The Vancouver Canucks’ practice on Sunday morning at Rogers Arena was unlike anything we’d previously seen under Bruce Boudreau.
Vancouver’s head coach decided not to run the session. Assistants Trent Cull, Jason King and Mike Yeo instead took turns leading drills and speaking in front of the whiteboard. Boudreau mostly just observed on the ice, speaking infrequently beyond the occasional one-on-one conversation with a few players and a quick message at the end where he encouraged the players to enjoy the rest of the day with their families and implored them to have some pride and come to the rink for Monday’s game dialed in.
The practice itself had a solemn vibe. The pace and intensity of the work were totally fine, but the usual chirps and laughs between drills were missing and the normal hoots and hollers after moments like a bar-down snipe felt subdued.
Boudreau explained to The Athletic afterward that he wanted his assistants to lead the way so that the players could hear a different voice. It’s understandable considering the circumstances. Vancouver’s the only winless team in the NHL, reeling from a disastrous 5-1 loss to Buffalo in Saturday’s home opener. A different voice can maybe deliver the message in a new way, especially since Boudreau had a very stern message for the team the night before in the locker room, which he normally doesn’t do after losses.
It’s wild to think a team could be in crisis mode after its home opener, but that’s exactly what the Canucks find themselves in after being booed off the ice, with jerseys tossed on the playing surface for good measure on Saturday. Truthfully, the Vancouver market isn’t malcontent because of six bad games. No, the fan base is unruly because this feels like a painful rerun of the bad movie everyone had to watch throughout the last two years.
Big changes, at least in who runs the organization, already happened last season when the club dismissed the entire coaching staff and most of the front office. That’s left many wondering where the Canucks go from here. What are Vancouver’s options for getting this season and the long-term future back on track? Let’s dig into some possibilities.
Option 1: Big lineup changes and stay the course otherwise
Vancouver’s invested a lot toward making the playoffs this season. The club was active in free agency, refused to jettison any core pieces of the roster, signed a massive extension for J.T. Miller and traded away a second-round pick as recently as two and a half weeks ago to dump Jason Dickinson and gain short-term cap flexibility.
Six bad games almost certainly won’t be enough for management to cut its losses and pivot in a major way. Something drastic still has to change though and that’s where the coaching staff will have the first crack at trying to capture lightning in a bottle.
On Sunday, Miller was shifted back to wing, on a line with Bo Horvat and Ilya Mikheyev. That was probably done for a few reasons.