The Canucks need better culture and that can be worked on every day. In this respect, the degree to which the league’s worst team has dug in and battled in recent games is a small step in the right direction.

The Canucks traded Conor Garland because they could. He was the most tradeable big piece that GM Patrik Allvin had, and the move is emphatic evidence of the seismic shift the Canucks have undertaken.

Losing should never be acceptable. But if the Canucks can lose the way they did Wednesday to the Hurricanes, they will earn respect and patience from their fans during what is going to be a loyalty-testing rebuild.

It sure would help the sales team if the Canucks didn’t look so overmatched and uncompetitive during deadline week. But after another lopsided loss on Monday, the Canuck have just one game remaining to showcase themselves.

It was stunningly silent around the highest-paid Canuck in Seattle, where Elias Pettersson played his way on to the fourth line before sitting out the final 10 minutes of a 5-1 loss. Iain MacIntyre has more takeaways.