VANCOUVER — Just like in most horror movies, there really is no place to hide for the Vancouver Canucks in this one.
The mistakes the Canucks have been managing, holes in their game they’ve been spackling over with resourceful loser-points and goaltending, were haltingly exposed Wednesday in a 6-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Rogers Arena.
Wearing something close to Halloween colours, the Canucks were a nightmare in their worst shutout loss on home ice since 2006.
Too many outnumbered rushes allowed, too few saves. Carelessness with the puck, not enough determination without it. Not nearly good enough in front of either net.
The Canucks have been living with their mistakes since the National Hockey League season started, impressively building a 4-1-3 record through eight games even as coaches implored improvement and players acknowledged the need for it.
But if Wednesday’s game isn’t motivation enough for the Canucks to start a serious search for their identity, they won’t be the team they believe they can be. The team they showed they were last season. The team they should be.
“It was embarrassing,” veteran defenceman Tyler Myers said. “We should be embarrassed. Even through some wins the last couple of weeks, there were some things within our game right now that we’ve got to clean up. We’ve got to find our identity. Right now, we’re just, we’re not there yet, and we know it.
“We had two-on-ones and three-on-twos against the whole night — stuff we have to clean up. We’re swinging (and not stopping). We’re not going through people. Like I said, it’s finding our identity, and right now we don’t have it. Maybe it’s a good wake-up call for us.”
Canuck players will have two nights to sleep on it.
Thursday is a day off. They practise Friday, then fly to California for a three-game trip that starts Saturday against the San Jose Sharks.
“We just were not good at all, and hopefully it’s a wake-up call because we’ve got to play a lot better than that,” winger Conor Garland said. “That’s what happens when you play like that for long enough in this league. They’ll come in and beat you pretty good.”
Desperate to get his team going, down 3-0 halfway through the game and with only nine shots on former Canuck goalie Jacob Markstrom in the Devils’ net, Garland initiated a fight with Erik Haula at 9:45 of the second period.
At five-foot-nine and 165 pounds, Garland was the smallest player in the game. He ate some punches early from Haula, but came back at the end with big right and an uppercut. The crowd of 18,717 began chanting Garland’s name. At least, it got to cheer for something.
“Gars does an unbelievable job in that scrap,” teammate J.T. Miller said. “That was a helluva fight. You’d think we’d play a little bit better after that. That sucks, a guy getting punched in the head for you. You think that would light the team; it didn’t. We just make it too easy on the other team.”
Nico Hischier scored on a two-on-one for the Devils at 53 seconds, and Dawson Mercer made it 2-0 shorthanded at 1:35 of the second period after another two-on-one. Myers was caught on the first goal, Miller gave away the puck on the second.
Timo Meier buried a wrist shot on a three-on-two to make it 3-0 — and three goals on eight shots — at 3:07 of the middle period.
Ondrej Palat skated through Danton Heinen on the fourth New Jersey goal, and Canuck defencemen left Jack Hughes and Tomas Tatar unchecked at the back post on the Devils’ third-period goals.
The Canucks hadn’t been shut out at Rogers Arena in two years, and their worst home-ice loss last season was 5-1 against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 29. That leap-year debacle was supposed to come only once every four years, but eight months later. . .
“Everything went wrong, you know, right from the beginning,” Tocchet told reporters. “Obviously, some guys were struggling. It just rolls like that, and you’re going to have games like this in an 82-game schedule. We’ve just got to flush it down the toilet right now.
“They shot the puck really well. We started to unravel a little bit, got frustrated. Everybody started kind of going rogue a little bit and that’s what happens.”
Rarely have the Canucks looked like this since Tocchet became coach 21 months ago.
“I don’t think we should flush it,” Myers said. “I think we have to realize what we’re doing within our system, what we’re not doing and then it just comes down to work. We’ve just got to get back to work.”
PP NOT ATTACKING
Everyone will remember Miller’s drop pass to nobody that led to the shorthanded goal for Mercer at 1:35 of the second period. But it was actually Miller’s decision right before his turnover that illustrated one of the struggling Canuck power play’s biggest problems — one that Tocchet has been hammering home regularly.
With the puck inside the New Jersey zone, both Mercer and teammate Hischier took strides towards the blue line when it briefly appeared a loose puck might turn into an outnumbered rush for the Devils. But Canuck Quinn Hughes got to it first and turned it back along the boards to Miller.
Instead of quickly turning behind Mercer and Hischier towards the New Jersey goal, which the Canucks could have attacked with numbers, Miller instead walked the puck backwards towards the blue line to set up another play. He wanted to exchange positions with Hughes, but the defenceman wasn’t expecting the puck when Miller dropped it to him.
Tocchet has been imploring players to attack the net on the power play to create “chaos” goals from broken plays instead of looking always to set up a pretty one.
“When you beat pressure, take it to the hole,” Tocchet told reporters after the morning skate. “That’s the play. We should have three guys around the net when you take it to the hole, not one guy and then everyone in their spot looking for one-timers.”
On Vancouver’s next power play, near the end of the second period, Tocchet changed both wings, replacing Miller and Conor Garland with Daniel Sprong and Jake DeBrusk. The Canuck power play finished 0-for-4 and is 0-for-10 the last three games.
EASY SECOND-GUESSING
Before announcing his starting goalie Wednesday morning, Tocchet joked to reporters that they should have two stories prepared for the result if his decision to put Arturs Silovs back in the net backfires.
In his first start since Oct. 15, Silovs was beaten six times on 22 shots.
Second-guessing a coach’s goaltending decision is the lowest-hanging fruit for the media. But even before the Halloween nightmare, Tocchet’s decision was a little curious.
It’s true that Kevin Lankinen had started five straight games for Vancouver after playing in only 43 over the last two seasons as Juuse Saros’ backup in Nashville. But Lankinen’s five starts had been spread over 12 nights, and Canuck players have had plenty of rest over the first three weeks of the regular season. Lankinen (.920 save percentage) took the net from Silovs (.827 before Wednesday) after the season’s first three games.
Getting Wednesday off at least gave Lankinen the additional benefit of mental rest. The 29-year-old earlier told Sportsnet that maintaining the right mindset has been critical to his hectic start after ending his free-agency during training camp in September.
“I think it’s a skill, too,” Lankinen said. “On days off, you want to zone out a little bit (mentally) and not be too dialed in. And then bring your focus back, converge almost, when the next game is starting. I’m trying to find a balance with that, and I’m doing a decent job.”
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