The Canucks entered Monday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets on a high. Coming off a strong outing against the Nashville Predators and with three wins in their last four games, the team seemed to think they had turned a corner.
Even Willie Desjardins was pushing the narrative that the Canucks were still looking to make the playoffs, even if that likely means they would need to go on a massive winning streak to do it.
Then they went on the ice and put on a crushingly poor performance, failing to put together their first three-game win streak of the season.
The massive winning streak the Canucks would need to make the playoffs is pure, whimsical fantasy. They have had eight opportunities this season to win three-straight games and have lost every time.
The closest the Canucks came to a three-game streak was back in January against the New York Rangers. After an overtime and shootout wins against the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Islanders in which they were out-shot 88-to-48, the Canucks entered Madison Square Gardens and once again got pummeled in the shot count 49-to-20. But Ryan Miller was magnificent and took the game to overtime, where he finally succumbed to the onslaught.
So yes, the closest the Canucks came to a three-game winning streak this season was a game in which they gave up 49 shots on goal.
It’s been a bad season.
The Canucks have only failed to have at least a three-game winning streak four other times in franchise history. Three of those times came in the 70’s, when the Canucks were the expansion team without Gilbert Perreault and were therefore awful. It was also before overtime existed to give teams another crack at a win.
The only other season when the Canucks haven’t been able to string together three games in a row was in the 1998-99 season, a lowpoint in Canucks’ history that saw them score the fewest goals in a full 82-game season: 192.
This season, incidentally, the Canucks are on pace for 195 goals. There’s a distinct chance that this could be the lowest-scoring team in franchise history.
At the very least, the 1998-99 season saw the ascension of Markus Naslund to top-tier goalscorer, with his first 30+ goal campaign. As good as it’s been to see guys like Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, and Ben Hutton flash their potential, there hasn’t been anything like Naslund's performance to cheer about this season.
The Canucks now have 14 games left to avoid the fifth Canucks season without a three-game win streak and to avoid the lowest-scoring season in franchise history. At this point, the best reason to continue watching the Canucks this year is morbid curiosity.
