VANCOUVER — With the elite players they are missing due to injuries, the Vancouver Canucks won’t win many games unless the elite players who are healthy perform and drive the team.
On Friday, J.T. Miller had four shots on net but saw his goal-less streak reach 12 games. His linemates, Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk, combined for one shot. No wonder the Canucks were shut out 3-0 by the Nashville Predators, who have only four wins in 21 road games this season but have collected half of those victories at Rogers Arena.
The Predators scored twice into an empty net as Vancouver fell below .500 on home ice (7-8-6) in a tumultuous National Hockey League season that is trending towards alarming.
The previous night, in the Canucks’ 4-3 shootout win in Seattle, Miller, Boeser and DeBrusk amassed only two shots on net, but still generated a key third-period goal for defenceman Tyler Myers.
Before that, Boeser scored from Miller’s passes in four straight games.
That kind of production is a lot to ask. But it’s what the Canucks require with centre Elias Pettersson and defencemen Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek missing from the lineup.
As Vancouver general manager Patrik Allvin said last weekend in a year-end interview with Sportsnet: “I think it’s fair to say that you expect your best players to be the difference-makers, and the best players when you need them. Do I expect more from them? Absolutely.”
So, too, do Miller and Boeser expect more from themselves.
“Clearly, I’m a little snakebit right now,” Miller said Friday night. “I definitely put pressure on myself to step up in the scoring department right now.
“They’re three of our more highly-skilled players (who are injured). So I think with who we have right now, obviously we have to do a little more as a group. But the hard thing is, you don’t want to try to do too much. You have to kind of let the game come to you, get on the inside and score some ugly goals.”
Even with only one shot in the final 10 ½ minutes, the Canucks outshot the Predators 27-19. But they didn’t get on the inside and in front of Nashville goalie Juuse Saros nearly often enough.
The Predator’s best save was a second-period rebound stop against Conor Garland, but it was also one of the few times Saros was forced to make a second save.
“We’ve just got to find a way to create some offence,” Boeser said. “I think tonight we just needed to get some more bodies in front of Saros.
“Obviously, it’s hard. We know how much Quinn helps our team on offence, and produces so much and makes so many plays out there. He draws a lot of attention, which opens other plays up. So it hurts missing those guys. We knew it was going to be hard without those guys. Quinn’s our best player and anytime you’re missing your best player, you’ve got to find ways to contribute more and get other guys to step up.
“For sure, we expect ourselves to be a line that can be difference-makers.”
The Canucks won in Seattle on an inspired night by winger Conor Garland, clutch relief goaltending by Kevin Lankinen and key contributions from players in the middle of the lineup.
But with Pettersson out day to day and Hughes week to week, and Hronek another month, there is only so much the Canucks can do when the positive storylines are about the elevated play of depth defenceman Vincent Desharnais and the growth of rookie Max Sasson.
The Canucks need their best players to be the best players. This is the case for virtually every team in every sport. But the axiom holds especially true when a couple of the other best players are missing.
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said that Pettersson and Hughes will travel with the Canucks when they leave Saturday for a five-game road trip that starts Monday in Montreal.
“Listen, our D are trying, everybody’s trying,” Tocchet said after Friday’s game. “Let’s face it, I mean, you guys can say what you want (but) we’re trying. We didn’t score tonight, but we had some opportunities. We didn’t score.”
The Canucks power play failed to generate a shot on target during a pair of third-period advantages.
After three straight losses, the reeling but rested Predators got the only goal they needed at 16:53 of the second period when Canucks winger Kiefer Sherwood fell during a puck battle inside the Nashville blue line, giving the visitors a three-on-two rush that ended when Steve Stamkos finished a give-and-go with Jonathan Marchessault by blasting a one-timer past Lankinen.
Gustav Nyqvist and Colton Sissons scored empty-net goals for the Predators, who have made Vancouver an oasis during Nashville’s dismal season.
The Canucks contained Stamkos, Marchessault and Filip Forsberg for most of the game, but still Nashville’s top line found a way to produce the winning goal. That’s what the Canucks need from Miller’s line.
“I mean, they want to score,” Tocchet said. “But sometimes if you want to score so much, you forget about doing the little things. Six on five, you know, if you just eliminate people, somebody’s going to get the puck. I think we’re trying to worry about plays. But, yeah, of course they want to score. I mean, they feel the pressure, yeah.”
“I mean, it’s hard to score,” Miller said, “and especially without the guys that typically drive offensive play a lot of nights for us. I’m trying not to get too wrapped up in it (mentally). Like I tell you guys all the time, I’ve just got to play solid hockey, and that other stuff will come. I believe that.”
