The Vancouver Canucks are out of playoff contention and that was on full display when they fell to the St. Louis Blues 3-0 and allowed a whopping 50 shots on Saturday. It wasn’t the team’s best effort and a few Canucks called the team out – though not by name – for the lack of effort on the ice.
Daniel Sedin: "From some guys right now, the effort is not there. I think those guys know who they are. I think it’s embarrassing."
— Iain MacIntyre (@imacSportsnet) March 20, 2016
More from Daniel, via the Vancouver Sun:
“The only thing I worry about is effort. And I think from some guys right now, the effort is not there. It’s not good enough. I think those guys know who they are. I think it’s embarrassing if you’re not giving the effort every night. Shift in and shift out, game in and game out, it has to be there otherwise it’s going to look like this.
I think it’s been an issue most nights. Early on, we won some games because we had enough guys battling. It’s about learning to win those one-on-one battles. We’re there right now, trying to battle. But we’re not winning them. That’s a big difference. You got to go in there demanding the puck. We have too many instances where that’s not the case. If you don’t get that most of the shifts, most of the nights, we’re going to lose 3-2 and 2-1 like we have this year. There’s a reason we’ve lost all those one-goal games.”
That’s not the type of blunt comment you’d expect to hear from Daniel Sedin, but he’s not wrong. The team’s fate has been sealed in 2015-16, but it’s pretty discouraging to the fans to see players simply going through the motions.
Other Canucks agree with Daniel:
Miller and Desjardins concurred w Daniel. Willie: "I don’t know exactly what they’re thinking, but I know there’s more to give."
— Iain MacIntyre (@imacSportsnet) March 20, 2016
More Desjardins: "The one thing you have is (your identity). We have guys, sometimes it’s like the game’s too hard.” #identitycrisis
— Iain MacIntyre (@imacSportsnet) March 20, 2016
We can only speculate who Sedin, Miller and Desjardins are referring to with their comments. The Canucks are riding a four-game losing streak and they’re allowing over 30 shots per game (31.8). The team wasn’t great throughout the majority of the season, but they at least remained mostly competitive. Of late, they look like a team headed straight to the bottom of the standings.
If Daniel isn’t happy with how things are going, he only needs to wait for April 30th to start forecasting what kind of new talent will be coming to the roster.
