VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks were disappointed but not embarrassed.
Losing should never be acceptable. But if they can lose the way they did Wednesday, 6-4 against the elite Carolina Hurricanes, the Canucks will earn respect and patience from their fans during what is going to be a loyalty-testing rebuild. Which ones aren’t?
Uncompetitive and unredeemable in their last two losses, and challenged Wednesday morning by general manager Patrik Allvin to show “more fight,” the Canucks dug in and competed against the soaring Hurricanes, who needed an empty-net goal from Nikolaj Ehlers to complete a hat trick that secured his team’s 15th win in 20 games.
Even after Carolina reeled off four straight goals in 10 minutes in the second period to pull away 5-2, the Canucks didn’t disintegrate as they have in so many games since the New Year when they’ve surrendered goals in bunches.
Canuck Brock Boeser scored during a five-on-three power play late in the second period, and Nils Hoglander blistered a one-timer from Elias Pettersson’s nice pass to make it 5-4 at 6:45 of the third.
And even shorthanded, but skating five-against-five with their goalie pulled, the Canucks made it uncomfortable for the Hurricanes in the final minute before Ehlers scored with 14 seconds to go.
Disappointed, but not embarrassed.
“I mean, it’s tough when you’re in a spiral like this,” centre Teddy Blueger said. “We go down like we did last game against Dallas (6-1 loss on Monday) and you can just feel the energy kind of drain out. It’s tough to pick yourself back up; that’s maybe a bit of human nature. But we’ve got to fight that. I think the least we can do is compete and fight in every game, no matter the score.
“Obviously, we’d probably like to have a couple of those goals back (in the second period) with the breakdowns and stuff. But I think in terms of competing and fighting back and not getting deflated like we have been, I thought that was pretty good tonight.”
Defenceman Filip Hronek said: “The effort was there today. I’m pretty happy about that. But we have to be consistent with that, and we have to have that effort for 60 (minutes) and not 35 or whatever minutes.”
As a group, the Canucks top players were far more noticeable than they’ve been in most games since the team collapsed into 2026 on a freefall that is now 2-17-4 since Dec. 29.
Certainly not known for his physicality, Boeser recorded a career-high seven hits as Vancouver out-hit Carolina 30-13. Specifically challenged by Allvin during the GM’s morning press conference after the Tyler Myers trade, Pettersson played with a little more spark and had his second two-point game since Nov. 17. And Hronek, the last defenceman standing from the Canucks’ National Hockey League playoff run less than two years ago, may have been the best player on either team, finishing with a goal and two assists and a plus-two rating in the loss.
The last-overall Canucks just need a lot more of this, no matter what else happens before Friday’s trade deadline.
“It feels a whole lot better when the guys are trying like that,” rookie defenceman Tom Willander said. “You know, some of these teams are very good and they’re tough, and you’re not going to win all of them. But you always have to compete. I don’t feel like it’s just about playing well; I feel like if you compete, you’re just going to get a lot better. Even practices are better.”
The Canucks weren’t winning even before they started trading important players like Quinn Hughes, Kiefer Sherwood and Myers (which is why they traded them to start this rebuild). So nobody expects this hollowed-out team to be winning now, especially with star goalie Thatcher Demko out for the season after hip surgery.
But what the Canucks had lost along with 21 of 23 games before Wednesday was baseline competitiveness — the basic, professional combination of preparedness and execution that every team requires to be respectable.
Thirteen of the previous 18 regulation losses were by three or more goals, and in its last two losses, Saturday in Seattle and Monday at home against Dallas, Vancouver was outscored 11-2.
Despite what some unfamiliar with the last century may think, these aren’t the darkest days in franchise history. The Canucks were in peril of being sold and moved a couple of times, and when Brian Burke was hired as GM in 1998, ownership charged him with saving the franchise in a city where Rogers Arena was half-empty many nights.
But this rebuild will turn black if the Canucks not only lose but surrender. Nobody wants to watch that.
So Allvin challenged his players to dig in and compete.
“I want to see more fight in the group,” he told reporters. “It’s their job, the players’ job and our job, to prepare every night for the fans and playing for the crest. You can lose games, but you’ve got to play the right way and you’ve got to compete. And that’s what I want to see from my group here moving forward. I want to see us getting better. Losing games is not great for anyone, and we owe it to the fans here that have been great in Vancouver, and our players should play hard every night.”
“One-hundred-percent agree,” Willander said. “I think that’s something (fight) you need more of. You know, you can’t always be at your best, but you can always work hard. I feel like you need to compete and show up even on the days you’re not, you know, not everything is clicking. And I feel like that’s going to be so important later on when you want to win those big games.”
From now until the end of the season, all of the Canucks’ games are big for respect – their own and from the people they need to support the rebuild by buying tickets to watch them play.
from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/HRAG6UZ
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