'We need B-pluses': Canucks' scoring woes nearing crisis point

VANCOUVER — Step 1 in the Vancouver Canucks’ mission to save their season is getting Thatcher Demko back in net and keeping their star goalie healthy.

OK, maybe that’s two steps. But unless Demko, a Vezina Trophy runner-up just 18 months (and five injuries) ago, developed a wicked one-timer during the last month, the most important next step for the National Hockey League’s last-place team is to re-activate its dormant offence.

The Canucks didn’t do nearly enough to help Kevin Lankinen when the struggling backup, forced back into the starter’s role after Demko strained his groin Nov. 11 against the Winnipeg Jets, lost his last six starts. Vancouver scored seven goals for Lankinen in the six losses, and none on Monday when the Detroit Red Wings won 4-0 despite being outshot 39-20 at Rogers Arena.

Based on their disparate form this season, Demko has a far better chance than Lankinen to win 1-0 in a shootout when the Buffalo Sabres visit the Canucks on Thursday. But it would be nice if teammates scored a few goals, too.

Vancouver sank to the bottom of the standings by going 3-7-2 without Demko, and the team didn’t win any of the seven games during that freefall when the Canucks scored two or fewer goals.

Before the roulette wheel of plot twists started spinning again on the Canucks this season, scoring goals was supposed to be the team’s chief problem. Now that Demko is back, it is also their easiest way out of purgatory.

“We need to give our goalies some help,” winger Jake DeBrusk said after Wednesday’s practice. “I don't remember the last time they've had an easy game.

“As a team, collectively, you’re not going to have your A-game every single night. But right now, we need B-pluses. The old saying, ‘Bring your B?’ Right now, we need B-pluses. We just need to bring a little bit more. I think that the best goals are the ones that you get when you earn them. When it's just an absolute grind to find one, those ones feel the best.”

Well then, a lot of Canucks must be edging towards euphoria because it has been an epic grind to find offence over the last nine games. The scoring famine is epidemic among the team’s best offensive players.

It has been 28 shots without a goal for Kiefer Sherwood, who scored 11 times in the first 12 games but is pointless in his last eight. Brock Boeser has one goal on 25 shots, plus one assist, in his last 10 games. Play-driving Conor Garland has two goals and an assist in 11 games, and Quinn Hughes, whose 76 points last season won the Canucks scoring race by 26, is pointless in six (18 shots) amid the typhoon of conjecture about his uncertain future with the team.

Before he was injured three games ago, top forward Elias Pettersson had one goal and one assist in six games.

But no one is outwardly harder on himself than DeBrusk, who scored a career-high 28 goals last season to lead Vancouver but has one point in seven games and no goals in nine despite putting 27 shots on net during his slump.

DeBrusk could have had a hat trick against Detroit, and Red Wing goalie John Gibson’s pad stop on a point-blank rebound chance that the Canuck actually elevated is one of the saves of the season.

“You can probably tell in my eyes... it’s not something that just goes away,” DeBrusk told reporters. “I mean, I try to remember what it's like to see it go in, to be honest with you. It's just a game of inches, honestly, and sometimes the hockey gods like you and sometimes they don't.

“I think everyone's hard on themselves in their own way. It’s because I care, it's because I want to do better, because I want to win. And last game... I felt responsible. I had the looks to help our team and then we got shut out. If I didn’t feel like this, I'd be worried.

“I think it’s a little bit of bad luck, bad puck luck. It might be mental, could be a lot of things. It'd be nice if we all get hot at the same time. One of us is going to break the dam.”

Garland said, “Offence is a generic word. Our offence is there; we've had our looks and it’s just not going in. It's probably confidence. Making sure you're scoring in practice usually translates — and having confidence. Just believe it. You know, it's harder when you're hoping it goes in than when you're putting it in. I think that's where we're at as a group.”

The collapse in finishing coincides with much better systems play by Vancouver, which in nine games over the last three weeks has surrendered 24 or fewer shots six times. The Canucks have outshot and outchanced opponents during that time, but won only twice, ironically in games in which they were outshot.

“I wouldn't say I'm worried,” coach Adam Foote said. “I'd be worried if we weren’t getting chances. Like Brock Boeser’s getting, even Garly (Conor Garland) is getting, five (grade)-A chances, five-on-five against great opponents. That's a positive. You know, we're hitting some hot goaltending, too. Could we get dirtier goals? Yeah. Can we dig a little deeper? Yes. Are we going to keep teaching that? Yep.

“When you look at the tape, like, everyone's talking about Jake (DeBrusk), and he is all over it. Even today, he got a little bit frustrated in practice there. And I'm just like, ‘Hey, you're getting them, don't be so hard’ (on yourself) because he's all over it right now. Sometimes it can become streaky.”

Sherwood understands that as well as anyone.

“When you generate (scoring chances), it's just a matter of time before they go in,” he said. “Just continue to create chances. At the beginning of the season, a lot of them were going in. Now, not so much. So I just try to stay with it.

“What were the shots last game? Probably nine out of 10 times, you win those games, and especially with the chances that we had. A couple of posts, empty nets. I was just talking to the Sedins today (development coaches Henrik and Daniel), and you can't evaluate based just on the results. There's so much more that goes into it, and you can't lose sight of it. Once they start going in, they'll come in bunches for the team and we'll turn the results around.”

Certainly, Demko will help. He was arguably the best goalie in the NHL in October. It’s not realistic that he could be the best one for the rest of December, but he should provide a significant upgrade in net and a jolt of confidence for a group that desperately needs some.

“If the team's going to go through rough patches, you know, you want to be a part of that, whether you're winning or losing games,” Demko told reporters on Tuesday. “There's nothing worse than sitting out.

“I know... there's a narrative around the whole situation (about his injury history). Any guy can go through and have a great summer and then get hurt. I was sitting there pretty much just beating myself up for a week; you feel guilty and feel bummed out and pissed off and all those things. But it's part of the game, and I can only control so much. At the end of the day, I know that I'm doing everything humanly possible preparation-wise, education-wise. I mean, I'm the guy who feels it the most when things don't turn out the way we want it to.”

Notes

• Pettersson skated before Wednesday’s practice, and Foote said although it is unlikely he will play against the Sabres, the Canucks’ best forward will travel with the team on a four-game trip that starts Sunday in New Jersey... On the impact on the team of “noise” surrounding Hughes, Foote said: “They obviously hear it. And you can feel it certain days more than others. I can feel it certain days more than others. It can affect, for sure, a locker room. I've got to give the guys credit (because) they're in a tough spot hearing the noise, and they keep coming to work every day and keep doing their job. It probably affects some players more than others. But like I said, I give them a lot of credit for the way they're handling it, coming to work, trying to win hockey games and doing their job.”