It’s no secret that the Vancouver Canucks have stumbled out of the gate to start the 2021-22 season. With struggles, come scrutiny from the media and fanbase, especially in a rabid Canadian hockey market like Vancouver. Now sporting a mediocre record of 5-9-2, a historically bad penalty kill, and a defensive system that looks like swiss cheese, everyone is looking for answers.
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General manager Jim Benning promised the fanbase a better team this season that could compete for the playoffs. So far, they look like a team that will end up competing for Shane Wright rather than Lord Stanley. Head coach Travis Green is trying to get his team to tune out the noise and just focus on what they can control – their play on the ice.
Green understands the passion in the city and why people are upset but says that the players in the locker room are passionate too. “There’s no one that’s more unhappy than the people in our room with the record…they want to win the games more than the people want to come to the arena and win the games, so there’s passion in our room to win,” said Green. “So I do understand why people get upset, but as far as listening to the outside noise…no, it doesn’t have any effect on me one way or the other.”
Ownership Meeting With Benning About Why the Canucks Are Losing
Reports in Vancouver on Tuesday indicated that Benning met with Francesco Aquilini and the Canucks ownership group about the recent losing streak and the disastrous road trip that saw the Canucks give up 19 goals in three games. According to Elliotte Friedman, it was just a dialogue about why they are losing and what steps could be taken to remedy it, not anything about a change in personnel. Although, we can’t know for sure since Benning and Aquilini declined to comment.
As for what Green thinks about the Canucks recent struggles, he basically repeated everything that has been discussed across the internet over the past few days. He, of course, didn’t like the road trip but seemed to think that his team played pretty well 5-on-5. He also stated that he liked parts of their game against the Vegas Golden Knights, a game in which they scored the first two goals and eventually lost 7-4.
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In the end, the only way the Canucks are going to successfully “tune out” the noise is to start playing better and winning hockey games. If they don’t, especially on this upcoming homestand, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some walking papers being issued to members of the coaching staff as soon as next week. The first of those tests happen tonight against the same Colorado Avalanche that started this mess when they dispatched them 7-1 last Thursday in Denver.