Canucks return home with positive mindset after winless road trip
Earned two points during stretch that started with three regulation losses
By
Kevin Woodley
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
They started with an 0-3-2 road trip that concluded with consecutive 4-3 overtime losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday and Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Vancouver remains the only team without a win in the NHL and has surrendered a lead in all five games.
But coach Bruce Boudreau is trying to focus on the positives after the Canucks season began with three straight regulation losses.
"The [Stanley Cup Playoffs] aren't won in October, unless you're playing baseball," Boudreau said. "We just went through a lot of clips of the last game and there's so many positives that if we keep doing the right things, these losses will turn into wins, and they'll stay wins for a long time."
The Canucks started the season with a 3-0 lead against the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 12, only to surrender five straight goals in a 5-3 loss. They then blew two-goal leads against the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Columbus, becoming the first team in NHL history to lose four straight games after holding a multigoal lead in each.
They've been tied or leading going into the third period of every game, including 3-2 on Thursday.
Boudreau, who has been stuck on 599 NHL wins for six straight games dating to the finale last season, called his team "mentally weak" after surrendering a two-goal lead against the Capitals on Monday but said Friday he's seen improvement in the two games since.
He'll try again for No. 600 in the Canucks home opener against the Buffalo Sabres at Rogers Arena on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SNO, SNP, MSG-B, ESPN+, SN NOW).
"We've gone through the parenting where you're tough on them and then you build them back up," Boudreau said. "It's not like we're losing 6-1 every night and getting outplayed. We're right there until the end in every game we've played, and it just hasn't bounced our way in the last seven minutes of the third period.
"We haven't had that luck, but the things we're doing so much better than we were doing a week before, which we're doing better than we were doing two weeks before, at that continued pace I'm really excited about what's coming."
Special teams have played a big role in the winless start. The penalty kill, which also struggled at the start of last season, ranks 31st in the NHL at 58.8 percent; the power play is 25th in the League at 10.5 percent after scoring two goals on 19 chances and has allowed two short-handed goals that tied games.
"We pride ourselves on getting momentum and being a difference maker, and a lot of games in the NHL come down to penalty killing and power play," said forward J.T. Miller, who plays on each.
The power play, which finished ninth in the NHL at 23.5 percent last season, had a chance to put the Canucks ahead in the final six minutes of the third period in each of the past two games but couldn't convert. But Miller thinks it's trending the right direction.
"We did about as much as we could last game to score on those two chances we had [in Minnesota], especially that last one," Miller said. "I think everybody had a scoring chance, so once again, we know it's a long process and we feel good about the power play last game. We have faith in it."
Miller, who signed a seven-year, $56-million contract Sept. 6 that starts next season, has three points (two goals, one assist) in five games, but is a team-worst minus-5 after being on the ice for the first nine goals against.
"I felt like the last couple games, I've actually started getting more comfortable," Miller said.
As for the rest of the Canucks, Miller echoed Boudreau's sentiments.
"It's not that bad," Miller said. "It's five games and we're trending in the right direction, whether people realize it or not. We have a ton of belief. It's upbeat in there. We're excited to play [Saturday]. We're excited to be home.
"It's not down [in the locker room]. There were moments on the road trip that were depressing, no question, but it's going to make us stronger at the end of the day, and it's important we go through it."
