Hurricanes 2, Canucks 0: Abysmal performance. Can this continue?

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The Carolina Hurricanes are the fastest team in the NHL, literally.

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There is data from the NHL that proves this.

The Vancouver Canucks, on the other hand, are not. They’re somewhere just below average, although there is a difference whose average top speed is about the same as Vancouver’s.

Anyway, one of these teams is a Stanley Cup contender and the other is clearly not.

The Hurricanes got on the Canucks early and then gave nothing up, powering themselves to a 2-0 win.

Carolina was tired. They had played a game the night before against the Toronto Maple Leafs — Vancouver’s opponent on Saturday, oddly enough — a lively, energetic game, so you knew they were looking to play a close, close game.

Against a defensive opponent like that, you have to try to skate.

It’s unfortunate that the Canucks weren’t built for this.

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More than anything else it goes back to their defense corps. A defense corps with a bright star – and a collection of lumbering asteroids. The Canucks can’t move the puck up the ice fast enough.

This is a failure of management that allowed two defensemen, Ian Cole and Nikita Zadorov – who can actually move the ball – to leave last season and failed to replace their skills at all.

They didn’t even need to do the same, they just needed to find an equivalent skill set.

The Canucks head to Toronto on Saturday — assuming they can make it out of Raleigh, which has seen dozens of flights canceled or delayed due to weather — where they’ll have to do a better job of taking their chances.

“We gave up 25 times,” Rick Tocchet noted after the match. They actually missed 20 shots, but when they only had 64 shot attempts. They only had 15 on the net. This won’t get it done.

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Road warriors no more

Early in the season, the Canucks were incredibly good on the road.

But the slow death of their game is now happening on the road, too.

They have one win on the road in the past month.

Failed shooting

The Canucks haven’t scored at five-on-five in four of their last six games. Hat tip to Jeff Patterson of Rink Wide for pointing this out.

When you don’t get the puck on net, how can you expect to score?

The Canucks have proven themselves to be elite more often than not, so there’s something here. Is it skill? Is it luck? Is it effortless?

Take your chances

High-risk opportunities are not a perfect measure but are a good corollary to quality opportunities in one way or another. This means you deliver the puck to the crease. This is where goals are scored.

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Carolina beats Vancouver 8-5.

What’s even worse is that the Canucks only had one of those in the final 40 minutes.

The Hurricanes brilliantly parked the bus in the slot.

How well? Danton Heinen finished the game +16 on five shot attempts, but only two of those shots by the Canucks actually went into the net.

Brother, do your job

Elias Pettersson is finally back in the lineup and has been very good.

There weren’t any shots on net, but he was everywhere in the offensive zone, so if you’re looking for positives there’s that.

How can this continue?

It’s hard to see how management can see a poor performance like Friday and continue with it.

Change, of course, is bound to come.

They are missing Filip Hronek and Dakota Joshua, and yes, both will make some difference, but there are enough good things in this lineup to believe they can do better.

Imagine they had morning skiing in Toronto on Saturday; It would be absolute chaos.

It’s going to be absolute chaos when it’s back to how it was next.

pj*******@po*******.com

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