VANCOUVER– The Vancouver Canucks are back home and won’t panic even though they haven’t won in their first five games this season.
They started with an 0-3-2 road trip that ended in back-to-back 4-3 overtime losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday and the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Vancouver remains the only winless team in the NHL and has given up a lead in all five games.
But coach Bruce Boudreau is trying to focus on the positives after the Canucks started the season with three straight regulation losses.
“The [Stanley Cup Playoffs] are not won in October, unless you play baseball,” Boudreau said. “We just watched a lot of clips from the last game and there are so many positives that if we keep doing the right things, these losses will turn into wins, and they will for a long time.”
The Canucks started the season with a 3-0 lead over the Edmonton Oilers on October 12, only to give up five straight goals in a 5-3 loss. They then lost a two-goal lead to the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Columbus, becoming the first team in NHL history to lose four consecutive games after holding a multi-goal lead in each.
They’ve been tied or ahead going into the third period of every game, including 3-2 on Thursday.
Boudreau, who has been stalled on 599 NHL wins for six consecutive games since last season’s Finals, called his team “mentally weak” after giving up a two-goal lead against the Capitals on Monday, but said Friday that he had seen improvement in both games. since.
He’ll try again for number 600 in the Canucks’ home opener against the Buffalo Sabers at Rogers Arena on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SNO, SNP, MSG-B, ESPN+, SN NOW).
“We’ve been through parenting where you’re tough on them and then you build them back up,” Boudreau said. “It’s not like we go down 6-1 every night and get outplayed. We’ve been there until the end of every game we’ve played, and it just hasn’t bounced back in the seven last minutes of the third period.
“We haven’t been so lucky, but the things that we’re doing so much better than we were a week ago, that we’re doing better than we were two weeks ago, at this continued pace, I’m really excited about what’s to come.”
Special teams played a big part in the winless start. The penalty kill, which also struggled early last season, ranks 31st in the NHL at 58.8%; the power play is 25th in the League at 10.5% after scoring two of 19 chances and allowing two shorthanded goals to tie the game.
“We pride ourselves on building momentum and making a difference, and a lot of games in the NHL come down to penalty kills and power plays,” the forward said. JT Millerwho plays on everyone.
The power play, which finished ninth in the NHL at 23.5% last season, had a chance to put the Canucks ahead in the final six minutes of the third period in each of the last two games, but could not convert. But Miller thinks it’s headed in the right direction.
“We did pretty much everything we could last game to score on those two chances we had [in Minnesota], especially the last one, Miller said. I think everyone had a chance to score, so again we know it’s a long process and we’re happy with the last game on the power play. We have faith in it.”
Miller, who signed a seven-year, $56 million deal Sept. 6 that begins next season, has three points (two goals, one assist) in five games but is team-worst at minus-5 after having been on the ice for the first nine goals conceded.
“I felt like the last two games, I actually started to get more comfortable,” Miller said.
As for the rest of the Canucks, Miller echoed Boudreau’s sentiments.
“It’s not that bad,” Miller said. “It’s five games and we’re going in the right direction whether people realize it or not. We have a ton of belief. It’s optimistic in there. We’re excited to play [Saturday]. We are delighted to be home.
“It’s not low [in the locker room]. There were times on the road trip that were depressing, no doubt, but it’s going to make us stronger at the end of the day, and it’s important that we get through this.”
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