Is it time to press the panic button in Canuck land? We lost 6-0 to the Jets and nobody looked good. Kyle Connor had a hat-trick before you could even blink. The game finished before it started. The thing is, if this game was just a one off I wouldn’t even care. The thing is it’s not. The Canucks haven’t played consistent hockey all season. Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller have played like a shell of themselves. The defence outside of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek is AHL caliber. This loss is still kind of fresh and I’m a Canucks fan so I might be a little irrational.
However, I don’t think what I’m saying isn’t wrong. The Canucks aren’t playing good hockey. Last year they were a top tier team from game one of the season. This year it was the exact opposite. Last year the Canucks beat the Oilers 8-1 on opening night. What did they do this year? Blow a 4-1 lead to the Calgary Flames. Vancouver hasn’t played good defence as a team, I’m saying as a team because Quinn Hughes is playing at an MVP level. This is one of the reasons the Canucks haven’t been able to close out any games which has led to ten overtime losses. Ten overtime losses! If they had won half of those we would be second in the pacific division. With how close the western conference is every point matters. As of right now the team just isn’t playing good enough plain and simple.
Final. pic.twitter.com/kPYfADMsBq
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 15, 2025
Now time to address the elephant in the room. Whatever’s going on with Pettersson and Miller they need to get it sorted. I’m not talking about this supposed feud between the two stars. The two of them aren’t playing like themselves at all which has led to a ton of trade talks. Does it happen? I hope not the Canucks need both of them at their best if they want to make a deep playoff run. A trade might mean blowing up everything. For what one decent playoff run? I don’t think that’s the way to go about it.
So what happens next? I’m a big optimist. I still think this team figures it out. One thing that needs to happen is that they need to trade for a legit top-4 defenceman. Carson Soucy, Tyler Myers and Vincent Desharnais aren’t cutting it. This team desperately needs a defenceman that can play well logging top-4 minutes if they want any chance at a deep run.