Slumping Canucks finding things ‘very hard and frustrating’ after loss to Flames

If this isn’t rock bottom for the Vancouver Canucks, it will do until rock bottom gets here.

The team determined to bounce back from last year’s 90-point, non-playoff season is now three games under .500 for the first time since March 2023 and on pace for 71 points, which would be the Canucks’ worst National Hockey League season since 1999.

On Sunday, rested and playing a tired team that happened to have the poorest record in hockey, the Canucks surrendered five straight goals to the Calgary Flames and lost 5-2 at Rogers Arena.

Injuries alone don’t explain how a team that planned to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this spring is now five points behind in the wildcard race at 9-12-2 – with just three wins at home this season.

The race the Canucks are falling into is for last place in the NHL and the best lottery odds in the Gavin McKenna draft sweepstakes.

There are, of course, 59 games to go, so the Canucks have plenty of time to rescue themselves. Or they could get worse.

The Flames, whose three-game winning streak mirrors the Canucks’ three-game dive, are now only one point behind Vancouver and passed the Nashville Predators on winning percentage on Sunday. The Tennesseans are last in the NHL with 16 points, four behind the Canucks with two games in-hand.

So, yes, the Canucks are closer to last place overall than the final playoff spot.

“It stings,” winger Kiefer Sherwood said. “All of us are competitors and we expect better results for all the work that we’re putting in. We’ve got to continue to grind through it . . . get back to work tomorrow. It’s a big road trip for us. I still think we’ve got a lot of good pieces in this room. We’ve just got to put it together on a consistent basis.”

The Canucks are on their second three-game losing streak of the season. They haven’t won consecutive games in five weeks.

After an encouraging performance Thursday, when they outplayed the Dallas Stars for stretches but lost on a pair of third-period goals, the Canucks were excellent in the first period against Calgary and then fairly awful after that.

Sunday’s loss feels like a low point.

“I think so,” winger Brock Boeser said. “Especially because we played such a good game last game, and tonight our first period was so good. And then we let them take over the game, and they tilted the ice. We lost the battle in front of our net. We knew they like to shoot pucks and get to the net, and we knew the game plan (and) didn’t execute it.”

After Filip Hronek made it 1-0 for Vancouver on a two-on-one just 1:05 after the opening faceoff, Calgary’s Morgan Frost was open in the high slot to guide a redirect past Canuck goalie Kevin Lankinen at 7:43. And just 25 seconds after that, Connor Zary beat Aatu Raty to a rebound to make it 2-1 for Calgary, which beat Dallas in a shootout the night before in Alberta.

The Canucks’ second period against the Stars was one of their best at home this season, but the middle period against the Flames was one of their worst.

With momentum from three power plays, one of them from an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to Canuck Evander Kane, Calgary outshot Vancouver 11-6 and seized control of the game with a pair of goals.

At 10:37, Kevin Bahl banked a centring pass off Canuck defenceman Tom Willander, who had been pushed into his own crease by Joel Farabee. And at 16:31, Yegor Sharangovich batted another rebound past Lankinen, whose catching glove ejected the puck from Rasmus Andersson’s unscreened point shot.

Calgary had three goals on 11 shots, four goals on 17 shots and finished with five on 21 against Lankinen.

Flames forward Blake Coleman, with a one-handed finish on a short-handed two-on-one, and Canucks captain Quinn Hughes traded meaningless third-period goals.

“Second and third, not our best hockey,” Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers said. “And we have to look at it and we have to get better.

“You take a look at that Dallas game, I thought it was one of our better team games of the year. I thought we deserved more. And then we came out tonight . . . I thought we came out strong and then, for whatever reason, we just lost it. We have to address that, you know, figure out why and figure out ways to be more consistent and bring our best game each and every night.”

The Canucks have had their best game very few nights this season, although they’ve also yet to have their full lineup.

Rookie head coach Adam Foote has been missing as many as nine players, although Hughes noted last week that every team during the hyper-condensed NHL schedule seems to have “four or five” players injured. The Canucks’ current toll is five.

Two of the long-term injuries – to centres Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger and suffered in the same game on Oct. 19 – hollowed the Canucks down the middle at a position where they were already dangerously thin. Newest Canuck David Kampf, cast adrift last week by the Toronto Maple Leafs, is now centring the second line in Vancouver despite a career high of 20 points.

Foote indicated after Saturday’s practice that the Canucks’ problems at centre ice have been a key factor in the team’s defensive metrics, which had been trending better but are still alarmingly down from last season.

“I mean, our defensive-zone (system) hasn’t changed the last three years,” Foote insisted. “We’re working on it. When you lose that many guys up the middle at once, it’s just logic that . . . numbers are going to go down. I mean, I don’t know how they can’t. Right, that’s logic to everybody? It’s logic to me.”

But it doesn’t fully explain where the Canucks are.

If they were playing better in their own zone, getting more saves and weren’t last in the NHL in penalty killing, they wouldn’t be three games under .500 as U.S. Thanksgiving approaches this week.

“For sure, yeah,” Boeser said of the team’s ability to do better, even with the players they’re missing. “The last road trip, we were 1-1-1 (against Carolina, Tampa and Florida) and I thought that was pretty good. Obviously coming home, this was a big opportunity for us, and we haven’t won a game. So yeah, it feels very hard and frustrating right now. Obviously, there’s guys injured, but no excuses. Next man up. And you know, guys have to contribute, especially myself.”

The Canucks practise Monday before leaving the next day on another difficult trip against the three California teams and the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche.

Blueger may go on the trip but it doesn’t appear the return of any of their injured players is imminent.