The Vancouver Canucks might be in trouble.
Even though they have their full compliment of stars, minus Filip Hronek, the Canucks continue to play mediocre hockey.
The main culprit? Their stars, outside of Quinn Hughes, are missing in action.
The contest against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday was yet another example of the Canucks being kept in the game by tight defence, good goaltending and offence from the bottom of their lineup.
If their stars weren’t mired in a funk and noise about dressing-room tension, they likely wouldn’t have lost five of their last seven games.
The noise around the J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson saga only got louder on Thursday night, as both players struggled immensely. Rick Tocchet continued to rotate them on and off the first power play unit as if they’re allergic to sharing the ice together with the man advantage. The fact that he decided to keep up the power play swapping charade while the Canucks were down by a goal late in the third seemed telling.
Canucks fans’ frustration with the lack of output from their star players culminated on Vegas’ game-sealing empty net goal. J.T. Miller waived his arms at netminder Kevin Lankinen for not getting to the bench fast enough. Then, the Canucks stars executed an extremely clumsy breakout from their own end. An Elias Pettersson turnover to Noah Hanifin sealed the game as Brett Howden buried the easiest empty net goal of his life.
Empty net goal for Vegas!
Scored by Brett Howden with 00:50 remaining in the 3rd period.
Assisted by Noah Hanifin.
Vegas: 3
Vancouver: 1#VANvsVGK #VegasBorn #Canucks pic.twitter.com/fbNinfhshp— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) December 20, 2024
Canucks stars Miller, Pettersson, Boeser struggling
There are two massive problems which are dragging the Canucks down right now.
Their stars are struggling, and their offence is anemic.
Of course, those two issues are tightly intertwined.
In terms of offensive output from their star players, all three members of the formerly dynamic Lotto Line are slumping.
Miller hasn’t scored on an NHL goalie in nearly two months. He has just two empty-net goals in his last 14 games, with his last non-empty net goal coming on October 26 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Pettersson is now pointless in five games since Miller returned to the lineup. He did pile up a ton of assists in Miller’s absence, but Pettersson has registered just two goals in his last 15 games.
Brock Boeser hasn’t looked as dynamic since returning from a concussion he suffered on November 7. He has just two goals and eight points in his last 13 games after rejoining the Canucks’ lineup.
None of them are scoring, and none of them are looking all that dangerous either.
In the Canucks’ last 15 games, only five players have scored more than two goals.
NHL.com
The Canucks have the talent to be a dangerous team, but they aren’t going anywhere this season until Miller, Pettersson, and Boeser break out of their funks.
Tocchet did reunite the Lotto Line for a couple of very quick shifts against Vegas. Perhaps that’s the unorthodox answer to solve the Canucks’ offensive woes.
Something has to change because right now, the Canucks have the most anemic offence in the entire NHL.
Over their last 15 games, the Canucks have registered just 23.5 shots on net per game. That’s the lowest total in the NHL, narrowly behind the lowly Chicago Blackhawks. They’ve allowed 29.6 shots per game during this stretch, giving them the worst shot differential in hockey as well.
Teams don’t win many games playing like this.