VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks have discovered the worst way to extend their hottest streak in 10 years.
They haven’t lost a National Hockey League game in regulation time in five weeks. But they haven’t played one since Jan. 1, and by the time they open a formidable five-game road trip Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, the Canucks will have worked just three games in 25 days.
“You find yourself wishing to just get on the plane today,” Vancouver defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said after yet another practice on Saturday at empty Rogers Arena. “Get to Florida and kind of get the road trip going and get that much closer to the next game.”
That’s normally how Canucks players would feel about a Florida trip in January, but Ekman-Larsson’s comment had nothing to do with the Vancouver weather.
The team is game-stale. Since their first of seven COVID-related postponements three weeks ago, when the Canucks were supposed to play the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver has practised eight times.
Planning to fly Sunday to Florida, the Canucks will get in a ninth practice on Monday before facing the 22-7-5 Panthers on Tuesday.
At least the players will feel rested and still have those positive but fading memories of starting 8-0-1 under coach Bruce Boudreau, who replaced Travis Green on Dec. 5 and still hasn’t lost in regulation.
But while postponing Saturday night’s home game against the Ottawa Senators may have preserved some revenue-to-be-named later for the Canucks, it robbed the team of its last chance to rekindle any kind of playing rhythm before running the NHL’s southeast gauntlet: five games in eight nights against Florida, Tampa, Carolina, Washington and Nashville – all top-eight in the overall standings as of Saturday.
As captain Bo Horvat summarized on Friday: “Not only do we have to worry about winning hockey games ... but we’ve got to worry whether we’re going to test positive the next day or if we’re going to make it home from a road trip or get left behind. That part is frustrating, especially with the things we’ve got going on. We’re playing good hockey and the shutdowns have been frustrating for us. But again, we can’t have any excuses. We can’t dwell on it. We’ve got to go out and play and try to win hockey games.”
But with which players remains a mystery.
Boudreau confirmed Saturday that winger Brock Boeser, out since his positive COVID test on Dec. 29, qualified as a U.S. citizen to return home during his quarantine and should meet the Canucks in Florida.
Based on talking to Boudreau and other sources, here’s what else we know: centre Elias Pettersson will travel with the team if he emerges from protocol as expected; forward Jason Dickinson, who tested positive in Seattle on Jan. 1 but never crossed back into Canada, will also meet the team in Florida; but depth forwards Justin Dowling and Phil di Giuseppe, who are Canadian citizens, are stuck in the federal government’s 10-day quarantine after testing positive in California before flying back to Vancouver on a medical charter arranged by the team. Another forward, Alex Chiasson, went into protocol this week under provincial jurisdiction and could rejoin the Canucks on the road.
For a safety net, the Canucks have named a travelling taxi squad that includes minor-leaguers Justin Bailey, Sheldon Rempal, Ashton Sautner and third goalie Spencer Martin.
“It's something I'm totally new with,” Boudreau said of the lineup uncertainty and protocol quagmire. “You think you have a healthy lineup, and then you go home and you find out two guys have tested positive or this and that. It's frustrating (but) every team has done it ... so we're all in the same boat. If you get a bump in the road, you've just got to make sure that you get over it and push forward and not dwell on it and not worry about it.”
But going 10 days without playing isn’t ideal preparation for the hardest road trip of the season, a five-pack that had looked before the Canucks’ second extended schedule break since mid-December like truth serum for the team’s apparent resurrection under Boudreau.
Their 8-0-1 points streak – Vancouver is 10-1-1 if you include the turnaround that began under Green – is the Canucks’ longest since a 10-0-3 run in the winter of 2011-12.
Saturday’s game against Ottawa was postponed on about 36 hours' notice when B.C. health officials suggested the Canucks might need to reduce seating capacity to 25 per cent after the organization had worked during the week to meet the publicly stated mandate of 50 per cent capacity.
It becomes the sixth home game the Canucks will need to make up.
The postponement would have been bitterly disappointing for Vancouver players, who may be 50/50 partners with owners in NHL revenue but badly want to play games.
“I guess one good thing about the guys that got sick is that they're feeling good, and that's all we care about,” Ekman-Larsson said. “We can't really do anything about ... the protocols and stuff like that. We kind of said in the group that we're going to stay positive and whatever happens can happen, and we just deal with it when that day comes. We're just trying to stay positive.”
Boudreau is sure of at least one thing amid all the uncertainty: his players will be excited on Tuesday.
“I can only think that if I was a player, the last thing I want to do is practise for an hour every day and skate my rear end off,” the coach said. “I think the games are where everybody has fun when you're successful. I think they're really looking forward to playing.
“It'd be a challenge just for any team when they take 10 days off and have to come back and the first team you're playing is arguably one of the top five teams in the league. So, it's going to be a real challenge. Hopefully, we're a team that accepts challenges and we're not afraid of challenges. I'm just a big believer that you embrace these things and say: 'Let's see what we've got.'”
And who.
