VANCOUVER — As winger Conor Garland put it recently, you’re either winning or learning. The Vancouver Canucks must be doing a ton of learning.
Their 3-2 home loss Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins was their 30th regulation loss in 52 games this season. No other National Hockey League team has more than 25 outright losses, and 20 of 32 clubs have 20 or fewer.
The Canucks have lost 13 of their last 14 games (1-11-2).
Centre Teddy Blueger watched the first 11 of those losses (in a row) from the press box before returning from a three-month absence due to injury. It wasn’t things he saw that taught him something about the Canucks as much as some of his beliefs being reinforced by what he witnessed.
He didn’t like the reckless and dangerous hit he watched at the buzzer Sunday when Penguin Bryan Rust took a wild run at Brock Boeser to clear him from the front of the net in a last-second scramble, but shouldered the Canuck in the head.
The NHL’s department of player safety will make a ruling on supplemental discipline for Rust.
But what Blueger really hated was how easily and meekly Vancouver sagged in the second period, when a couple of mistakes led to the Penguins’ first goal, which seemed to dispirit the Canucks, which then led to a couple more Pittsburgh goals and a 3-0 deficit.
It was exactly the kind of lull that head coach Adam Foote lamented last week when he said Canuck veterans were the “first ones to feel defeated.” The kind of mini-collapse that has plagued the team much of the season.
“Obviously, the pushback was good,” Blueger said of the Canucks’ two-goal third period. “We had a couple of Grade-A chances in the last couple minutes, but obviously we can't keep putting ourselves in that position every night and chasing it like that.
“We just don't have the right mentality to kind of combat that (second-period lull) as quick as we need to. So we give up, it seems, goals in bunches almost every night, which is obviously a problem.”
Blueger scored a deflected goal from Filip Hronek’s shot to bring the Canucks within one with six minutes to go after Jake DeBrusk’s rebound chip-in started the comeback at 6:29 of the final period.
During the middle period that decided the game, Blueger briefly scuffled after a whistle with Pittsburgh defenceman Parker Wotherspoon and took exception to Penguins rookie Ben Kindel digging at a puck under Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen.
(For most of the night, “home fans” had only Kindel to cheer for, as the 18-year-old from the Vancouver area, the son of former professional soccer players Steve Kindel and Sara Maglio, scored twice in his first NHL game in his hometown).
In the third period, Blueger also leaned down the bench to verbally engage Sidney Crosby, who was upset enough with the Canuck’s linemate to two-hand rookie Liam Ohgren on his way off the ice.
You see, one of the things that was reinforced for Blueger while he was out is that the Canucks need more players who can provide a spark.
“I think in a way, it's easier for me just because I haven't played in a while, so I have that built-up energy,” he said. “But even watching from up top, one thing I loved about Woody's game (traded Canuck Kiefer Sherwood) — I know he was scoring and playing great and all that — but I feel like every night, he was competing and he was working and he was hard to play against. He kind of brought us into the fight a lot. When the energy is a little low, I think you need a bit of a spark or something to happen, whether it's a big hit or a goal or whatever it can be.”
Certainly, the Canucks re-ignited in the final period.
“I think on that last road trip (0-6-0), the most frustrating thing for us was we didn't show a whole lot of resilience,” veteran defenceman Marcus Pettersson said. “So that's a positive thing that we've had in the last few games here. But we also don't want to be putting ourselves in that situation where we have to show that all the time. We can get better starts and make sure to kind of (limit) periods within the period where the other team gets momentum. We’ve got to snap out of it a little bit better.
“We showed some resilience in the third and pushed, but sometimes we get a little too emotional. We let our emotions get the best of us in the second period there. It's too long of a period where we lose control of the game.”
At least the team turned it into a more noble defeat. Just like last game, Friday’s 5-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils after Vancouver fell behind 3-0, the Canucks rallied on Sunday and were pressing with an extra attacker at the end. Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner made the save of the night against Boeser on a rebound with about one minute to go.
In a sense, big-picture, these were perfect games for a rebuilding team that is well out of the playoff race. Play some kids, make some mistakes, but compete and push back relentlessly, losing valiantly in front of the home fans against a more talented opponent — while solidifying your draft-lottery status.
Thankfully, this isn’t the way Canucks players view it.
“No, that's a way of looking at it where you're only going to create bad habits,” Pettersson said. “We keep that (mindset) out of this room. We're competitive guys, and we're here for a reason, and we want to win every game, every shift we're out there.”
“I mean, we can't have that mindset,” Blueger said. “If we talk about, like, the rebuild and all this stuff... when you're playing in March and April and you're already out of it, I don't think the young guys are learning a whole lot. So I think we can't accept losing.
“We’ve got to set ourselves to a higher standard than maybe what's expected from us on the outside. We just have to, you know, compete every game. I don't think close losses, we should be like, ‘Okay, good job, we were close.’ That's not the kind of thing we want if we’re (going to) build something here. It kind of starts with not accepting that.”
Now 1-4 on their season-long eight-game homestand, the Canucks play the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.
QUOTEBOOK
Foote on Rust’s hit to Boeser: “It was a headshot. It was his shoulder and his head. I'm sure the league will look at it. Even though he may have been desperate to get Boes down because it was a scrum at the net, I still think it was something that you’ve got to be in control of your body. I thought it was a little bit of a vicious hit to the head.”
Blueger, who played with Rust in Pittsburgh: “It seemed pretty dirty to me watching it on the replay. I don't think Rusty’s a dirty player, but I think it was pretty clear head contact. It was obviously a bit of a scramble, so I'm not sure if the refs maybe didn't see it or what, but it seemed pretty dirty.”
