Canucks still have plenty to prove in preseason finale
Team closes out six-game exhibition schedule on Friday night against Calgary
USA Today - Canucks still have plenty to prove in preseason finaleWith one win in five starts to his team's National Hockey League preseason schedule, Rick Tocchet knows full well the Vancouver Canucks remain a work in progress. When they had all of their top players in uniform against Edmonton last Saturday, the Canucks looked like they were hitting their pre-season stride. Then again, the Oilers elected to sit out two of the best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl so who knows how much anyone should truly read into that result.
In many of the other games, however, the Canucks have lacked much of an offensive thrust. This is a team that believes it has improved its depth both up front and on defense. But with a 1-3-1 record and just eight goals scored so far, there has been little proof that the Canucks puzzle pieces are fully aligned for the regular season.
The team has one last chance to work out some of the kinks when the Canucks host Calgary at Rogers Arena on Friday night. In the wake of Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Seattle in Abbotsford, Tocchet was asked what he wants -- and what he needs -- to see from his team in it's preseason finale.
"Well, just bearing down," the coach said. "We've got to get some offense from some guys. There are some chances around the net, get body position and put it in. I think sometimes we're taking things for granted 'oh, I've got it' -- but you've got to bear down."
The Canucks outshot Seattle 33-15 but had just one goal to show for their efforts. And, for the third time in five preseason outings, no Canuck forward found the back of the net.
After players returned to town early to skate as a group in September and following what looked like a productive training camp in Victoria, the Canucks have not found top gear -- or anything remotely close to it -- through the first 10 days of exhibition play.
There are no alarm bells sounding, but there are certainly a few red flags being raised with the team's underwhelming showing in exhibition play. And that puts a little more pressure on everyone in the organization to turn in the kind of performance on Friday that the Canucks can use as a springboard into the regular season.
"We've had a tough time this camp hitting the net," Tocchet continued. "That's something we'll work on. I thought we were better in the paint thought (against the Kraken). We talked about it. Mike Yeo put a little video together about getting people to the net. I thought we were a lot better going to the net tonight, so that's a positive for us."
With Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko all given the night off Wednesday, expect to see all four of them return to the Canucks line-up on Friday. Pettersson missed two days of practice this week with an illness and hasn't seen game action since last Saturday night.
Again, it's only the preseason and these games don't count in the standings. But it certainly feels like Friday night matters to Rick Tocchet. We won't have to wait long to see if his players respond accordingly.
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