The feel-good story of the season thus far has been the rapid rise of the Vancouver Canucks. With a heavy amount of young and exciting latent, the team went into the All-Star break looking like contenders.
However, it has not been all sunshine and rainbows over the past couple of weeks in Vancouver. While the team still sits atop the Pacific Division, holding the best record in the NHL, the Canucks have faltered lately, which has brought up cause for concern.
As of Wednesday, they have lost three straight games, including that wild 10-7 final score against the Minnesota Wild on Monday. Following a defeat at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, Vancouver is 10 points up on the Vegas Golden Knights.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Luke Gazdic joins Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk to talk about whether or not the Canucks should be worried.
Luke Gazdic: I thought this is the first real adversity we’ve seen. Good coaches always used to tell us that good teams don’t lose three in a row. I didn’t think that was coming last night, but that’s now three, I would call it, very tough emotional losses, too. The Hockey Night in Canada versus the Jets at home, that’s a battle. Put aside Minnesota, obviously.
Their power play is the worst its been, worst in the league since Feb. 8. They went 0-for-2 last night [against the Avs]. This is a big test for them. I think this is the regression, baby regression, that everyone’s been expecting from this team. I’ve been in locker rooms, and I’ve been on teams like this when you hit your first road bump. Everything starts to get put under a microscope. This is where your veterans really have to take over…and lead the way.
These situations can go one way for the other. They can figure this out quickly, and prove to people that this is a good hockey team…or this can be the fair amount of regression that many people have been calling for a while here.
You can watch the full segment, and entire episode here…
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