CANUCKS BANTER     By Andrew Chernoff    December 5, 2015

The Canucks Have To Find A Way

The Boston Bruins (13-8-3) visit the Vancouver Canucks (9-10-8) at Rogers Place in game two of the Canucks 4-game home stand tonight.

Tonight marks the first of two meetings between these two teams this season. Vancouver visits TD Garden on January 21st.

The Canucks head into action on tonight  looking to snap out of a 2-5-3 state that has them in 4rth place in the Pacific division. Vancouver lost their last game against the Dallas Stars 4-2, and their picked up their 4rth loss in a row (0-2-2) and 12th loss in their last 15-games (3-8-4). Vancouver is 2-5-3 in their last 10-games.

The Bruins, 5th place in the Atlantic division, are on a road trip of Western Canada and have not faired well, as they lost in a shootout to Edmonton on December 2, 3-2 and followed that up with an overtime loss to Calgary on December 4, 5-4. Boston is 5-0-2 in its past seven games and finish off their road trip tonight against the Canucks.

The script is getting old, and tired, and is in need of a refreshing change.

In my opinion, the stench that lingers after the last two months, more than indicates that the present incarnation of the Vancouver Canucks has expired and needs to be tossed and replaced with a new and improved.

And the game tonight, is the best game to start.

It’s time, for the next incarnation of the 2015-16 Vancouver Canucks to take to the ice.

Whether there is enough behind the Sedins to give the Canucks that secondary scoring punch and support, Canuck coach Willie Desjardins responded after the Dallas game that he believes there is, and continued by saying:

But It has to happen on the ice…me believing it, or whatever, doesn’t….it has to come out on the ice.

And we need better performances on the ice. That’s not good enough. Like I thought today, you know I thought there were times in the first period that, we looked like, we might battle through and be ok, and get a goal.We didn’t give them an awful lot; they had the couple power plays, but we have to…it’s easy to believe when things go good….it’s harder when they don’t go good…and right know they’re not going good for us…right now we’re disappointed withthe overtime losses, and with all the stuff that’s built up, we got lots of losses, and it’s  disappointing ‘cause that’s not where we want to be.

But at the same time, that’s how you get better. You have to find a way.  It’s a tough league and that’s what you gotta do.

As for the psyche of the players, especially the younger players, Desjardins says:

It’s a battle to keep believing,when things don’t happen. It’s easy to believe when things happen. When it doesn’t happen, its a lot harder.

But, what are your choices? You don’t have any choice. Your choice is to believe that it’s gonna happen and you gotta  make it happen. Like, if you don’t believe and you hesitate when you’re doing something, your lost already.

So, you have to go in convinced at what you’re doing and you have to go hard. That’s the only way you’ll be successful in this league.

So, mentally, we have to accept where we’re at and we have to be prepared to play hard. We know what we’re doing. The guys know the systems,they just have to have confidence that if we play hard we’ll get our opportunities.

As for what is expected tonight against the Boston Bruins, Desjardins said what everyone was thinking, including the fans, at the Dallas post-game press conference:

Boston is a must game. We have to see a good performance against Boston. We have to see it.

CANUCKS JOTTINGS

• Vancouver has 1 even-strength goal from a line other than the Sedins in the last 8 games.
• The Canucks have scored just five times while dropping four straight games (0-2-2) and recorded just 16 shots in each of the last two contests to fall under .500 for the first time this season.
• The Canucks, who have allowed 12 goals during their losing streak.
• Vancouver are going after their fifth victory in six contests against the Bruins
• Vancouver has allowed 8 power-play goals in their last 8 games.
• Radim Vrbata is a team-worst minus -15 for the Canucks. Bo Horvat is -13. Yannick Weber is -9.
• Jannick Hansen is a team-best plus +11 for the Canucks. Henrik Sedin is +7 and Daniel Sedin is +6.
• Ryan Miller has managed two victories in his last 11 appearances.
• Bo Horvat has not recorded a goal in 15 straight games.
• Alex Burrows has two goals in his last 15 games, and has a plus/minus of -5.
• Jared McCann has 1 goal in his last 16 games, and has a plus.minus of +2.
• Vancouver defensemen only have 9 goals this season.
• Canucks are 19 for 96 man advantages in 24 games, for 19.8 per cent, tied for 11th best. They are 1 for their last 8 man advantages.
• Vancouver has scored on 12 of 61 man advantages in the past 16 games, for 19.7 per cent, 16th best in the NHL.
• Canucks have scored on 9 of 38 man advantages at home, for 23.7 per cent, 9th best in the NHL.
• Vancouver’s 96 power play man advantages are the most in the NHL, one ahead of the Montreal Canadians; two more than Colorado; three better than Arizona.
• Vancouver has scored at least one power play goal in nine of the last 11 games, including at least one power play goal in eight consecutive games from Nov. 12-27. According to ESB, the last time the Canucks went 8 straight games with a PPG in the same season was Dec. 28 – Jan. 15/96. The Canucks also had a PPG in 8 straight games over a span of two seasons from Apr. 14 – Oct. 19/99.
• Canucks have allowed 19 goals in 88 penalty kill opportunities, for 77.6 per cent, 22nd in the NHL. They have only allowed 2 goals in their last 12 penalty kill opportunities.
• The Canucks penalty kill over the last 16 games, has given up 16 goals on 58 opportunities, 27th best in the NHL.
• Vancouver penalty kill at home has given up 6 goals on 33 opportunities, for 81.8 per cent, 14th best in the NHL.
• The Canucks have 42 even strength goals for and have allowed 42 even strength goals, for 18 in the NHL this season in G+/-.
• In the last 16 games, Vancouver has 22 even strength goals for and have 24 allowed even strength goals, tied for 20th in G+/-.
• Point Streaks:
  DANIEL SEDIN (1-1-2 / 2 Games)
  HENRIK SEDIN (0-3-3 / 2 Games)
• Last 5 Games: 1 – 2 – 2
  Last 10 Games: 2 – 5 – 3
  1-Goal Games: 3 – 6 – 8
  2-Goal Games: 1 – 2
  3-Goal Games: 5 – 2
  Scoring first: 5 – 2 – 5
  Opponent scoring first: 4 – 8 – 3
  Leading after 1 period: 4 – 0 – 3
  Trailing after 1 period: 0 – 6 – 3
  Tied after 1 period: 5 – 4 – 2
  Leading after 2 periods: 7 – 1 – 5
  Trailing after 2 periods: 0 – 9 – 1
  Tied after 2 periods: 2 – 0 – 2
  OT Record – This Season: 1 – 8
• Outshooting opponent: 4 – 5 – 5
  Outshot by opponent: 5 – 5 – 3
  Even shots: 0 – 0 – 0
• Daniel Sedin has 18 points (8-10-18) in the last 12 games. He recently had a seven game point streak from Nov. 14-27; it was the longest point streak of any Canucks player this season and his longest since a seven game streak from Oct. 22 – Nov. 5/13. He currently leads the team and ranks in the top-10 in the League in points (28), goals (12), assists (16), ppg (5) and ppp (11).
• Henrik Sedin has 17 points (5-12-17) in the last 12 games. He recently had a six game point streak from Nov. 16-27. He also had a five game point streak earlier this season from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7. Last season, the Captain recorded points in three or more consecutive games on 10 different occasions. Henrik ranks in the top-10 in the NHL in points (26), assists (18), and ppp (10).
• Alex Edler leads VAN in time on ice (24:27) and has led the team in that category in 23 of 26 games he’s played, including 14 games where he’s led all skaters in TOI. He currently ranks 17th in the NHL in TOI/GP.
• Jake Virtanen ranks third on the team and third among NHL rookies in hits with 53.
• Chris Tanev leads the team and ranks tied for fifth in the League in blocked shots with 68. His defence partner Alex Edler ranks 12th in the NHL with 56 blocked shots.
• Henri k and Daniel Sedin have played in 583 wins together.According to ESB, since 1990.91 the only pairs of teammates to play in more wins together are Niklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper (664); and Lidstrom and
  Tomas Holmstrom (599).
• In the month of November, the Sedins combined for 35 points (Daniel registered 8-10-18 while Henrik collected 6-11-17). According to ESB, it is the most points the Sedins have combined for in a calendar month since December 2011, when they tallied 39 points together (10-7-17 for Daniel; and 2-20-22 for Henrik).
• The Canucks have had seven different players make their NHL debut this season (Grenier, Shinkaruk, Virtanen, McCann, Hutton, Gaunce, and Pedan). According to Elias Sports Bureau, this is the most number of players to make their NHL debut for the Canucks in a single season since six players did so during the 2007.08 season.
• The last season where more than six players made their NHL debut in a single season for the Canucks was in 1999.00 (eight players). The club record for NHL debuts in a single season is 11 which occurred during the 1973.74 season.
• Vancouver has had 18 different goal scorers this season, tied for fifth most in the League.
• The Canucks players aged 23 or younger that have appeared in the lineup thus far (Baertschi, Horvat, Hutton, Virtanen, McCann, Gaunce, Shinkaruk, and Pedan) have accounted for 19.4% of points (37), 16.9% of goals (12) and 20.8% of assists (25), for the team this season.
• The Canucks 71 goals on the year are t-10th most in the NHL.
• VANCOUVER’S 2015.16 RECORD WHEN…
  Score 4+ Goals: 6-0-0
  Score 3 Goals or Less: 3-10-8
  Allow 4+ Goals: 0-5-3
  Allow 3 Goals or Less: 9-4-5
  On 0 Days Rest: 2-1-2
  On 1 Day Rest: 2-5-5

  On 2 Days Rest: 4-3-1

  On 3+ Days Rest: 0-1-1

  Score a PPG: 4-5-6

  Give up a PPG: 4-7-5

  25+ Shots on Goal: 7-8-6

  Less than 25 shots: 2-2-2

SEASON SNAPSHOT

LEAGUE STANDINGS

CANUCKS PLAYER STATS

BRUINS PLAYER STATS

CANUCKS-BRUINS SITUATIONS

CANUCKS-BRUINS AT A GLANCE

Statistics courtesy of the NHL, Vancouver Canucks and SportingCharts, with thanks.