Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser are both day to day.
The start of the 2022-23 season hasn’t exactly gone to plan for the Vancouver Canucks.
Mired in a seven-game losing streak, the Canucks desperately need to find a way to win a game. There are plenty of reasons why the team is struggling to find a win. There were defensive breakdowns, struggles to get the puck clean, and Thatcher Demko didn’t steal games like he’s shown he’s capable of in the past.
Not that it’s Demko’s fault, per se. He repeatedly faced shots that seemed unstoppable. It’s just that Canucks fans have also seen him make seemingly impossible saves. Without Demko making those saves, the Canucks were exposed.
There’s another factor that has made it difficult for the Canucks to buy a win and come out of their early-season slump: injuries.
A multitude of injuries in defense
Injuries are no excuse — every NHL team suffers from them — but they certainly don’t make things any easier for a team that was already in a tough spot. The Canucks have the forward depth to deal with injuries well enough, but their defensive depth is lacking.
At the start of the season, the Canucks were missing two defensemen — Tyler Myers with a lower-body injury and Travis Dermott with a concussion — as well as newly acquired winger Ilya Mikheyev, who suffered a lower-body injury. Although Myers and Mikheyev returned to the roster after three games, other players went on the injured list.
Tucker Poolman has only played three games this season and is now on the long-term injured list with no return schedule. His 2021-22 season ended in migraines, although there is no word on what is currently keeping him out of the lineup.
Riley Stillman hasn’t played since being hit in the head against the Minnesota Wild and is considered a daily.
That’s not to say there aren’t injured forwards. Brock Boeser, after recovering from hand surgery in time for the season opener, missed Monday’s game with an undisclosed injury and is day to day. Curtis Lazar was added to injured reserve on Wednesday and is expected to miss three to four weeks after trying to play despite an undisclosed injury.
The injury that has hurt the most over the past two games has been Quinn Hughes, a lower-body injury that head coach Bruce Boudreau has called week-to-week, but general manager Patrik Allvin has called on the day to day Wednesday, saying he expects him to return next week.
Hughes is the only Canucks defenseman who can consistently avoid the forecheck and get the puck out of the defensive zone. Without Hughes, the defense struggled in this area against the Buffalo Sabers and Carolina Hurricanes.
With Hughes, Dermott, Poolman and Stillman all out of the lineup, the Canucks’ defensive depth is under strain. The Canucks have already dressed ten defensemen this season – they’ve had seasons where they’ve never dressed so many, like the 2019-20 season when they only used eight defensemen all year and one of them, Ashton Sautner, was only for a part.
“They are our veterans.”
Instead of the injured players, Kyle Burroughs had to play a bigger role and above all was up to it. Guillaume Brisebois and Noah Juulsen, drafted to the AHL, have moved into third pairing roles with varying degrees of success – Juulsen looks outdated at the NHL level, but Brisebois played a straightforward game against the Hurricanes, avoiding errors and preventing dangerous occasions.
The defensemen the Canucks really need more of, however, are veterans Oliver Ekman-Larrson and Tyler Myers, and rookie Jack Rathbone.
Ekman-Larsson and Myers were at least league average as a stopping duo last season – they regularly faced stiff competition and, with help from Demko behind them, kept the puck out fillet.
This season, they are not doing so well. Myers’ injury to start the year isn’t helping, but it looks like Ekman-Larsson is playing even more conservatively than usual, keeping a wide gap to avoid being beaten wide with his reduced skating ability. but, therefore, allowing opposing forwards to enter the Canucks’ area too easily.
In addition to being too permissive, Ekman-Larsson’s puck management wasn’t good enough. He had two bad gifts in the first home game which led to goals against in the first half. Breakout passes have never really been Ekman-Larsson’s strength – he’s always been better at skating the puck, but his declining mobility has limited his ability to do so.
Boudreau put the onus on the veterans after Saturday’s game.
“A lot of defenders who were there were working their [butts off], young people anyway, are doing what they can to help stem the tide,” Boudreau said. “But it’s our veterans, it’s them – the leaders have to take that and say, ‘Okay, that’s enough. And if they don’t, it’s a long year.
Rathbone looks good but the results haven’t been
That said, what the Canucks really need is Jack Rathbone to improve his game.
Rathbone couldn’t crack the lineup in the first five games of the season, even though the Canucks suffered repeated losses. It took injuries for Rathbone to finally get into the lineup for the home opener.
Now that he’s on the roster, Rathbone looks like an NHL-caliber offensive defenseman. He has the ability to handle the puck and skate to escape the forecheck, he can pass the puck with precision, and he seems to be the only Canucks defenseman besides Hughes who really acts as a catalyst in the offensive zone. attacking aggressively from the point with a quick donate. -and-will open passing lanes at the bottom.
The problem is that the results have not yet followed for Rathbone. When he was on the ice at 5-5, shot attempts were 36-22 for the opposition and the Canucks were outscored 3-0. His Natural Stat Trick expected goal percentage is an abysmal 17, 74%, the lowest among Canucks defensemen, and the high danger chance was 12 to 0.
It’s not entirely on Rathbone. He was suspended for trying on the occasion by his teammates – one of Ekman-Larsson’s gifts on Saturday led to one of those goals against Rathbone on the ice – but he had turnovers on his own .
But with Hughes out at the moment, Rathbone could be the Canucks’ only hope of getting an offensive punch from the back. At some point he has to start tilting the ice the other way. So far, as good as it looks, the Canucks are drowning when Rathbone is on the ice.
New medical staff and trainers
The Canucks have almost entirely new medical staff this season to deal with those early injuries. After the 2021-22 season, the Canucks let go of head athletic therapist Jon Sanderson and head strength and conditioning coach Roger Takahashi, both longtime employees. Two assistant athletic therapists, Dave Zarn and Nick Addey-Jibb were also fired, along with assistant strength and conditioning coach Ken Hetzel.
Josh Termeer, formerly of the Calgary Stampeders, is the Canucks’ new head athletic therapist this season. Mark Cesari, a former Toronto Maple Leafs strength and conditioning coach, replaced Takahashi.
The Canucks have also hired two chiropractors. Dr. Harry Sese, a chiropractor and massage therapist, was best known for his work with golfers before joining the Canucks as a health and performance consultant – he leads the strength and conditioning department.
Dr. Erik Yuill was the team chiropractor for the Vancouver Whitecaps and Vancouver Warriors before joining the Canucks.
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