One step forward, one step backwards. Such are the Vancouver Canucks at the moment: the only consistency is inconsistency. It was another letdown game at home for the boys, losing 5-3 to the Preds. If you wanna see how they performed:
Goals from Raty, Sherwood, and Petey (now up to 5 goals in his last 7 games) weren’t enough to tilt the ice for the Canucks. The boys put themselves behind the eightball again, letting the Preds score first and not registering a shot on net until about halfway through the first. This is turning into a habit for the team now, as they’ve been lethargic to start games for most of the season now. They talk about turning it around, but so far that hasn’t seemed to be the case.
“Obviously, not our best,” Garland said. “It's a tough one to be (leading) 2-1 and then all of a sudden it turns pretty quickly there.
“We want to play good every night, and when you don't, you have to rebound and play well. I think we're probably searching for consistency more than anything. Just got to play better.”
Play better indeed, but those words need to turn into action at some point here: from the coaching staff down to the players. The Canucks’ best players need to find their impact on the game again. Petey is starting to come on, but Hughes is waning (not fault of his as he’s carrying that defense), and Miller is stumbling… so much so he got benched in the third period, and ended up playing his lowest ice time as a Canuck.
When asked about Miller’s benching, Tocchet said, “I went with the guys I thought could get us back in the game.” Not a glowing review of JTM right now.
“We just need some key guys to make some plays for us,” Tocc added.
A couple keys to the team success last year were the Myers and Soucy pairing. This year… ya, they’ve been caved in. It’s something that needs to get sorted out via Tocchet in short order, and if not via Allvin soon. Like the rest of the team they’re aware of their struggles, but words aren’t doing the heavy lifting right now.
“I mean, it's not something we like,” senior defenceman Tyler Myers said. “It's things we're talking about each and every day as we come in. We've got to find a way to get more consistent; we're going back and forth right now. We're responding after a tough night, but then it seems like we slip a little bit. We've just got to work on focusing on the things that. . . allow us to be successful, and then we need to focus on doing it more often.
“There's no question there's parts of our game that we want to get better at... whether it's stops and starting, supporting each other, communicating on the ice better for each other to help each other in different situations. But that's part of the year. You have to keep building. You can't dwell on anything bad that's happening. As soon as you start, you know, playing ‘poor me,’ that doesn't help anybody. You just have to come to the rink, get better and work together as a group to be more consistent.”
Hopefully the Canucks find some modicum of consistency before their next game, which goes tomorrow night against the Rangers.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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