For a team that has the Northwest Division all but locked up, the Vancouver Canucks have some question marks that need answers in their final 10 games of the regular season.
“If we play the way we can and we get better, we shouldn't have a problem winning the majority of our games from here on out,” Vancouver's Ryan Kesler said Monday night.
The problem is that the comments came after the Canucks lacked a sense of urgency and were blanked 2-0 by a Minnesota Wild team that had lost five in a row at home and was 1-7-1 in their previous nine overall.
The contest was the first of a four-game trip for the Canucks, which also includes stops in Chicago, Dallas and Colorado. It was hoped to be a tonic for what ails after Vancouver went 3-4 on a season-long seven-game homestand that included losses to Buffalo, Dallas, Montreal and Phoenix. It has been nearly a month since Vancouver won consecutive games.
“Maybe getting out on the road is what we need right now to get away from everything and get back to simple road hockey, where we’ve had a lot of success,” backup goaltender Cory Schneider told reporters Saturday after a 4-3 victory over Columbus. “We feel real comfortable on the road; we’re not afraid of traveling to other teams' buildings. It’ll be a good measuring stick and a good test to see if we can turn this around.”
To do that, the offense will need to perform better. The Canucks have scored only 19 goals in the past eight games, numbers that likely won’t get a team far in the postseason.
“I think you can count on one hand the number of grade A scoring chances that we had tonight five on five,” coach Alain Vigneault said Monday. “We did have possession time, but a lot of it was on the outside, but not enough on the inside. And, at the end of the day, five on five tonight, we didn't generate enough chances against that team.”
That starts with the top trio of Alex Burrows and the Sedin twins. They were reunited Monday and played more than 19 minutes apiece, yet combined for only seven shots.
“We did everything tonight except get traffic,” Henrik Sedin said. “You can't score on a goalie in this league if you don't have anyone screening, so that's something we need to work on.”
Scoring as a whole has been a challenge for the Sedins.
Daniel Sedin ended a nine-game scoring drought Saturday with two goals. and Henrik had two assists for the second straight outing. Henrik had gone eight games without a point, but he entered Wednesday without a goal in his past 13 games. Before Saturday, Daniel had two assists in nine games and the Swedes — and the team — became prone to ripping by fans and the media.
“I don't think the criticism has been unfair,” Henrik told the Vancouver Province after the Columbus win. “We know we can play better than this. But it's starting to feel better.”
Defensively, the Canucks are giving up too may shots.
After allowing 16 goals in the first two periods combined against Columbus, Vancouver allowed 18 third-period shots. Minnesota, the league’s lowest-scoring team, had 29 shots through two periods Monday and 34 for the game.
“It's been kind of a trend the last two weeks or so where our defensive game hasn't been where we want it to be,” forward Chris Higgins told the Vancouver Sun on Sunday. “We just have to gain that trust back in each other, that we're making the right reads and backing each other up."
Despite the recent struggles, Henrik Sedin said the Canucks know what it takes to win.
"Now it’s more a matter of executing," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's 10 games left. It's about playing our game and trusting that our system is going to win us games and not individual efforts. That's what won us games last year.”
The Canucks must realize they can’t just flip a switch come playoff time and everything will be OK.
“We're not thinking about the playoffs,” defenseman Kevin Bieksa said Monday. "We're just trying to win games right now; that's our focus. We're not looking too far ahead."
