Is There No End to the Vancouver Canucks' Freefall?

One of the many things that stood out to me during the "bubble" Stanley Cup Playoffs of 2020 was how well the Vancouver Canucks did. The Canucks entered the 2019-20 season still looking for something, anything that would spark them to a possible Stanley Cup in the near future. Of course, that season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Canucks would get their chance in the modified playoffs that took place in the late summer and early fall of 2020. What we saw from the Canucks was an amazing run the likes of which we have never seen since they fell one win short of the Stanley Cup in 2011.

The Canucks ended up finishing as the #7 seed in the Western Conference by the pause on March 11, 2020, and ended up playing a Qualifying Round series against the Minnesota Wild. They defeated the Wild in four games in that best-of-five series, but it was what we saw after the win that was the true story. In the West Quarterfinals, the Canucks ousted the then-defending Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues in a dominant six game series, and the West Semifinals saw the Canucks go seven games against the powerhouse Vegas Golden Knights. Though the Canucks lost, it was still an amazing feat, as they shutdown the Knights in Games Five and Six to force a seventh game, but they were simply outmatched. Even so, it seemed like this would be the beginning of years of good playoff runs for this team.

Then the following season happened. Oh boy.

The shortened 2020-21 season featured the localized divisions, and regarding the Canucks, they were placed in the North Division with the league's other Canadian franchises. That season saw terrible, horrible, no good, very bad play from the Canucks, who ended up finishing dead last in the North Division. Yes, even the Ottawa Senators, who had been completely lost since 2017, finished ahead of the Canucks. Their fans blame the COVID outbreak that hit the team, but even before that, the team was just terrible. Despite that, as the saying goes, the team had nowhere else to go but up. Which brings us to this season. Again, oh boy.

At this point, the Canucks are in last place in the Pacific Division, meaning--yes--they have a worse record than the expansion Seattle Kraken. Nothing is going right for them. Let's start with the player stats. J.T. Miller leads with 19 points (7G & 12A), while Conor Garland (who the Canucks acquired from Arizona--the only team in the West with a worse record) has 15 points (6G & 9A). Defenseman Quinn Hughes also has 15 points (2G & 13A) and has a plus/minus of +2, which is a vast improvement. Hughes' plus/minus has been awful in the past two seasons; I had to learn that the hard way last year when I had him on fantasy. What really stands out is how underwhelming Vancouver's young core has been. Bo Horvat has six goals, five assists and is -4, Elias Pettersson has three goals, seven assists, and is a horrendous -6, and as for Brock Boeser: four goals, five assists, and a -8. Yikes.

Their special teams is another detriment. Vancouver has a Power Play percentage of 16, which is 23rd in the league. Their penalty kill is even worse: a percentage of 62.3, which is dead last in the league. The reason why the Colorado Avalanche's struggling Power Play came to life this season? They played the Canucks twice this month. That'll do it. Regarding goaltending, Thatcher Demko (the story of the Canucks' 2020 playoff run) has all six of the team's wins; 6-10-1, 3.07 GAA and a save percentage of .904. As for Jaroslav Halak: 0-4-1, 2.85 GAA, .910 SV%.

Canucks fans have put the blame for this on two people: head coach Travis Green and general manager Jim Benning. The outcry for their terminations has been louder than their goal horn, but they remain at their posts. However, it seems like the problems are more than just those two. Plain and simple, the Canucks have no get-up-and-go. There's no fight in that team. They are 1-8-1 in their last ten games. Literally everything is bad on that team. It's early, yes, but honestly, the Canucks 2021-22 season may be over already.