Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Defensive-minded Canucks searching for offence with McDavid, Ovechkin on deck

Oct 27, 2016 | 4:45 PM

VANCOUVER — After a perfect start to the regular season, a couple of familiar warts are starting to pop up on the Vancouver Canucks.

The club that finished 29th in goals in 2015-16 sits last in the NHL with just 14 through seven games, including two in overtime.

The offensively challenged Canucks were always going to rely on defensive structure and good goaltending to try and grind out wins, but they directed just three pucks on net in the third period of Tuesday’s 3-0 home loss to the Ottawa Senators, and sat 26th in even strength shot differential at 46.28 per cent heading into Thursday’s action.

“We’re not going to be a power offence team, that’s just the way it is,” said Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin. “That’s the way we have to win. We have to realize that.”

The Canucks won their first four games of the year — two in OT, one in a shootout and another in regulation — with three of those victories coming by way of 2-1 scorelines, before losing 4-3 at the Los Angeles Kings and 4-2 at the Anaheim Ducks last weekend prior to that setback against Ottawa.

Vancouver won three of its games despite trailing after 40 minutes — the club accomplished that feat three times all of last season — but Sedin has noticed the team beginning to stray from what had made it successful early, a trend that had consequences at both ends of the rink.

“We’re not really doing the things we need to do structure-wise to create offence,” said Sedin. “We’re leaning to the offence a little bit too much, and trying to create turnovers at the wrong spots and cheating a little bit. If you do that, a lot of times the puck is going to end up in our end and we have no juice to get going the other way.

“We have to rely even more on our structure, but when we turn a puck over we’ve got to go.”

The system Vancouver has implemented sees the forwards get back quicker to help out in the neutral zone to avoid odd-man rushes against. Head coach Willie Desjardins stressed there should still be opportunities to create offence 5-on-5, even though that facet of the game has been severely lacking with just 11 goals at even strength so far this season.

“A good defence is a good offence,” said the third-year coach. “That’s the way you create offence. When we play our best hockey we’re playing good defensively, we’re turning pucks over, and that’s creating the offence. Our structure hasn’t been as good the last two games. We’ve haven’t created as much.

“Some of the first games we didn’t score, but we created lots of chances. We have to get back onto that path.”

Another issue is the power play, which finished 27th overall last year and is 24th early on in 2016-17, but couldn’t be blamed last game after getting just six seconds of man-advantage time against Ottawa.

With two tough home matchups upcoming — Connor McDavid and the high-flying Edmonton Oilers on Friday followed by Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Saturday — the Canucks will probably need more at even strength and on special teams, even if defence is still the key.

“What’s going to get us through is sticking together,” said Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller. “It showed in the early games where we just hung with it the whole night. Our ability to not stray was the reason we could find ways to win.”

Notes: The Canucks placed defenceman Christopher Tanev (ankle) on injured reserve, where he joins forwards Alexandre Burrows (neck) and Derek Dorsett (shoulder) on the sidelines. … Vancouver has recalled forward Mike Zalewski from the AHL. … After this weekend, the Canucks play seven of their next 21 games on the road.

Follow @JClipperton_CP on Twitter

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press