Canucks fans know to be cautious.
Even though it was a preseason game, the results don’t count, and Calgary iced a superior line-up, Sunday’s 10-0 loss to the Flames had everyone cuing their inner Homer Simpson.
“DOH!”
We’ve talked a bit about this psychology and history before.
“You can talk to everyone over the next two weeks and they all want to get out of the gate well,” the Canucks head coach said. “The great learning curve on that is that they didn’t get off to a great start last year and they saw what happened and how frustrated they were, when they thought they were a playoff team at the end of the year but they weren’t in the playoffs.”
That would be head coach Bruce Boudreau last September 20th.
“Missing the playoffs would be a big disaster,” he added.
First, Boudreau and his staff are in place for the full season as opposed to joining in progress like he did last December. The club was much improved after the coaching change, going 32-15-and-10. The players enjoy his communication skills and are excited for his first training camp. – I wrote.
32-15-10 is pretty damn good. Rick Tocchet went 20-12-and-4 after taking over. Also pretty damn good.
“It’s a learning … people don’t want to hear it, but it is a learning experience, these guys are young guys and you gotta, you know, teach ’em, keep teaching,” Tocchet said after Sunday’s preseason loss.
He stumbled through the postgame media because there really wasn’t much to say. He pointed out his team didn’t quit, but they did get away from their systems while chasing the game.
The Canucks were down 4-0 after one period, 7-0 after two. Flames winger Matt Coronato, 2021 13th-overall NHL Draft pick, finished with a hat trick.
Canucks Changes
Prior to last season the Canucks had added Andrei Kuzmenko, win, the injury prone Ilya Mikheyev, he’s hurt again, and Curtis Lazar, in whatever way, shape, or form, last season’s Teddy Blueger.
This time around there’s also newbie Pius Suter, and fellow forward Anthony Beauvillier, who joined the club in the Bo Horvat deal with the Islanders on January 30th.
Ian Cole, the lone Stanley Cup winner on the playing roster, and Carson Soucy are new to the blueline. Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre had an interesting discussion with Cole about creating that winning culture.
Casey DeSmith replaces Spencer Martin and Collin Delia as the back-up to Thatcher Demko.
All a Canucks fan can do is keep up the positive thinking.
“We’re a group that if we do get in the playoffs, or when we do get in the playoffs this year, we’re going to be a hard team to beat,” Demko said. “We proved that last year, just so far behind the eight ball and the push that we were able to make trying to get in last year, it was really inspiring for the city and for our group too, to build confidence in those situations.
That was last September.
Notes
— Arturs Silovs and Zach Sawchenko saw time in net for the Canucks on Sunday.
— The Canucks have a preseason game at Edmonton on Wednesday night, they’re at the Seattle Kraken the next night, before hosting the Oilers on Saturday evening.
— Canucks signing via press release on Sunday:
Vancouver, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that the club has agreed to terms on a three-year, entry level contract with defenceman Sawyer Mynio, who was originally selected by Vancouver in the third round, 89th overall at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
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