Dismal loss reflects inconsistency plaguing Canucks at home

VANCOUVER — You know a game has gone seriously wrong when the coach begins his press conference with a statement.

“I apologize to the fans,” Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet told reporters Thursday night. “We're not playing good enough at home. It's on me. Guys played light tonight. I thought we were ready to go; we weren't. It's on me. 

“I've got to get this team to play harder in the first periods. Spurts here and there, but not enough from a lot of guys. So, got to go practise tomorrow and go right back to the drawing board.”

With winger Dakota Joshua returning from cancer and rookie Jonathan Lekkerimaki scoring his first National Hockey League goal, the Canucks had reasons to be inspired Thursday night at Rogers Arena. 

They weren’t. 

They lost 5-2 to the middling New York Islanders, who outshot the Canucks 24-6 in the first two periods. The sixth Vancouver shot was added by the official scorer after the game, and none of the six was from inside 20 feet.

The first half of the Canucks’ six-game homestand — two dismal losses sandwiched around an impressive win — reflects the inconsistency that has plagued the team since the season began.

They are 6-1 on the road, 2-3-3 at home.

If you were grading the Canucks’ last seven games, starting with the 6-0 debacle against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 30 in Vancouver, the marks would be: F, C+, B, A, D, B, F. 

On a report card, their teacher’s comment would be something like: “Johnny Canuck is a bright, well-intentioned student, but his attention wanders and he needs to apply himself more consistently.”

The parents would be called in for a meeting.

Tocchet will be holding his own meetings.

“We're too light of a team,” he said, referring to the Canucks’ tendency at home to evaporate in front of their checks. “You can not guess where the puck goes (on the forecheck). You don't have to kill people, you don't have to ram guys through the boards, even though every once in a while I wouldn't mind it. I'd rather a guy just stay in front of a guy. That's your man. We're just spinning off (people). It's got to stop. That's really what it comes down to.

“It's a frustrating situation because the fans are (paying), what is it, two, three, five hundred bucks. . . and we're throwing some duds at them. So I apologize to the fans again. We've got to correct this.”

From the time Lekkerimaki opened scoring on a rush 2:40 into the game, surprising New York goalie Semyon Varlamov with a quick, heavy, short-side shot from the left-wing circle, the Canucks had two shots the rest of the first period: one from centre ice, the other from near their own blue line. These “shots” came 13 minutes apart. Varlamov could have been doing Sudoku.

Although the Canucks trailed all over the ice, somehow making one of the NHL’s oldest teams look fast, they didn’t trail at the intermission because the Islanders managed only a poorly-defended power-play goal at 17:23 from Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Power plays finished 5-1 for the Islanders, which was an accurate reflection of zone pressure.

You might have thought the Canucks’ second period couldn’t possibly be worse than the first. And you’d have been wrong.

Quinn Hughes’ turnover led to a flukey double-deflection goal for Islander Scott Mayfield 14 seconds into the middle frame. But there was no bad luck, only bad defending, when Islander Pierre Engvall planted himself goal-side in front of defenceman Carson Soucy and scored easily on a rebound at 2:10 after Simon Holmstrom beat Canuck Teddy Blueger to the slot for a point-blank chance.

Not much mattered after that, including the 20 volume-shots the Canucks tossed towards Varlamov in the third period.

Naturalstattrick.com had the final high-danger chances 11-2 for the Islanders at five-on-five.

“We just keep making a habit of making other teams’ nights way too easy,” Canuck centre J.T. Miller said. “They look like they have time and space because we don't do anything to disrupt them on the forecheck. We turned over way too many pucks today. So, yeah, it's not good.”

Still 8-4-3 despite their recurring problems, the Canucks face their first back-to-back games of the season this weekend, against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday and the Nashville Predators the next night.

“We've just got to put in a full effort every night,” defenceman Vincent Desharnais said. “There's no secret weapon. We're just too soft. We're not playing to our identity. We got one goal tonight and we just stopped playing. They just outplayed us. They wanted the game more. That's what happened, and that's what happened against some other teams, too. It's just unacceptable. We've just got to be better.

“We're going to lose games. We can't win all 82, so it's normal to lose games. But it's not normal to lose games like we're doing right now. We're letting our goalies down. We're not playing to our standards right now. We have a big stretch of games coming, and we've got to figure it out. We've got to come together, play as a team, play hard. That's our identity. That's when the Canucks are so hard to play against: in-your-face hockey, straight ahead. We have skill; we will score goals once we get there. But we're just not playing hard enough. That's the bottom line.”