Something Is Seriously Wrong with the Vancouver Canucks

Something Is Seriously Wrong with the Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Conucks are struggling to put backto-back wins together, and it’s starting to make me wonder if I should pick up a new hobby, like bird watching or competitive knitting, or literally anything that doesn’t make me want to drive my car into a hydraulic crusher after hearing portions of the fan base push for a rebuild that nobody actually believes will happen without the team being sold to some new imaginary billionaire who just so happens to care more about the wants and needs of the average Vancouverite than they do about purchasing their fourth yacht. All while the national media force feeds us this narrative that Quinn Hughes is definitely not resigning with the Canucks, despite him never even once hinting at that, giving other fan bases the creative freedom to post some of the worst, most pukeinducing mock trades my teary little eyes have ever witnessed. And it’s all of Ander Kane’s fault. Did I miss anything or was that pretty much it? This season has not been kind to Kucks fans. And just like I’m sure a lot of you are, I’m disappointed. There’s still a lot more season left, so I wouldn’t say all hopes of making the playoffs are gone. However, the bigger conversation is whether making the playoffs would even be a good thing or not. And it seems like the fan base is pretty split on that. One side looks at a roster with Elias Patterson, Quinn Hughes, and Thatcher Demco and sees a rock solid backbone to build around. The other side looks at the exact same trio and sees a guy whose best years are behind him, a guy who they’re convinced is going to be playing for a different team in a couple years and a guy who gets injured multiple times a season. As for what I see, I see a team that doesn’t know what it’s going to look like past this year. And here’s why that matters. Take a look around the league. If you fast forward 5 years, you already know what the Colorado Avalanche are going to look like. Nathan McKinnon, Kale Mar, and Mackenzie Blackwood. Those three aren’t going anywhere. Same thing with the Dallas Stars, Miko Rantin, Miro Heiskinan, and Jake Auinger. Their foundation is pretty much set in stone. Even a rebuilding team like the Anaheim Ducks has a clear identity forming with Leo Carlson, Jackson Lome, and Lucas Dostall. And here’s the thing, Vancouver’s big three can absolutely compete with all of those guys. Alias Person is a proven point-ame producer and one of the league’s most dynamic two-way forwards. Quinn Hughes is the best defenseman in the world, or second best, depending on who you ask. and That Thatcher Demco is a straightup demon in the crease. The problem is Person’s been struggling with his consistency for the past year and a half. Hughes isn’t signed long-term and Demco can’t stay healthy. The Canucks don’t have a long-term foundation in place. While other competitive teams know exactly who they’re committing to, Vancouver doesn’t. And until the front office figures out what this core is supposed to look like 3 to 5 years from now, the noise is only going to get louder. Are they building, rebuilding, retooling, competing, or just hoping things magically work out? All the chaos we’re seeing right now is because nobody knows the answer to that question. Now, what I’m about to show you is a project I’ve been working on since the summer. I set out to make something real and tangible that you can actually hold in your hands, designed to bring even just a little joy to the experience of being a Canucks fan. It’s something I needed to bring to life for the Knuckheads like me who choose to ride this roller coaster every single year. All right, here it is. Hey everyone, isn’t it just an amazing time to be a Vancouver Conucks fan? Hope is in the air, the vibes are immaculate, and absolutely nothing bad is happening whatsoever. And to celebrate this beautiful, totally stable, definitely not chaotic era of Canucks hockey, I’m excited to introduce the Vancouver Conucks are good mug. Finally, you can start your morning with the same optimism you force-feed yourself every October. It’s bold. It’s confident. It’s delusional in all the right ways. Whether you’re drinking coffee, tea, the tears of another blown lead, this beautiful ceramic masterpiece will be right there with you, reminding you that deep down the Vancouver Conucks are in fact good. This is a limited run printed in Canada, packed by me, and shipped straight to your doorstep with all the love and emotional damage of a lifelong Canucks fan. So, if you want to own a piece of pure unfiltered optimism or you just want something to throw at your TV the next time the Canucks implode, grab yours today. The link is in the description of this video. Thanks everyone. If it wasn’t already clear, uh, I recorded that before the season started. So, yeah. But don’t let that stop you from snagging the world’s first piece of Nuckad merch. It’s a great way to start your day with a healthy dose of denial and an even greater way to support the channel. So, go to nuckhead.com/shop to get yours today. Plus, the Conucks haven’t been terrible. In fact, I thought they looked pretty good in game 22 against the Dallas Stars. Kevin Lankin was solid. I’ve got no complaints when it comes to this guy, at least not for this game. Lenus Carlson scored his third of the season and later drew a penalty that led to a power play goal for Elias Patterson. I like that. Max Sasson baited Miko Rantin into throwing a mini temper tantrum. Kefir Sherwood was buzzing as usual. Jake de Brrisk was all over the net. At Ratatu was doing things. Tom Willie T. Valander continues to prove he’s ready to clock big minutes at the NHL level. Elias DPD Patterson was looking sharp. Connor Garland was slicing and dicing his way through the Stars roster, setting up great scoring chances. Brock was doing what he does best. The Canucks outshot the Stars 36-24. They won 61.4% of the faceoffs. They were perfect on the penalty kill. They played well. The Stars just uh played better, I guess. I don’t know. I hate losing as much as the next guy, but you’re not going to win all 82. I thought the Conucks played well in this game. Of course, it would have been nice if they had capitalized on a couple more of those scoring chances I mentioned before, but whatever. Nothing to freak out about. However, I can’t say the same for game 23 against the Calgary Flames. I know a lot of you don’t want to relive this game, and I don’t blame you because outside of maybe the first 60 seconds of this one, the Canucks did not look good at all. They kind of sucked actually, which is so frustrating because they played great against the Stars. I don’t know if this was a case of them underestimating their opponent or something. I don’t know. But it was a home game on a Sunday night against a franchise rival who just so happens to be one of the worst teams in the league. Now, I know some of you are probably going to point out that the Canucks are also one of the worst teams in the league right now, but that’s what I was hoping this game would clarify. Yes, Vancouver is currently in a battle for last place, but so are the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets and the Edmonton Oilers. But I wouldn’t go as far to say that those three are all bad teams, and I don’t think you would either. This game against the Flames was supposed to be a way for the Canucks to show everyone that they don’t belong in the gutter with teams like Calgary, Nashville, and Buffalo, and that they’re just depleted by injuries right now and are more than capable of turning their season around. Instead, they went out and lost 52. Now, all of a sudden, everybody other than Quinn Hughes is on the trade block. Look, I get it. We were all hanging on by a thread, watching this team bounce between wins and losses like a game of demonic pingpong, holding our breath, waiting for the day our injury list stopped looking like a whole separate roster of players to come save us. But even still, you got to be able to beat the Flames, man. And I know there’s no easy game in the NHL. Every team has the ability to win on any given night. But when you consider the state of the Canucks season heading into this game, plus the fact that the Flames were on the second half of a backto back, plus the fact that the Canucks were on home ice, you just can’t help but want to stick your head in a dishwasher after watching how this one unfolded. At least Quinn Hughes scored a beauty. That put a little smirk on my face. Also, Lenus Carlson looked great for the second game in a row. I’m really liking Lenus lately. Anyway, I’m done talking about this one. Let’s move on to game 24 against the Anaheim Ducks. This was another temperature check type of game. The Ducks are just now hatching out of a rebuild and are somehow sitting in first place in the Pacific Division. It’s still early in the season, sure, but the idea of Anaheim leaprogging Vancouver, a team that refused to enter a rebuild around the same time the Ducks did, is sending thousands of knuckads into a fit of rage. This was the first of a four-ame road trip for the Canucks, a trip that their current number one goalie, Kevin Lankin, wouldn’t be available for due to personal reasons. So starting in net for Vancouver in just his third career game was Nikita Toapilo, also known as the Bellarusian beast. And while he did look a little shaky at first, he eventually locked in and looked pretty good. Of course, it’s not ideal to have to start your third string goalie when your season is already in jeopardy. But hey, what are we going to do about it? Riot. No. Go to go. For the third game in a row, Lenus Carlson looked killer. He opened the scoring 10 minutes into the first period thanks to an incredible play by Arch Deep Baines. One- nothing Canucks. Then a few minutes later, Carlson was out on the power play doing a great job of screening goalender while Evander Kane sniped home his fourth goal of the season. Two nothing Canucks. The Ducks scored. Brock Besser had I don’t know 8 billion chances to score but couldn’t find a way to bury any of them. Although here he is passing the puck to Connor Garland on what ended up being one of the nicest goals I’ve ever seen. An absolute masterclass in nastiness from the gargoyle here. 3-1 Vancouver. Tom Lander highlights are becoming a staple of this year’s videos because he stood out to me in every single game he’s played since being called up. On top of these stellar defensive plays, he also potted two assists for his first ever multi-point game at the NHL level. First of many, I’m sure. I’ve probably already said this at some point, but I don’t think Willie T is ever going to be sent down again. The Ducks scored two quick ones at the end of the second period. 3-3 tie game. Now, I wouldn’t blame you if you were feeling pretty hopeless with the score tied heading into the final frame, but the Conucks took care of business. Max Esone scored, then Okconor hit the empty net. Vancouver won 5-4. All right, now let’s talk about game 25 against the San Jose Sharks. Brock Besser opened the scoring 5 minutes into this one to put Vancouver up one- nothing, but then Quinn Hughes got called for interference, and on the ensuing Sharks power play, Will Smith slapped one past Nikita Toapilo to tie the game up at once. Now, I should mention the Conucks made headlines this week after Elliot Freriedman reported that they’re officially listening to offers on their veteran players. However, that doesn’t make trying to kidnap Connor Garland Midame. Okay, that’s absolutely disgusting behavior. Do better. Arch Deep Baines took a high sticking penalty, but Toapilo stood tall to stop the Sharks from capitalizing with the man advantage. Then, Elias the alien Person scored one of the nicest goals I’ve ever seen. Look at this. Let’s just take a second to watch this in slow motion. I’m not even going to say anything. [Music] 2-1 Canucks. But then Hughes and MP3 took backto-back penalties, giving the Sharks a twoman advantage, and they scored. And then they scored again a minute later. 3-2 San Jose. Then with less than two minutes left in the third period after failing to score on their first six power play opportunities, Mlin Celerrini gifted his favorite team one final chance to capitalize with the man advantage, but they couldn’t. The only cool thing that happened was Besser completely manhandling Tai Dandria after Dandria took a run at PD in the final seconds. So yeah, Knucks lose 3-2. Shout out to these geniuses for predicting the scores correctly. If you want a chance to be shouted out in my next video, comment your score predictions for the next two games down below. Thank you to the channel members for supporting what I do. Knuckhead mugs are available now via the link in the description of this video. Get yours today, just in time for the holidays. Thank you for watching. Bye.

Order your Nuckhead Mug here ↓
https://www.nuckhead.com/shop

In this video I break down everything happening with the Vancouver Canucks right now, why the fan base is spiralling again, and what these last few games actually mean for the season. I recap their last four games against the Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks. Plus, I finally reveal my first-ever piece of Nuckhead merch.

– Nuckhead

Skip to…
00:00 — Intro
02:46 — Special Announcement
04:32 — Game 22 vs. Dallas Stars
05:41 — Game 23 vs. Calgary Flames
07:41 — Game 24 vs. Anaheim Ducks
09:45 — Game 25 vs. San Jose Sharks
11:22 — Outro

*FOR BUSINESS INQUIRIES:*
Submit a request: https://forms.gle/8VTZHfCS8UteVp7fA
or email: nuckheadmedia[at]gmail[dot]com

*LISTEN TO THE NUCKHEAD PODCAST* – new episodes every Friday!
https://linktr.ee/nuckheadpodcast

*BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER* – get early access, badges, and more:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvq4xbpvxQmmRtDPX5XF78g/join

*FEATURED MUSIC:*
“breakcore” by Audiomatica
Listen: https://on.soundcloud.com/7Fbju

“Easy Lemon 60 Second” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200077
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

*FEATURED FOOTAGE:*
Drone shots sampled from @exploretheworld4k

*FOLLOW ME:*
X (fka Twitter) → https://www.twitter.com/nuckingaround
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nuckingaround
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@nuckingaround

#Canucks #Hockey #NHL