What's Wrong With The Canucks?

The players did the carving Monday during their annual Halloween visit to Canuck Place Children's Hospice.

The coach did his carving Sunday.

Following a 3-2 loss to Detroit that dropped the Vancouver Canucks to 5-7-0 and 1-5-0 at home, Alain Vigneault took a swipe at Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who have combined for just five of their 20 points at even strength.

Vigneault also took a swipe at Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa for bad pinches and positioning.

When he awoke Monday morning and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Vancouver Canucks left winger Daniel Sedin was the National Hockey League leader in power-play points with nine.

While that may be a special stat, it obscures the fact Danny is off to an otherwise pedestrian start with just two even-strength points. Two!

Twin brother Henrik is marginally better. He has three. Overall, Hank has one assist in his last six games and none at even strength. None!

The Vancouver Canucks are clearly possessed because they can't seem to gain possession often enough after the puck drops early in the NHL campaign.

Vancouver is ranked a dismal 30th and last on faceoffs with a team efficiency of only 43 per cent, which partially explains the 5-7 start to the regular season.

The Canucks often are chasing the play after draws, and frustration sets in, especially on special teams when possession has added importance when killing penalties or on power plays.

They have only one player above 50-per-cent efficiency in the specialty of faceoffs, and right winger Trevor Linden takes draws infrequently. He's won 51.4 per cent of his draws.

Labels: the sky is falling