Lots to be unhappy about. After two solid games against Boston and Pittsburgh, they looked like they did against Seattle for most of the game.
- I don't think there was much to be done on the 1-0 (screen) and 2-0 (incredible shot by Kopitar) goals, but the penalty leading to the 3-1 goal was a poor play by Hronek who somehow ended up being the forward he was checking because he completely messed up the hit and body position. And yeah, it was a soft call, but you knew it was coming right back at us from the refs.
- The 4-1 goal was even worse because Boeser was skating with the 2nd LA player, then for whatever reason just stopped. Putrid effort and after a horrid two months you really have to think about moving him again if the opportunity comes up.
- Lindholm with another bad game. If you're not outplaying Pius Suter making 1.5M/year or whatever, you're not doing enough.
- Juulsen or Cole need to sit. Cole especially has looked tired since November.
I'm still not worried. They still have time to figure this out. I'd rather they go through this now than in April.
I think you have to be worried at this point. You can't see a throughline yet of how they're getting out of it, and that's highly concerning.
1. LA, and other big teams give the Canucks fits. They can't get on the inside, they lose on battle and positioning, and then the team is chasing. That won't beat LA/BOS/VGK etc... doing this. The only way to beat them is to play quicker, which requires positioning and successive passes. That gets them out of the mud and moving.
2. Breakdowns that cause rush chances against sunk them this game. 5 alarm. That's not how this team has played. They've kept it low event, generally, until now. Either they get more conservative on chances given, or they have to generate more 5v5 to compensate. Easier to tighten up 5v5.
3. To me, you notice how shallow the defense was in this game. The movement of the puck up the ice is not good enough. The forwards didn't help with puck retrieval, but it starts with the defense. Hughes has been bad, especially. Hronek not far behind.
4. Lindholm has been bad. He wasn't brought in to be a mediocre 3C. There's no net advantage to his placement lower in the line-up this way, and that's a huge pro-scouting error to this point. Can he get out of it? Maybe, but he's not out of it right now. It has to be called out.
5. I hope Tocchet shifts the 5v5 lines to return to a more top heavy structure. I want to see:
Miller-Pettersson-Boeser
Hoglander-Lindholm-Garland
Hughes-Hronek
Zadorov-Myers
Put your best puck movers and your best offensive talent all at the top, and then overplay them. If they don't get it going 5v5, then the team doesn't have the right leaders anyway.