The Vancouver Canucks are in a miserable spot, but now they’ve got company.
Through 18 games, Vancouver has only one regulation win and seven points total, a .194 point percentage that puts this season in historically ugly territory. That pace is well behind the one that left the Canucks in last place by 14 points a year ago. If nothing changes, they’re tracking toward just under 33 points, which would land as the ninth-lowest total ever and the lowest since 1993.
For a while, that looked like it might give the Canucks a comfortable cushion at the bottom of the standings. Instead, the Chicago Blackhawks have crashed into the race.
Chicago’s 4-12-1 record through 17 games gives them nine points, just one win and two points ahead of Vancouver’s 3-14-1 mark. And right now, the Blackhawks look like they may be sliding even harder. They’ve dropped five straight, while the Canucks’ losing streak sits at four.
The numbers are ugly on both sides. Chicago and Vancouver are both minus-30, though the Blackhawks have done it in one fewer game.
The scoring lines aren’t much prettier either: Chicago has 37 goals for and 67 against, while Vancouver has scored 53 and allowed 83. On pure entertainment value, the Canucks have at least been the more active team offensively, but neither club is making much of a case for itself.
There is some context here, though. Vancouver has faced a tougher slate of opponents and played more games on the road. That makes the comparison a little less clean, and it’s fair to call this one close to a coin toss in terms of which record is worse and which team is more likely to stay there.
Injuries aren’t really driving either collapse. Chicago is missing Bowen Byram, who was a major investment, but it’s hard to see him swinging the standings dramatically if he were available.
Vancouver is down Filip Chytil, along with Thatcher Demko, though that’s a slightly different story. Either way, neither roster looks like it’s about to get a major lift just by getting healthier.
The Blackhawks were supposed to get a boost when Connor Bedard returned from a summer injury, but that hasn’t materialized. Chicago won one of five games without him to start the year, then has gone just 3-9 with him in the lineup. That’s a bump from .200 to .250, which is not exactly the jolt they were hoping for.
It’s difficult to pin down exactly what Chicago intended this season to be. The organization did make moves that pointed toward contention, including the acquisition and signing of Byram, the return of Patrick Kane, and the addition of veterans such as Ian Cole.
But the results have been worse than last season, and at this point the original plan barely matters. There’s so little hope of turning this around that the Blackhawks might as well embrace another year of tanking.
That leaves Vancouver with real competition for the basement.
The two teams still have three head-to-head meetings left, on November 22, January 22, and March 3. Those games carry obvious weight in the standings, but the broader race to the bottom will keep unfolding separately.
There’s also the trade-deadline angle. Both teams have a long list of pending UFA veterans who could be moved.
Vancouver’s group includes Drew O’Connor, Paul Cotter, Brendan Gallagher, and Luke Schenn among others. Chicago’s list features Teuvo Teravainen, Jordan Greenway, Andrew Mangiapane, and Cole.
The veteran impact looks fairly even, though Chicago’s group has fewer trade restrictions and may be more likely to go.
If either team has a better shot at improving, it’s probably Vancouver. The Canucks are still settling in under coach Manny Malhotra and his system, while Jeff Blashill has already had a full season in Chicago. Blashill’s approach doesn’t seem close to clicking, but there’s at least a chance Malhotra’s can still take hold in Vancouver.
So the Canucks’ bad season has turned into something even messier: not just a stumble toward last place, but a fight to keep it. A team that wasn’t supposed to be openly tanking is now in a dead heat with a club that may have decided tanking is the best path forward.
A couple of decades ago, the Canucks and Blackhawks were battling near the top of the Western Conference. Now they’re locked together at the other end.
May the worse team win.
In Other News...
Canucks Keep Spiraling But One Young Forward Is Giving Fans Hope
The Canucks season has already hit an ugly early checkpoint, with a 3-14-1 start that has left the club chasing answers after setting a franchise record for losses through its first 18 games. A recent 6-2 defeat to the Winnipeg Jets only reinforced the familiar problems, from penalty-kill issues to defensive breakdowns, and there has been little about the teams overall form to suggest an immediate fix is around the corner.
Liam Ohgren has been one of the few bright spots tucked inside that mess. After spending time as a healthy scratch earlier in the season, the young forward has started to find his footing and has given the Canucks something to point to beyond the standings, with his recent run offering a small but meaningful sign that not every part of the roster is stuck in the same spiral. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Paying For Drew OConnor Problem As Malhotra Loses Patience
Drew OConnors start to the season has become a problem the Canucks cant keep ignoring. Through 18 games, the winger has piled up more minor penalties than anyone else on the roster, and the timing has only made the damage worse for a team already trying to steady its penalty kill. His season has also fallen well short of what Vancouver has come to expect from him, turning a useful depth piece into a nightly source of frustration.
Manny Malhotras patience appeared to wear thin after OConnor took an early hooking penalty in a recent game, a mistake that fed directly into goals against. For a club that needs cleaner shifts and fewer self-inflicted wounds, those kinds of lapses have a way of standing out fast. The Canucks are still waiting for OConnor to settle in, but the longer this pattern continues, the harder it gets to separate his individual struggles from the teams bigger special-teams issues. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks Face A Roster Decision That Could Shape Their Deadline
The Canucks are weighing a familiar deadline dilemma with Drew OConnor, a veteran winger on an expiring contract who could help them reshape the roster if they decide to move him. Vancouvers interest in getting younger, NHL-ready talent is part of the equation, but OConnors value also comes from being the kind of depth piece playoff teams tend to chase when they want another scoring option for the stretch run.
His slow start has only added to the uncertainty, even as the organization considers whether keeping him around might still make sense for the experience and possible longer-term value he brings. For now, the sense is that Vancouver does not need to rush, and a decision could wait until closer to the trade deadline, when the market and the Canucks own priorities may look a lot different. [Read more 🡒]