January 16th, 2025
JC Clemas
One of these months, the Canucks Panic Meter will be a “they’ve been good, but here are some nagging issues.” This is not that month. The Canucks have been absolutely terrible since the last edition of this, winning just 5 games in the month that’s passed since. It’s time for the third edition of the Canucks Panic Meter, where I take frequent breaks to meditate so I can keep some of my anger from translating onto the page.
Soucy-Juulsen
In past editions of the Canucks Panic Meter, I’ve mentioned how much of an issue the defense is. This time, I need to specifically look at the pairing of Carson Soucy and Noah Juulsen. Now, while they gave me some great content yelling outside the Bell Centre, I’m not sure it’s worth the torture they’ve put me through this season. There are 100 defensive pairings in the NHL who have played 200+ minutes together this season. The pairing of Soucy - Juulsen ranks 96th in expected goals percent (stats from moneypuck.com). Some of the names in the bottom 4 on that list include Ben Chiarot, Simon Benoit, and Cody Ceci. Probably not the best company. I really cannot explain why Rick Tocchet refuses to switch up that pairing, especially with Filip Hronek being back in the lineup now. They are not going to be able to succeed together, no matter how long you try to force it. The question that follows is: what do you do with them if they aren’t together?
The easy answer is the press box. We all know that Tocchet will never scratch Carson Soucy, though, so at this point I’m thinking he should be playing with Quinn Hughes. Quinn can carry anybody on the team out on the ice, and Soucy has not found success with any other defensive partner. It’s obvious that Quinn wants to be on the ice with Hronek, but we can hardly afford the two-thirds of the time when any other pairing is on the ice. The Canucks also don’t love playing their defensemen on their off-hand, and in this case, they’d likely have to do it on two different pairings, but I honestly don’t know what else they can do to keep Soucy from being a liability. Maybe Juulsen then goes with Hronek? Maybe they shouldn’t have given up on Brännström after one relatively short bad stretch? Maybe Desharnais deserves a spot over Juulsen? Maybe, just maybe, they should finally make a trade? I heard Nick Blankenburg could be an option. It seems Desharnais is slotting into the lineup against Los Angeles on Thursday night in Juulsen’s place, so at least there’s some change. This situation is absurdly complicated considering there aren’t many options for them to choose from. No matter what they choose, the answer is always bad. But it can at least be better than Soucy-Juulsen.
PANIC METER: 8/10
Quinn’s Hand
While on the topic of the Canucks’ defense, it’s hard to ignore the fact that our saviour has been playing with one hand. After initially being listed as week-to-week, Quinn Hughes came back to the lineup even before the day-to-day Elias Pettersson, wearing a splint on his hand. He earned a lot of admiration for his dedication to this team, but it’s still concerning. Might he exacerbate the injury? If we lose Quinn for an extended period of time, the season is absolutely finished. We saw during the short stretch of his being gone that the team is completely lost without him. They only managed to win 1 game of the 4 he missed, and that was against a Seattle team who has won 3 of their past 13 games (one of those being against the Quinn-less Canucks).
I want to assume that Quinn wouldn’t be cleared if they weren’t confident that he could play through the injury without making things worse, but they could have also been panicking watching the team’s play with him gone. Either way, it’s been fine so far. But the Canucks’ offense has noticeably struggled with him injured. They’ve scored 8 goals in their past 6 games, getting shut out twice in that span and having two 1-goal efforts. While his production isn’t entirely down, you have to wonder if that injury is having some kind of effect. The power play doesn’t look as powerful anymore either. He’s been having great games, primarily the one against Toronto, so it obviously isn’t really affecting him specifically. But there could be some correlation there. We need to hope that he doesn’t leave the lineup ever again, because it would not be a fun Canucks team to watch.
PANIC METER: 6/10
Lack of Win Streaks
The Canucks just do not have the ability to string together a couple wins in a row currently. As Jeff Paterson pointed out, the Canucks haven’t won 2 games in a row since their November 29th and December 1st games against Buffalo and Detroit respectively. The game against Winnipeg is what really broke me in this matter. They played one of their most complete games of the season on Saturday against the Maple Leafs. They only landed in Toronto 6 hours before game time and it was the 2nd game of a back-to-back. I honestly didn’t have my hopes too high, but they came out firing on all cylinders. They scored a goal in all 3 periods, completely locking down Toronto past the 1st period, a period in which Lankinen was strong. Everybody played well, and it gave me hope that it could be the start of a good stretch, even with the tough schedule.
Instead, they strolled into Winnipeg and gave up a hat trick to Kyle Connor in 6 and a half minutes. The first goal was a ridiculous Kevin Lankinen blunder, and the hat trick goal was a combination of Tyler Myers going M.I.A. and J.T. Miller failing to backcheck. The game ended 6-1, a brutal showing by a Canucks team that had such a great win the previous match. The Canucks need to start going on a run at some point, or they’re just very simply going to miss the playoffs. One win at a time isn’t going to do it. They need to find some way to maintain momentum and put together a streak. I’m tired of them playing one good game a week.
PANIC METER: 7/10
Petey/JT Trade
We really cannot go a single season without trade rumours surrounding one of our big stars. This year, we’ve really turned it up a notch, because two of our big stars are in trade talks. Luckily, a lot of the time it results in nothing (Boeser, Miller two years ago, Pettersson last year, Hronek in the summer). It often only ever happens when it’s the obvious choice to make (Horvat, Kuzmenko). First of all, trading either Pettersson or Miller would likely be a mistake. They’re both 100-point players who have proven that they can coexist and succeed with each other on this team. Plus, they are both emphatic that there is no problem between the two, which is obviously a lie, but at least they’re trying to dispel rumours. I’m not sure why they’re still being shopped. There’s obviously a ton of interest around the league, but it doesn’t seem like the Canucks would have the leverage in a deal currently, so it’s not going to be worth it to trade either of them.
While I don’t want to trade either of them, I have to mention particularly how awful it would be to trade Pettersson. When healthy, and given proper opportunities, he has proven that he is above a point-per-game player. Not only that, but his play in the defensive zone could definitely earn him some Selke looks, as it already has. Trading a 26-year-old 100-point player would be the most ridiculous thing that any Canucks front office has ever done, which is insane when you remember how long Jim Benning was at the helm. I’m too young to care about Messier.
When it comes to JT Miller, I’ve had my issues with him. He’s often angry with his teammates, just to turn around and give zero effort. His backchecking is some of the worst in Canucks history when he wants it to be. With that being said, he wants to win. He’s had his off-ice situations this year, and I can understand how that may affect him on the ice as well. I guess I wouldn’t completely turn away any trade offer for him, but it would have to be a clear Canucks win for me to be okay with it. I heavily lean towards keeping both of them, but I have my worries that the aggressive Canucks management may make a mistake.
PANIC METER: 5/10
Wild Card
All of the issues culminate in the playoff race the Canucks currently find themselves in. One year removed from winning the division, the Canucks find themselves on the outside looking in, currently standing 1 point behind Calgary in the wild card standings. At the start of the season, when Calgary started off hot, I thought “It’s okay, they’ll cool off.” They only did for a moment. We passed them in the standings about 20 games ago and I wanted the Canucks to never look back. Not only did they look in their rearview, they parked the car entirely. Now, the Flames stand 1 point ahead of the Canucks in the same amount of games played. Calgary has been playing good hockey again recently, winning 6 of their past 10. Which isn’t even THAT good, but considering you have to go back 19 games to find the Canucks’ 6th most recent win, it’s more than good enough. Calgary’s been performing in front of rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf, who’s entering his name into a fierce Calder competition this season.
Also in the race are the Blues (good recently) and the Utahns (not good recently). These teams have an unreal amount of holes in them. The Blues offense is quite uninspiring, and Utah’s forward depth is also questionable. With John Marino returning from injury, Utah is provided with a boost. The Canucks can more than match that with Hronek’s return, though. On paper, Vancouver is the best team of the 4 by a mile, as long as they’re actually meeting expectations. Unfortunately, on the ice, the results haven’t been there. The team also appears to have the worst morale of any of the 4. This means that the Canucks are currently genuinely in a playoff race with 3 unserious teams. They have been the most unserious of all of them. They need to remember how to win games soon, or playoffs were a one-and-done thing with this core. The bubble playoffs don’t count.
PANIC METER: 10/10