Canucks abandon winning details early as late rally falls short against Oilers

VANCOUVER – If you are wondering what to make of the Vancouver Canucks after Thursday’s 9-7 carnival-ride loss to the Edmonton Oilers, you are not alone.

“I don’t know what to think of it,” the Canucks’ senior skatesman, defenceman Luke Schenn, said after a loss in which his team surrendered seven goals over 14 minutes and trailed 5-0 and 8-2. “Careless with the puck, didn’t defend hard enough, kind of lost structure and details. At times it looked like everyone was on their own page a little bit. If we want to have a chance. . . we’ve got to play as a five-man unit. That’s the only way. Obviously, we’re going to turn the corner here and continue to improve, but I would agree with your statement: that was playing losing hockey.”

The statement actually originated with Canucks coach Manny Malhotra, who told reporters on the eve of his first training camp a couple of weeks ago: “There’s a very big difference between losing games, which is inevitable. . . and playing losing hockey. The measure of our group will be on playing the right way, doing the things that we’re talking about, having details to your game, which is going to give us an opportunity to win. Those are the measures that, when you look back on a game, did we check the boxes?”

On Thursday, the Canucks incinerated the boxes in the first 29 minutes.

Maybe there were a few checkmarks in the third period, when they scored four times and twice climbed within two goals.

It is difficult to draw conclusions from a rebuilding team’s first two games, especially when we haven’t seen a home-and-home series like they just played against the Oilers, who went 1-1 but won 14-13 on aggregate.

But this much we know: the way the Canucks played the first half of Thursday’s game was losing hockey.

Nobody is demanding they win in this early stage of their rebuild. But the basic expectation is that they compete. As shoddy as they were while the Oilers went ahead by a touchdown in the first 28 minutes, the Canucks gave themselves no chance to compete.

The organization is plotting an entirely different course than a year ago, rebuilding under new management and coaches. But the way they were over-run at the start, the way they threw away pucks and failed to win any battles for them, their slack defending and abandonment of starting goalie Kevin Lankinen looked disconcertingly like last year’s team that won only nine home games and got everybody fired.

Nobody in their right mind should have expected before the season started on Tuesday that the Canucks, widely expected to finish near the bottom of the National Hockey League standings again, should sweep two games against a Stanley Cup contender like the Oilers.

But what had the fan base so energized and excited by the 6-5 overtime win in Edmonton was not the two points, but all those checked boxes as the team hung in and competed against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s Oilers. It was the way the Canucks’ refused to fold after surrendering a late, three-goal lead that was so refreshing and encouraging.

Thursday should be a massive teachable moment for Malhotra, a learning opportunity for the many young Canucks being jolted by the roller-coaster of inexperience.

“You know, body language, winning battles and stuff, that shouldn’t be a roller-coaster,” Canucks centre Marco Rossi said. “Every night we should be the hungry team. We said before the game, like, every team who comes in here, it has to be tough for them. But it was super easy for them tonight. We’ve got to learn from it.

“It was really bad — no effort, we lost like every battle. It’s the best league in the world; we knew they were coming. But it shouldn’t happen like that. You’re going to lose all 84 games if you play like that. It’s unacceptable how we played the first 30 minutes.”

Rossi led the score-effect-aided surge in the third period with two of Vancouver’s four goals against Edmonton goalie Devon Levi, who looked about as permeable as creasemate Tristan Jarry did on Tuesday.

Lankinen was airlifted out of the game at 8:23 of the second period after Kasperi Kapanen’s breakaway goal – Edmonton’s second short-handed marker on the same Vancouver power play – made it 8-2. Shots were 20-5 for the Oilers at that point.

Pre-season waiver pickup Leevi Merilainen (no relation to Levi) played 31 minutes in relief for the Canucks and allowed one goal in 11 shots.

Elias Pettersson matched Rossi’s three points for Vancouver, but nobody came close to matching McDavid, who had a goal and four assists. Canuck sophomores Zeev Buium and Linus Karlsson were each minus-three.

“That stings,” Canuck newcomer Paul Cotter said. “Unacceptable, I guess. They are. . . obviously an elite team. An overtime win against them last game (so) you know they’re going to make a push, which they did. I am proud how we didn’t give up (and) went till the buzzer there. But, I mean, it’s on us players to make sure that those nine goals don’t happen.”

“Obviously, they came out flying,” Schenn said. “But I think the last thing we said coming out of the dressing room before the game was ‘expect it to be way harder than it was last game.’ And yeah, they started on time. We didn’t.

“I guess the one thing you could say is we didn’t roll over in the third. But at the same time, I mean, look how many goals we’ve given up in two games. I’m sure they’re going to say the same thing. The good news is I don’t think we see each other for a while.”

The Canucks practise Friday before back-to-back weekend home games against the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights.

“There’s a lot to be learned from that game,” Malhotra said. “How we want to develop this team and how we want to grow as a group. . . one of the staple things that we’ve been discussing is not riding the emotional wave of a season. You know, we win a game, everything’s great; you lose a game, everything’s bad. So we’re going to have that same philosophy coming tomorrow. We’re going to watch the video. We’re going to learn from it. We’ll have a discussion in the morning, we’ll get on the ice (and) clean some things up. But tomorrow’s going to be a new day.”