Rossi and Foote get honest about fatal flaws that are derailing the Vancouver Canucks
It was arguably the Vancouver Canucks’ worst performance of the season.
Sure, they only lost 3-1 to the St. Louis Blues. Heck, they’ve had more lopsided defeats on this homestand.
But this loss represented a new level of bad.
The Canucks had just two shot attempts at five-on-five after one period. They only generated seven unblocked shot attempts at five-on-five total through two periods.
When the game ended, they had just 13 unblocked shot attempts at five-on-five, their lowest total of the season.
And it wasn’t like the Canucks were facing a Stanley Cup contender on Saturday night. Although the Blues have played better, they’re still a bottom-five team in the NHL.
So, leave it to the new guy to explain why the Canucks continue to trend downwards.
“We were really disconnected first and second period,” Marco Rossi said.
At least Rossi is trying to do his part. He picked up an assist on the only goal of the game by Filip Hronek. He’s now on a five-game point streak, picking up 10 points in that stretch.
Unfortunately, it’s not rubbing off on the rest of the team.
“We play too cute,” he said. “We play too much on the outside. We’re not going enough into the inside, the dirty areas. That’s missing in our game.”
Pretty honest assessment from a guy who’s played a grand total of 20 games with the Canucks.
But even Adam Foote, who’s had the best seat in the house to witness one of the most discombobulated seasons in Canucks history, offered further insight into why this team is losing.
“We have struggled in second periods because we get caught,” he said. “We’re not skating.”
He’s talking about the fact that the Canucks often get back to the bench too casually, something that they’ve been burned on a lot with the long second-period change.
“We get caught in our end easily, and we have a hard time stopping cycles. Once we get [the puck] out, you’ve got to change, and they’re right back down.”
The changes were really weak, like, they weren’t even proper, we didn’t dump the puck deep enough and push them back to their own end.”
“It’s hard to generate offence when you’re in your own end, and you’re having these changes.”
The Canucks have been bad all year, but especially in second periods. Their goal differential in the second frame is -39. The next worst team (which is a tie between the Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks and the Blues) is -21.
But the fact that Foote is talking about sloppy changes in Game No. 69 might say all you need to know about this Canucks season.