Canucks Live: Sabre metrics, the Canucks suck

Welcome to Canucks Live. Here we’ll highlight some of the news that drops daily about the Canucks. Come back throughout the day as we update with all the news you need to know. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for our Canucks Report to get our stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Was Tuesday’s game a perfect microcosm of Vancouver’s season?

Fall behind 4-0 and embarrass your fans, what are you still watching for, loser, this team is toast.

Then score three in rapid fashion, hell yeah, what a fightback, let’s go.

Oops, ran out of time.

Yeah, this team doesn’t pack it in. They will fight back. They will keep grinding.

They just aren’t very good.

“We were all right for a bit and lost coverage on the first goal, and on the power play, you can’t give up a 2-on-1 like that,” said Canucks head coach Adam Foote. “It seemed like it rattled us for longer than it usually does as a group. Usually, we bounce back quicker.
As for the comeback, it was gratifying to a degree, but losing is still losing. Moral victories don’t mean much.

“We weren’t ready to play and that’s on us,” admitted Jake DeBrusk. “Demmer (Thatcher Demko) kept us in it and I like the fight we had in the third period, but there’s a fine line between winning and losing. Little plays can make the difference. We have to take the positives out of the third and just keep going.” 

The Canucks top prospect is on the move. After a solid World Junior Championship with Canada Braeden Cootes has been traded from Seattle to Prince Albert.

Cootes, 18, is coming off playing for Team Canada at the world junior tournament in Minnesota. The trade between Seattle and Prince Albert was rumoured for a couple of days but couldn’t be announced until the tournament was over.

Lauded for his two-way game and his leadership, Cootes was the No. 15 overall selection in last summer’s NHL Draft. He started the season with Vancouver and got in three games with the big club before being reassigned to Seattle. He had 10 goals and 23 points in 17 games with the Thunderbirds this season.

He’s unlikely to be back in junior next season. He already came close to sticking with Vancouver this season, and next season there’s new rules that allow NHL teams to play one 19-year-old from the Canadian Hockey League in the AHL. Cootes would be the logical candidate for that. 

Everyone knows Canucks President Jim Rutherford doesn’t wait until the deadline to make his deals. He likes to get it done early and be ahead of the market.

So with so much talk around Kiefer Sherwood or another one of the rumoured assets to be moved (Tyler Myers, Evander Kane, Conor Garland) you might be expecting a move sooner rather than later. But there’s a bit of a wrinkle. The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun suggests the Olympic break is causing teams to take a longer look before making any deals.

I’m hearing from an increasing number of buyers and contenders that they’re learning toward waiting until after the Olympic trade freeze to make their most impactful moves. The reason is twofold: 1) They might be targeting a player who’s going to play in the Olympics and want to make sure he’s not injured in Milan; and 2) Those same playoff contenders also have players headed to Milan and want to make sure if they suffer an injury there, they have time to pivot on their deadline needs post-Olympics.

There are 12 days after the Olympics to work with ahead of the actual trade deadline.

So that’s fine if you’re a team that can afford to wait that long to make your No. 1 add. But some teams can’t afford that. Whether it’s because of injuries or being in need of a season-saving move, we’re also going to see deals between now and Feb. 4 because some teams that haven’t given up on the year have to plug holes as soon as possible and can’t afford to wait until after the Olympics. It might be too late by March 6 to save their season. 

Check back for more Canucks news throughout the day …