VANCOUVER – The interview begins: What’s the longest you’ve gone without scoring?
Conor Garland says, “This is.”
Then he pauses and stares and adds: “Isn’t that a nice way to start an interview? No, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’”
But we actually did say hi when he finally showed up at his dressing room stall, one of the last players off the ice after the Vancouver Canucks practised on Friday. We also mentioned the risk of puck-alanche at his locker, since Garland squirrels away one game-logoed puck from each pre-game warmup, stacks them in his stall like nuts stored for winter, then takes them all home to Massachusetts in the summer so he can shoot them around his property.
Garland, however, didn’t hear any of that because he was staring at rookie teammate Liam Ohgren clowning at the back of a media scrum, extending a stick as if it were a boom mic towards young defenceman Elias Pettersson (Junior) as he was being interviewed by the herd.
“You’re responsible for that,” Garland says, accusing second-year Canuck Max Sasson, sitting a few stalls to the left. “You’re in charge of the rookies.”
Eventually, Garland focusses back on the reporter and asks: “What’s your question?”
How hard is not scoring?
“Not hard,” he says. “I mean, I just worry about trying to help the team win, just play hard and go about your business.”
We suppress the urge to call “liar, liar, pants on fire,” and ask how it can not be hard not scoring when the team is losing.
“Well, we just won,” Garland says. “And you didn't ask me about losing; you asked me about scoring.”
Basically, Conor Garland was busting my chops, which is OK because I was kind of busting his, and he understands how the National Hockey League works.
Play well and score, and win games, and people throw bouquets at you. Go 16 games without a goal and 12 without a point during a January when the Canucks have won twice, and eventually a reporter is going to come by looking for an explanation.
Accountable and professional, verging on old-school, Garland is untroubled by this kind of confrontation. In fact, he said Friday he appreciates it when someone actually asks a hard question to his face rather than just slinging arrows in print.
“It hasn't been fun, obviously,” he says. “We've had some better efforts recently, playing harder, better defensively. But what do we have, two wins in a month? Yeah, it's tough. But we’ve just got to be in games, we have to be fighting. I thought last night was a good effort from us, tied going into the third period and we come out on top. So it was a good step for us. We’ve just got to finish strong before this (Olympic) break.”
The Canucks beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-0 Thursday for their second win in 16 games (2-12-2). But Garland’s pointless streak hit a dozen games — twice as long as any scoring drought he’s had since moving to Vancouver from Arizona before the 2021-22 season.
Last in the NHL by seven points, the Canucks play the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday afternoon to end an eight-game homestand at Rogers Arena. Vancouver plays Monday in Salt Lake City and Wednesday in Las Vegas before mercifully reaching the Olympic break.
Garland has endured a bunch of goal-scoring famines over the years: 18 games two seasons ago, 17 the year before that and 19 during 2021-22. But he has been a remarkably consistent generator of offence, contributing between 46 and 52 points each season.
His last goal was Dec. 16 in New York, two games after his close friend, Quinn Hughes, was traded to Minnesota as the Canucks pivoted hard towards a rebuild. But suggestions the 29-year-old is loafing due to the changing landscape in Vancouver, well, we’re not seeing that.
Garland blocked three shots against the Ducks and put his face in harm’s way on one of them. He fought Jared McCann in Seattle, the game before Garland smacked the back of his head on the ice when slew-footed by Philadelphia Flyer Noah Cates. He missed the first five games of January in concussion protocol, then pushed his way back into the lineup amid the team’s 11-game losing streak.
Almost indestructible his first four years with the Canucks, Garland has had to come out of the lineup four times this season. He missed three games, two games, one game and five games. So we don’t see someone coasting.
We do see a player trying too hard at times to spark offence on a team that has scored two or fewer goals in eight of its last 12 games, a playmaker sometimes forcing passes that aren’t there while not being selfish enough at times with his shot.
Garland, who had a goal taken off the board Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins on a sketchy goalie interference call against Teddy Blueger, believes he is actually playing well.
“Yeah, I do,” he says. “I mean, I don't want to sound delusional, but I'm aware when I don't play well and I’m aware when I play well. I’ve played 500 games, 300 points. It’s not like I just (stopped).
“I mean, it’s not like I'm not creating chances, they're just not going in. It's just a weird little rut. Sometimes you go into ruts where, you know, you make the same plays off the rush, find guys in the slot... but right now, they’re not going in. So just a bit of a rut.”
Garland sprung Evander Kane on a breakaway against Anaheim that his linemate couldn’t finish.
“We just have to put forth good efforts,” Garland says. “You have to make strides. I think guys have to continue to work at their games and get better. Young guys have to take a step with more games in the league. Stay in games, don’t shoot yourself in the foot, don’t go out and have 15 turnovers in the first period. Play winning hockey. Build the style of play that can win consistently.”
Has it been hard to see friends like Hughes and Kiefer Sherwood traded?
“I’ve been traded,” he says. “I got traded from Arizona and my best man (Clayton Keller) was on that team. You lose friends. We’ve traded how many guys here since I've been here?
“Like, Bo (Horvat) was in my wedding, Millsy (J.T. Miller) is a good friend of mine, Huggy’s (Hughes) a good friend of mine. I mean, it happens. Guys get traded; that's just part of the business. Like I said, I just try to control what I can control.”
ICE CHIPS – Top defenceman Filip Hronek missed his second practice in three days due to illness but is expected to play Saturday. Five games into his return from injury, Blueger was given Friday off, as was winger Nils Hoglander, who has been managing an injury... Coach Adam Foote said Brock Boeser, in concussion protocol after Penguin Bryan Rust’s headshot last weekend, will travel with the team on Sunday but probably won’t play until after the Canucks’ schedule break ends on Feb. 25... Veteran goalie Kevin Lankinen put in a lot of extra work after practice, so Foote may be staying with minor-league callup Nikita Tolopilo against the Maple Leafs.
