The date is Monday, October 24th 2022, and the final buzzer has just gone off in a game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vancouver Canucks. The game saw Carolina skate away with a 3-2 win, which extended Vancouver’s losing streak to seven games and a record of 0-5-2 to start the season. What makes this interesting is that the Canucks are a team that has the pieces to compete for a playoff spot as one of the better up-and-coming teams on paper. They also have so much great young talent including forwards Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and J.T. Miller, goalie Thatcher Demko, and the very offensively skilled defenseman Quinn Hughes.

Vancouver also made the playoffs just a couple of years ago in 2020 in the bubble, beating the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round to make the playoffs, then beating the St. Louis Blues in the first round, before their second round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in seven games. They would go on to miss the playoffs in each of the next two seasons, including finishing last in the Pacific Division in the 2021 season.

The Canucks entered this season with high hopes and looking to make it back to the playoffs. They have coach Bruce Boudreau in his first full season as head coach after being hired last December, and with all their great young talent looking to take that next step.

They began their season on October 12th against Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers where they were bested 5-3.

They then were aiming to bounce back against the Philadelphia Flyers, who were expected to be a bottom-feeder team. The Flyers came out on top 3-2 making Vancouver’s record 0-2 to start the season.

They then went on to lose 6-4 to the Washington Capitals moving them down to a worrying 0-3.

In their next game, they would take the Columbus Blue Jackets to overtime, but Vladislav Gavrikov would win the game for Columbus.

They went to overtime again in their next game, this time against the Minnesota Wild. But this time it was Kirill Kaprizov who played spoiler and gave Minnesota the win.

Those two overtime losses made Vancouver fall to 0-3-2 to start the season. They would take their sixth straight loss against the Buffalo Sabres, getting demolished 5-1 before losing to Carolina to fall to 0-5-2. Vancouver finally got their first win on October 27th beating the NHL’s newest team, the Seattle Kraken, in a 5-4 game.

The start of a season is a key part of the season as a whole and can dictate how the rest of your year will go. Going winless through their first seven games makes the rest of the season look bleak for the Vancouver Canucks. With injuries to stars Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, along with Curtis Lazar, Riley Stillman, and Tucker Poolman, Vancouver’s struggles will likely continue and while they could always turn it around and make a miraculous run, it’s not very common. Fans of the Canucks do have some good news though, as they will likely be in the running for the first overall pick in the NHL Draft and the projected top pick, Connor Bedard, is expected by many to be a superstar.