It’s (not) the end of the world

Contrary to the above song (originally by R.E.M., but this is an excellent cover by Newfoundland’s own Great Big Sea), it’s not the end of the world as we know it for the Vancouver Canucks. Yes, their season has gotten off to a horrible start. Heading into tonight’s game against the Minnesota Wild, they have just four points from six games thanks to a 2-4-0 record (oddly enough, Minnesota’s even worse with a 1-5-0 mark). Yes, all-world goaltender Roberto Luongo has been anything but to date; he’s allowed 20 goals on 163 shots, bad enough for a .860 save percentage and a 3.87 goals-against-average, 48th-worst in the league. Yes, Pavol Demitra is still out of action, and may be so for the foreseeable future [Yankee Canuck, Nucks Misconduct]. Yes, the injury list of Daniel Sedin, Sami Salo, Mathieu Schneider and Jannik Hansen is imposing [Cam Davie, Canucks Army], and Henrik looks much worse without his brother [Richard Loat, Canucks Hockey Blog]. However, I wrote a while ago that it wasn’t time to panic yet. Those words still remain true, despite the additional losses that have followed.

The team has only played six games so far. Of those games, two have been wins and four have been losses. Yes, the four losses were all reasonably bad, but they’re still a very small percentage of the overall season (4.88 per cent, if you want precision). Moreover, the Canucks had two straight wins heading into Friday’s game, causing deserved optimism from some reputable observers, including Puck Daddy’s Sean Leahy. They didn’t show up in that game, but at least part of that can be chalked up to having almost an entire week off; they came out slow against Calgary, and it showed. I expect better from them tonight after getting back into the swing of things.

It’s true that points in October are just as valuable as points in April, but there’s still plenty of time to turn this season around, and you don’t receive any extra credit in the standings for impressive wins or close regulation-time losses. Yes, many of the Canucks’ players have struggled to put up points so far, but I wouldn’t bet against them or dump most of them from my fantasy team yet. This season saw plenty of personnel and line shakeups heading into it, so it’s no surprise that many of the players are still struggling with chemistry. I’d expect good things from lots of them going forward, including Henrik Sedin (a very impressive 10 points in six games so far), Christian Ehrhoff (quietly putting up a point a game so far, despite a few defensive lapses), Alex Burrows (three goals and an assist in six games, despite the absence of Daniel Sedin and the resultant line juggling), Ryan Kesler (also a point-a-game guy so far despite a revolving cast of linemates) and Mikael Samuelsson, who has had some defensive issues but has still put up three goals and three assists despite playing on the second line.

In fact, there really isn’t much wrong with the offence. Vancouver’s twelfth in the league in goals per game with 3.17. That’s tied with Detroit and ahead of San Jose, Boston, Anaheim and Montreal, all typically offensively talented teams. If they can keep that production up, they’re going to win a lot of games.

The defensive side is more of an issue. Yes, Luongo’s struggled, as he tends to do early in the season. The defensive corps is allowing far too many good chances, though, especially in close and on rebounds. As Aaron Davis pointed out in this excellent Canucks Corner piece, Luongo hasn’t gotten a lot of help from his defencemen on several of the goals he’s conceded. The defensive unit needs to take away the top scoring chances and trust that Luongo will make the easy saves; sooner or later, he’ll get back in form and return to his usual brilliance. I have a lot of faith in this cast on paper, and I love the moves Mike Gillis made over the summer to acquire depth on the blue line; there are a lot of talented guys in the organization, including Aaron Rome, Brad Lukowich, Michael Funk and Lawrence Nycholat. Sooner or later, some of them will start playing up to their potential. If that coincides with Luongo’s traditional return to form, there could be great things ahead for the Canucks.

(Of course, if I’m wrong and the Canucks continue to fail in epic fashion, you can always blame the curse of Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski, who predicted they’d win the Cup this year.)

Tags: Aaron Rome, Alex Burrows, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Brad Lukowich, Calgary Flames, Canucks Corner, Canucks Hockey Blog, Christian Ehrhoff, Daniel Sedin, Don't Panic, Greg Wyshynski, Henrik Sedin, Lawrence Nycholat, Michael Funk, Mikael Samuelssson, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Puck Daddy, Roberto Luongo, Ryan Kesler, Sami Salo, San Jose Sharks