Has there been a culture change in Vancouver or is there just no pressure right now?

The Vancouver Canucks seem to be out of the news cycle for the first time all season, and have seen a bit of a bump in their play, going 11-7-2 under new head coach Rick Tocchet. Even J.T. Miller has said that it’s been fun to go to the rink and play games.

But they also saw a bump in their play last season after hiring Bruce Boudreau, and that didn’t transition well to the start of this season. That leads Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis to wonder: has the Canucks culture actually changed, or is it just because it’s late in the season and there’s no pressure in Vancouver right now?

Steven Ellis: I think I’m leaning towards there being no pressure. You did a story looking at the coaching bump after a change, and it’s a real thing, and that’s what we’re seeing with the Canucks. At the same time, while this is a team that obviously isn’t a great team, there’s a lot of flaws, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it was looking.

At a certain point, it was clear thy were going to make a coaching change, it felt like the team just gave up, they were just looking for that next change. There were so many rumours, so many stories, so many controversies on and off the ice, something had to change at some point, and they did. But, you’ve still got a team with Elias Pettersson, who could hit 100 points. You’ve got J.T. Miller, who when he’s playing really good, he’s well over a point per game. Andrei Kuzmenko, a huge piece for the team. Quinn Hughes.

And then you look at Thatcher Demko, the guy who was supposed to be the future of this team in net. My theory with him is the same thing with Jack Campbell last year when he was playing well with the Leafs, and then he kind of fell apart and was out for a while. I have my theory for Demko that he was playing injured for much longer than we were aware of, because we know how good he was, and he just didn’t look comfortable in net, he wasn’t moving like he could.

While I do think this is still a team with a lot of talent, and I do like what they are capable of maybe doing in the next couple of years, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and I think you got to do more than just a coaching change, and they did that. We’ll see, but you always see these late season game, like Chicago a couple years ago was a good example when Erik Gustafsson was putting up points every single night, you get to the point where you’re not going to make the playoffs so you can try whatever. It seems like you play a bit better in that case because of less pressure, but there’s still a lot of work to do for this team.

Matt Larkin: Yeah, I think you’re right. I think the Canucks still have to earn by trust that what they showed last year under Boudreau. They have been under the hood much better defensively, they’ve actually been one of the best 5v5 defensive teams in the league under Tocchet. They’ve been demons shorthanded with Miller and Pettersson, leading the NHL in shorthanded goals since Tocchet took over.

But again, I still question the mental toughness, I want to see what they do next year when there’s actual pressure to perform, because right now there is not pressure.

You can watch the full episode here…