“It was probably our best game of the year.”
Those were the words of Vancouver Canucks head coach Adam Foote after his team played the Dallas Stars Thursday night at Rogers Arena.
Unfortunately for the Canucks, they lost 4-2 to the Stars.
The defeat left Foote’s team with a 9-11-2 record and 20 points – good for 13 th in the 16-team Western Conference. If the Canucks are to entertain any thoughts of the post-season, a turnaround needs to happen sooner rather than later.
So how do they turn it around?
The biggest culprit for Vancouver’s issues this season has been woeful defending. The Canucks have given up 81 goals in 22 games – only Edmonton has given up more with 84.
So what gives?
Injuries have hit the team hard this season and having goaltender Thatcher Demko and defenseman Derek Forbort out of the lineup hasn’t helped but there is more to it than just injuries.
There has been a change in systems from previous head coach Rick Tocchet to Foote, and with that, comes a period of transition.
Tocchet employed a zone coverage which forced the opposition to the perimeter. Foote likes to utilize a swarm defense which pressures the puck carrier and requires some more decision-making.
For some players, the transition has caused paralysis by analysis. Simply put, some are thinking and not reacting according to veteran defenseman Marcus Pettersson.
“With the injuries, we have a lot of young guys still trying to find their way and trying to fit in, and yeah, maybe it is a little bit of paralysis by analysis,” answered Pettersson when queried on the topic.
What compounds that issue is a lack of trust. A player has to trust his teammate in that he will execute his assignment. The problem lies, in that when someone tries to help out in a situation, his own responsibilities then become compromised.
Foote brought up an example of his playing days when he left a structurally-sound Colorado team and then wound up playing for a team in Columbus that didn’t have that trust.
“I was early when I shouldn’t have been there and then I was on pause some times because of the trust factor. I think what you’ll see with us sometimes is that guys will double-up when it’s not a double-up situation. Then they get themselves in a two-on-one situation and you leave the pass to the next guy who’s open,” he said the morning prior to the Stars game.
“You get caught sometimes in a situation where you’re too early or you’re too late. We’re lacking a little bit of trust. That’s something we continue to touch on. We had a real deep meeting on it yesterday regarding our d-zone coverage. It’s like we’re there, but if one guy doesn’t stop the cycle, we’re going to help him too early instead of letting that player get back to defending him one-on-one.”
Then again, what Foote is explaining is easily resolved if you just win more puck battles according to defenseman Tyler Myers.
“Guys are defending hard. I just think we’re defending too much. A lot of it is just winning your battle and winning 50-50’s on the puck and spending more time in the other end of the ice,” explained Myers.
And everything is connected added Myers. Solid defending isn’t just about executing your responsibilities in your zone. It also encompasses being responsible in the neutral zone as well.
“I think a lot of it stems in our neutral zone in terms of our neutral zone offense and defense. There a lot of different areas of the rink that we can look at. When we are responsible there, I think it helps in the other areas,” added Myers
OVERTIME
* With the Canucks just over a quarter of the way into the season, we asked Foote for an assessment of his club.
“There are times when you think we could have had that game and a couple of more points, or let that one slide, but you have to look at the positives. We were put into situations where we were banged up. We’re in a situation where once we start getting these guys back…there are players that have grown a lot and it’s just going to make us stronger and have depth.” responded Foote. “I love the resilience of these guys and we’ll try to focus on what we’ve done well and keep growing,.
* One positive in the loss to Dallas was the Canucks holding the Stars at bay in two power play opportunities. The Stars have been deadly on the power play this season operating at 31.0% – good for second in the league. The Canucks PK unit sits dead last in the NHL with a 68.1% success rate. Last season, the unit was one of the team’s strengths as it finished third overall with an 82.7% success rate.
So why the drastic freefall? The injuries to Forbort and Teddy Bleuger have impacted the unit as well as the loss of Pius Suter, one of the team’s top penalty killers who signed with St. Louis as a free agent in the off-season. The good news is that this unit didn’t start playing at an elite level until after the Christmas break last season and Foote is hoping that’s the case again this time around.
* Speaking of Blueger, he is back practicing with the team in a non-contact jersey and is expected to return to the lineup soon according to Foote.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes about the B.C. sporting scene for Black Press Media. This column is brought to you by:
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