It’s hard to believe, but a third of the Vancouver Canucks home games this season have resulted in 5-1 losses. The latest came Monday night at the hands of the St. Louis Blues, a team that climbed a game above .500 on the season with the victory. The Canucks fell two games below an even .500.
“Terrible,” Canucks defenceman Luke Schenn said postgame. “I don’t know really how else to describe it. When you play in your home rink you want to go out and try to win every game. I don’t know if the expectation is to win every game, but at least you’ve got to play the right way and compete for the full sixty minutes and we beat ourselves most of the time.”
Schenn saw plenty of it firsthand. He was on the ice for three of the five goals against. The lone Canucks forward to turn that unhappy trick was Nils Aman. Curtis Lazar was out there twice as was defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Winger Brock Boeser returned from illness to the Vancouver line-up, Elias Pettersson remains under the weather.
The fans at Rogers Arena moaned and groaned periodically through the latter stages of the game and booed as the final minute or so ticked away.
“I hate being booed, in life you hate being booed,” Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “You know they have the right to do it when they don’t have what they deem as the success they’d like to see. That’s a hard pill to swallow. We’d love to be 41-and-0 at home and make it tough for teams to come into this building and win, but right now that’s just not happening.”
Character, chemistry, Commitment? Which if not all three are lacking. Or is it simpler than that? Or is it the other C-word, confidence, or lack thereof. They all work hand-in-hand and right now the Canucks seem lost. There’s no consistency other than their inconsistency.
“I’m not going to say what’s on my mind, it’s not nearly good enough, it’s terrible,” Schenn added.
Canucks At Home
The Canucks 5-1 losses at home this season:
Monday night – St. Louis Blues
Saturday night – Winnipeg Jets
December 1st – Florida Panthers
November 29th – Washington Capitals
October 22nd – Buffalo Sabres
Vancouver is 5-9-and-1 at home this season.
