While the Vancouver Canucks are well above .500 so far this season at 15-9-5 and have the same amount of regulation losses they had last season after 29 games, they don’t resemble the team that eventually won the Pacific Division and finished with 50 wins. The identity of a strong forechecking team with elite two-way play has rarely been seen in 2024-25, save for a couple of games – namely against the Los Angeles Kings and Florida Panthers – and as a result, they continue to tread water and frustrate fans with their inconsistent game.
Related: Jim Rutherford’s Take on Canucks’ Struggles, Stars, and the Path Forward
Basically, everything that went right last season has gone wrong this season, and if that doesn’t change soon, they might miss out on the playoffs after looking like they had turned a corner in that department in 2023-24. With all that said, let’s look at five concerning trends keeping everyone up at night right now.
Canucks Look Like a Rebuilding Team at Home
If you just focused on the stats from games played at Rogers Arena, you would think the Canucks were a rebuilding team heading for the James Hagens/Porter Martone/Matthew Schaefer sweepstakes. After a ridiculous 27-9-5 record on home ice last season, they are a disappointing 5-7-4 this season dotted with blowouts and an overall lack of energy in all facets of the game. The discrepancy in stats from 2023-24 to 2024-25 is beyond staggering:
| 2023-24 (after 16 home games) | 2024-25 (after 16 home games) | |
| Home Record | 12-3-1 (25 points) | 5-7-4 (14 points) |
| Goals For | 62 (3.88 goals-for per game) | 47 (2.95 goals-for per game) |
| Goals Against | 32 (2.00 goals-against per game) | 59 (3.69 goals-against per game) |
| Goal Differential | Plus-30 | Minus-12 |
| Power Play | 24.2 percent | 20.5 percent |
| Penalty Kill | 82 percent | 75 percent |
The 2023-24 Canucks did not have any trouble scoring, defending, executing on the power play or killing penalties at home, but now, pick a category, and this version of the team is struggling in it. The Vancouver faithful have already been tortured with three blowouts (6-0 to the New Jersey Devils, 7-3 to the Edmonton Oilers, and most recently 5-1 to the Boston Bruins) and we haven’t even hit the halfway mark of the home schedule yet. In 2023-24, they were the ones inflicting the pain on their opponents, and only subjected the fans to one blowout, when they fell to the LA Kings 5-1 in February.
The Canucks need to find their game at home soon, or it will be the reason they are playing golf in April rather than competing in the playoffs.
Slow Starts
The Canucks were one of the best teams last season at getting out of the gate quickly and putting other teams on their heels. They scored first an impressive 53 times and only allowed their opponent to get the jump on them 29 times. In games they scored first, they won 38 and lost only 11. For most of the season, they could dictate the pace and execute their system because they were very rarely behind the eight-ball early.
This season, it’s been a totally different story as they have struggled to get the jump on teams, allowing the first goal more often than not. In 29 games so far, they have scored first only 13 times and given up the first goal 16 times. While they have a 9-6-1 record when the other team opens the scoring, a lot of their struggles in finding their identity and playing the system that won them 50 games in 2023-24 can be traced back to how slowly they have started games (and even periods for that matter). Honestly, they are starting to resemble the Travis Green-led teams that had the same problem and eventually cost them the playoffs season after season. It’s definitely not a recipe for success, even though they have shown a propensity for coming back.
Allowing Goals in Quick Succession
Another issue plaguing the Canucks is allowing goals within minutes of each other. The shift after a goal is the most important, and most of the time, especially in games they lose by multiple goals, they have allowed the other team to score twice in quick succession. So instead of being down by one or tied, they are down by two or trailing in a blink of an eye. This was another bad trend that was seen a few seasons ago when Green was in charge, and they ended up finishing out of the playoffs and in the lower half of the standings.
The Canucks have to start playing with more energy and fire after a goal is scored against them. Too often, they are allowing the other team to dictate the pace and build upon the goal they just scored rather than halting that momentum in its tracks. Again, last season, they were the ones doing that, not the opposition.
Nils Hoglander’s Lack of Offence
Nils Hoglander‘s production at even strength made a difference in the Canucks’ fortunes last season. This season, not so much, and they are feeling it in the standings. On Dec. 15, 2023, he had nine goals and 14 points in 28 games, was a plus-13 and had 37 shots on goal. As of this writing, he only has two goals and five points in 29 games, is a minus-5 and has 28 shots on goal. He is also on a 24-game goal drought and is on pace for only six goals and 14 points over an 82-game season. That’s a pretty far cry from the career-high 24 goals and 36 points he put up last season, which he then parlayed into a $9 million ($3 million average annual value) extension that starts in 2025-26.
Hoglander was a valuable piece of the top-six in 2023-24, providing a lot of five-on-five offence alongside Elias Pettersson (in fact all 36 points came in that situation). He was also stout defensively and rarely in Rick Tocchet’s doghouse, earning a lot of trust from his head coach. But this season, that trust has seemingly been lost, as he just recently got his spot back in the top six playing with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. He still hasn’t scored though, and has even found himself in trade rumours. His lack of offence has made the Canucks a shallower team; they are lucky that Kiefer Sherwood is making up for that loss right now with his eight goals because I don’t know where they would be without his production. If Hoglander can find a way to break out of his slump, it would go a long way in returning this team to the deep lineup they were projected to have at the beginning of the season.
Canucks Are Consistently Inconsistent
It all comes down to this one trend, the Canucks are consistently inconsistent. From one game to the next, they can be two different teams. Take the game against the Panthers on Thursday (Dec. 12), they were in control defensively, played a full 60 minutes and rarely looked overmatched. Then, they turned around and failed to build on it by putting up one of their worst outings of the season against the Bruins on Saturday (Dec. 14). The structure they appeared to have against the defending Stanley Cup champions withered away against the Bruins and they once again looked like a team closer to the draft lottery than the playoffs.
The Canucks have been one of the most inconsistent teams in the NHL this season, and while some of that can be blamed on the fact that they haven’t had a healthy lineup for most of it, the lack of energy and structure at times is inexcusable, especially at home. While it appears they can find their game consistently on the road, that all seems to evaporate when they enter Rogers Arena. That’s exactly where the consistently inconsistent adage comes into play, and if they can’t shift all of these negative trends to the positive side soon, the panic button will be pressed before we hit the midseason mark.
