The Vancouver Canucks Are Hot Garbage

the Blackhawks, the Sharks, and the Ducks. These are three of the worst teams in the NHL over the past few seasons, but guess what? They’ve all surpassed the lowly Vancouver Conucks. The Canucks have only won one of their last seven games. They rank 30th in the league, and management has finally accepted that it’s over. They got a rebuild, although explicitly they haven’t used that term yet. Part of me fears that ownership still thinks they can turn this ship around. But I have the receipts and the statistics to show that this team is even worse than the eye test shows. So, I compiled these statistics on Monday and I was going to post them after the Flames game, but because of poor lighting, I had to bend the file. As you can see, I’m not in my normal studio. I’m back on campus, but I’ll be back home in December. But without further ado, let’s just get into the numbers. First off, the Conucks are lucky they’re not dead last in the league. Early in the season, they had some individual performances, individual heroics. That’s your Demco saving a couple games. Kefir Sherwood getting a hat-tick against St. Louis and even Quinn Hughes a week ago with four assists against the Tampa Bay Lightning. But as a team, as a unit, they have played horribly. Last week when the Conucks played the Hurricanes Lightning and the Panthers, it was shocking that they were able to get three points out of these games because on average they mustered 16 shots over the course of these games while giving up 36. That’s right. They were giving up 20 more shots than they were taking. I know that’s only threeame sample size, but over the course of the season, they rank sixth in most shots against and only 22nd in shots for. Not necessarily a recipe for success. And this is something that we were criticizing talk for. The Canucks not shooting enough. Now compounded with the issue of them giving up way more shots. It’s going to get way worse before it gets better. Per game, the Conucks are giving up 3.74 goals, which is worst in the league. How is that possible for a team where whose defense was supposed to be the strong suit? How is it possible when you’re coached by Adam Foot? He was a defensive stalwart over his career, a rugged stay-at-home defenseman. He was supposed to be their D whisperer, but that blue line, subscribe to the blue line hockey, has been atrocious. Part of it is because they’re relying on two rookie defenseman in their bottom pairing, which puts more pressure on Marcus Person and Tyler Meyers, but part of it is also Kevin Langlin and his 880 save percentage. Part of it is a historically bad penalty kill, which sits under 70%. Think about it. If you get a power play against the Canucks, you have a 30% chance of scoring. But at the end of the day, this system that’s being deployed by Adam Foot is bleeding chances against the Canucks for some reason decided to pivot away from zone coverage system and they switched to more of a man-on-man system, which to me was a bit surprising because I thought box plus one system and not only is it a modern system that is has been employed by Stanley Cup winners, it was fairly effective for the personnel that they had. They have tall defensemen with reach and zone systems are perfect for that caliber of player. But what’s happening now is that the opposition is exposing the Canucks by getting them to move east west. This is causing a lot of gaps to open up across the ice. Here’s an example from the Panthers game. Noah Greor, who is Hughes’s man, takes a puck across the ice. Sherwood and Kane both wave their sticks at him. Person is the man left in front of the net. He obviously can’t box out Kunan. and buries the rebound. The Conucks are running around getting their signals crossed and doing a poor job down low. Kane and Sherwood on this play particularly didn’t know whether or not they should leave their point man and help out Hughes. And that’s just been one of the issues, one of the more common defensive miscues that they’ve been making. They don’t know when to stick to their guy or when they should support. This poor play according to natural statre has the Canucks leading the league in high danger chances against with 14.08. The second ranked team is at 13.3. So this is bad bad. And it’s not just their Dzone coverage. They are giving up rush chances like it’s prime Travis Green era. They want to play this fast and aggressive style, but that has backfired on them. And I’m going to use an example from the Dallas Stars game. They didn’t even have full possession of the puck here and everyone’s thinking attack. One poke check is all it took to get the puck going the other way. Vanderreer makes a bad pinch. Hughes makes a poor read and he can’t beat Faxa to the puck. Blackwell makes no mistake beating Kevin Lankin. It’s not fair to blame all these issues on Adam Foot when he’s not the one that constructed this roster. That falls on Rutherford and Alvine. It doesn’t matter what system you’re playing. You need centermen. They gave Foot a centerman who was one hit away from retirement. They gave him a winger from Chicago who Chicago didn’t even want. They gave him a reject from the Toronto Maple Leafs. And the Leafs are one of the worst teams in the league as well. What kind of team are they trying to build? A fast one because they play slow. A greedy one because there’s no toughness on this roster. Watch this team play and try to tell me what their identity is. I don’t want to hear anything about injuries either. Alias Patterson has been playing really well recently. Quinn Hughes has been back putting up three assists some nights and they still can’t win. Dempo can’t be relied upon to stay healthy. So, where do we go from here? It’s going to get worse. Way worse. Especially now that we know Kevin Lankanin isn’t going to be joining the team for personal reasons on the upcoming road trip. Yuri Patera and Nikita Tolapilo are the only two healthy goalies this team has. They’re dead last in the league. They have the worst expected goals for against and they don’t even have a practice facility where they can get together and work out all these kinks. I’m not sorry for making a negative video. I’ve done a lot of maturing over the last couple months, which is why I haven’t really been posting. But enough is enough. They don’t care about common fans like you and I. And by they, I mean ownership across the league and Sportsnet. It’s just a business at the end of the day. They’re just going to try to squeeze us for every dollar that we have. But more importantly, they’re trying to squeeze us for our most important currency, our attention. I know on this channel I’ve preached positive and optimistic Canucks content, but that’s no more. Moving forward, the content will be grounded in uh reality. But I still love the sport. I still love watching the sport, and I’m going to continue making content, including Canucks content. And also, I’m going to start throwing in some Team Canada content with the Olympics around the corner. I love my country as well. Well, I am a patriot. For some reason, people think I hate my country in some of the team Canada video comments. I’m not sure why, but on that front, there’s a lot of stuff to talk about. Should Bardo Celbrini make the team? Who’s going to be the goalender? This is the type of content that you can expect moving forward. So, make sure to subscribe and hit that bell notification icon to be notified when these videos release. But most importantly, at the end of the day, it is just a sport. If your favorite team is driving you up a wall, just turn the TV off. Pick up a book, learn a trade, learn how to cook a new dish, spend some time with your family. Uh because that’s where the true happiness is, not watching the Vancouver Conucks. Thanks for watching this statistics-based rant. I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you next

Following Monday night’s disappointing loss to the Calgary Flames, the Canucks now find themselves in 30th place in the league. Frankly, it’s shocking that they aren’t dead last. Luckily, management seems to understand the reality of the situation – it just isn’t working. In this video, I share some grim statistics and highlights that illustrate why things have gone so terribly wrong.

31 comments

  5. I think I’ve watched maybe one full game this season. This is my 9.5th year as a fan and I’m already just so checked out. Whatever, at least season 5 of Stranger Things is out tomorrow.

  6. Love this channel. I see this as a turning point channel. Other channels are more like updates but when this channel posts, its cuz it matters, and tides have shifted. Love the content man. keep it up

  8. I think this is one of your worse videos. The league is at parity, and the Canucks have dealt with the most significant injuries by far, and its not even close. The team starved for offensive talent in spite of that, has put up good numbers, and the games have been fun to watch.

    To call an injured team, "Hot Garbage" is just cruel, and I think you miss the upside to what Foote is doing long term. I want to see him stay, and I have faith that he will in the long term be excellent for us. He has already revived Petterson, and he was already responsible for Hughes, which shows he has what it takes to create superstar players. The biggest mistake would be making that guy leave.

    I've seen people say we should have gone for Manny, but the AHL is doing worse than the NHL.

  9. Last week I cancelled my Sportsnet subscription I can’t handle watching the Canucks play this year it’s just not watchable like they don’t even care anymore

  12. Can't argue but they need to get a new owner. Francesco must go! Start from the top and work your way down. I bailed on sport-NYET when their stream took a DUMP in the world series, and continued to crash during Canucks games. The final aggravation was crashing then telling me I'm blacked out.

    Snorts-bet made me cancel but the Canucks made me not regret it.

  16. They need to Rebuild properly, not retool over and over and over. I'm a Habs fan and the rebuild has been alot of fun fun. You see it coming together, your prospect pool grows bigger and bigger. But I wouldn't trust 80 year old Rutherford with something so important. You need a young vision. Look at what Darche has done in 1 year for the Islanders. Their probably going to just try a retool and screw themselves over again. Either way it's never a dull moment with the Canucks.

  18. Sadly, they’re Management are very incompetent. All their young players that should be getting an opportunity to play that can make the team grow and evolve are either traded or selling for future prospects. They didn’t organize the team and demko was never reliable from the beginning. Can’t you remember what happened last year with him? He’s just not reliable. We saw that with the Montreal goalie as well.

  21. Great video and I agree with it all. This franchise is a dumpster fire – all the fault of management and ownership just wanting to make $ to sell overpriced tickets rather than admit to a proper rebuild (which should have happened 5 years ago)

    Not to mention all the absolutely horrible contracts over the last decade that have haunted us and cost the team a fortune

  23. In fairness, I think the Canucks were doomed when the Aquilini family bought the team. Before becoming owners, they were season ticket holders and the one thing that Francesco Aquilini said at the presser in 2004 once the sale had been finalized that I thought was odd was when he said that they weren’t going to be a hands on type ownership group that micromanages. “The team will not be a toy for us to play with” I think is how he stated it and that’s exactly what they were doing 😂. I hate to say it but if the Canucks want to get better again they need to make changes starting at the very top—-including ownership.

  25. If anybody has a problem with coaching/systems, blame your golden boy Quinn Hughes. He was hired to make him happy. I knew hiring Foote just to appease one player was a fucking stupid move. It’s about the team, not one player.

  26. Keep on doing the lords work and calling out the dereliction of duty in all the ways by Canucks Management. Allvin is a hand puppet for an 80yr old senile man who gives gifts to other GMs and his former team regularly. Want a 100 pt center for a guy with a scrambled brain, here you go. Want a 1st rounder for a 6'3, 176 lb dollar store Marek Malik? here you go. whats that Petterson # 34568, you want 6m a season, no problem, here you go. Congrats on the Calder cup Silovs, you will be rewarded by being traded for some sawdust, because I still collect a covert paycheque from the Penguins. Whats that oilers, you cant afford Evander Kane at 5m, and hes permanently damaged goods due to hip resurfacing surgery…. no problem, we can use him at the Ole' Swedish country club, who else can take momentum zapping penalties every game in the critical moments. Whats that career backup Kevin Lankinen, you walked on as a tryout in training camp at 29 with no job prospects… then you had the miracle run of a lifetime for 8 weeks… well congratulations, you just won the labotomy lottery, heres 4.5m per for 4 years, because we want you to have a safe space to tend mediocre goal. 3.6 goals against average, .878 save%, between he and Glassman Demko, we have 10m tied up in 2 goalies who cannot compete at the NHL level with any tangible consistency. we have the stupidest GM and president in hockey, they get fleeced on every transaction, and in 2 years they have set us back 6 years. The Canucks are cooked.

  29. Replace Foote with Malhotra.. Make a trade: CANUCKS Trade Hughes and Elias Peterson to NJ Trade Dougie Hamilton, Simon Nemec and Nico Hischier.w/ 1st round pick . Let's GO!!!

  30. I hear & read so much whining about the Canucks these days, yet, see & read that the vast majority of teams in the league are not doing much better. The schedule for many teams is demanding more back-to-back games that are resulting in a lot of upsets, injuries, & less than stellar play.

    Edmonton was blown out by Dallas far worse than Vancouver was. Winnipeg is just a couple of wins ahead of us, Toronto isn't getting the job done, etc.

    Still, despite these anomalies, nobody – fans, media, even team management – seems to have any patience. If I'd been so impatient in earlier times, I'd have been screaming for the Canucks to trade the twins; those guys who looked so small & skinny that an opposing player could just skate past them to knock them over. Turned out I was wrong about those guys. So, rather than reading a bunch of nonsense from no-nothing armchair managers, I'm going to hope that the Canucks work a deal with Pittsburgh to trade Demko for Silovs or Jary – I hate that $8million+ – and hope that they don't trade Sherwood, and sit back & enjoy some hockey.

  31. You have statistics showing this team is worse than the eye test? Well it’s a good thing Adam Foote doesn’t believe in statistics and they’re all Russians eating cashews and smoking cigs.

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