Canucks will finish with fewer home wins than expansion Vancouver Grizzlies
How bad has this season been for the Vancouver Canucks?
The answer: Vancouver Grizzlies bad.
While sinking to last place in the NHL standings wasn’t a surprise after the Canucks traded Quinn Hughes in December, their pitiful performance on home ice has been truly bizarre.
The Canucks have just eight wins in 40 games at Rogers Arena this season. They’ve been much better on the road, with 14 wins in 37 games away from home.
Nobody has been able to explain it, including head coach Adam Foote.
“There’s been lots of talk and discussion about. I don’t [have an explanation], I really don’t,” Foote said when asked about his team’s home record after Tuesday’s game. “I don’t want to look too far into that right now. That’s something we’ll probably have a discussion more about in the offseason.”
With just one more game at Rogers Arena left on the schedule, the Canucks are guaranteed to win under 10 games at home for the first time in franchise history. Even in shortened seasons due to lockouts or the pandemic, other Canucks teams found a way to win at least 10 games at home.
The Canucks’ points percentage on home ice this season will stand up as the worst in the NHL since the Ottawa Senators in 1995-96.
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The 1995-96 season was also Vancouver’s first in the NBA, with the lowly expansion Grizzlies finding a way to win 10 home games. The Grizzlies did it with a ragtag bunch of expansion draft castoffs, with players like Greg Anthony, Blue Edwards, and Bryant “Big Country” Reeves leading the way. They hadn’t yet drafted Shareef Abdur-Rahim or Mike Bibby at that time.
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