to be emotionally scarred. Undeniably, it was a bad look.

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But Miller followed that with a bad game — and that certainly matters. His temper was on display in Winnipeg. But the negative body language and bad habits Miller showed again in Calgary are far more concerning, especially coming after the embarrassing exchange two nights earlier and the context of Miller’s leadership position with the Canucks.

On Friday, he told Sportsnet’s Ryan Leslie of the blowback: “Unless it’s inside our locker room, I don’t think anybody’s opinion really matters, to be honest with you. It’s not the coach’s fault. I don’t even know why this is even being talked about. Maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did. But it’s not out of anger; I was letting him know to go to the bench (because) I had full control of the puck. That’s all it was. At the end of the day, it probably looks optically not good. People with other opinions, I don’t really give a. . . care.”

Miller also didn’t care what people were saying last season when many thought he would be traded rather than re-signed. His focus was so keen, his performances so consistent, he led the Canucks with 99 points. He was driven.

On Saturday, he did not appear driven. There was the bad backcheck and the bad change, but the Canucks were also outshot 5-2 and outchanced 6-3 at five-on-five with Miller, whose expected-goals percentage was just 27.2. That wasn’t the response anyone was looking for after Thursday.

LOSE ON SPECIAL TEAMS

For all the disparity in even-strength shots and scoring chances the last two games, the Canucks would have salvaged points from both if they’d only been average on special teams. But after surrendering two powerplay goals to the Jets and scoring none, it was Coleman’s shorthanded goal that made it 2-0 on Saturday that turned out to be the difference.

The Canuck power play, which started the night ranked eighth in the NHL, was minus-one on four advantages and generated just three shots on net, the same number the Flames had while playing shorthanded. 

Coach Bruce Boudreau was frustrated enough with Miller, Pettersson, Bo Horvat, Andrei Kuzmenko and Quinn Hughes that he started the fourth power play with the Canucks’ second unit even though his first-unit players were rested.

GOALIE GRIEVANCES

If Martin and Delia were to complain — but they never will — it should be that the players in front of them wasted a pair of outstanding performances on the two-game road trip. Martin made several difficult saves when the Canucks were being outshot 12-4 at the start, and a couple of five-alarm stops in the third to give his team a chance it didn’t seize. Delia stopped 36 of 39 shots in Winnipeg.

It seemed a goaltending crisis was looming when struggling starter Thatcher Demko was injured a month ago and Delia recalled from the American League to backup Martin, another pro hockey journeyman who has spent most of his career in the minors. Instead, Martin and Delia are the least of the Canucks’ problems.

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