Following the Vancouver Canucks is a challenging thing just now. It doesn't help when marginally more successful teams are making changes either behind the bench or in the front office.

Yes, we're calling the Vegas Golden Knights a "marginally more successful team" than the Canucks. If you saw them play against Vancouver on Monday, you wouldn't be impressed, either. And they're 32 points up the standings.

Patience? Patience?!?

There are nine games left before the regular season comes to a merciful end. We've mentioned - A LOT - about how to keep any kind of interest in our favourite team. Look for growth in the kids, see the veterans find their voices, maybe just focus on a player you like.

But, lordy, there is a lot you have to ignore. And that's getting harder.

The Canucks have lost six in a row, but that's not the important part. We all know losses are going to come through the end of the year. There is a talent imbalance, an experience deficit, and little motivation for success outside personal embarrassment. So, sure, losses happen.

The loss against Vegas mostly involved the chances given. Adin Hill stopped more than Kevin Lankinen, as a percentage, but it's hard to point to Lankinen's performance as the reason Vegas won. A recurring refrain from Canucks games has been "The pass to [player] coming in alone on net."

That Vancouver played well enough to possibly win is an indictment of the Pacific Division. The Golden Knights are in the playoffs by default, not through any effort of their own. They changed coaches the day before this game, for crying out loud. They're not doing great.

Entertaining the Thought

A losing team can still be fun. In fact, if you have watched two different teams sharing the division, you probably had fun doing it. The San Jose Sharks in the past two seasons have lost plenty of games, but they're also been fun to watch. They haven't always been able to hold it together, but when they did it was cause for celebration.

The last fun game the Canucks played was against the Anaheim Ducks, who also shouldn't be in the playoffs, but are in the Pacific Division, so... They also have a bit of a "defence optional" approach to the game. Fortunately for them, their offence has been catching up, and that's an easy way to sell tickets.

What can sell tickets in Vancouver while we wait? It's tough to tell, since we don't know what they're going to do next.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There have been vague implications of "big changes" from Jim Rutherford, and rumours that Patrik Allvin is going to take the fall. There are plenty of reasons for him to do so, of course. Possibly the biggest is every decision made leading into this season, and then being pushed aside for the biggest moment of this management's brief tenure. Rutherford stepping in for the Quinn Hughes trade was the dagger, and Allvin has been bleeding ever since.

One question is how much of the blame for the current disaster can be laid at Allvin's feet. In theory, the direction of any team is dictated by the general manager. In practice, much of that seems to be coming from Rutherford instead. That goes back to the decision to move Bo Horvat and keep J.T. Miller, a trade handled by Allvin, but likely made necessary by Rutherford's direction.

While that trade wasn't bad for the value returned, it and subsequent ones were guided by the "win now" direction. That core misunderstanding of the team is hard to forgive. Is it a a good thing that the tightrope the team chose to walk is now recognized as leading to a brick wall?

Captain vs Pilot

The current coach is here because the best defenceman the team has ever had wanted him to be. Adam Foote got a three-year contract out of that wish, though the "search" for a new coach was limited to two names. As a result, they will likely lose the other choice, Abbotsford bench boss Manny Malhotra. It's that or fire Foote and pay him to not coach. And we don't know how effective Malhotra will be in the NHL with what will be a very weak team.

To say Foote has been ineffective is an understatement. After nearly a full season, the players still look lost in their own end. Their control of the puck in the opposing end is minimal. And they seem unsure of themselves everywhere on the ice. For a team that is going young - they had four rookies on the defence at times this year - that's not a great sign. He can absolutely take his share of the blame.

But more has to be reserved for management. Rutherford said that they have known "for a while" that Quinn Hughes wasn't coming back to the team when his contract expired. Thing is, that "a while" was apparently mid-season in 2024-25. Every decision made from that point should have been pointed at a post-Hughes team. And it wasn't.

Everything from keeping Pius Suter past the deadline to re-signing Brock Boeser to hiring Foote was centered around the assumption that Hughes was staying. If they knew otherwise, none of that should have happened. The signings and trades (or lack of them) were bad enough, and that's on the general manager, but they were made to a purpose.

Abandon Ship?

We all know where this is heading. This ship was less run aground by a storm and more by "get a blindfold and hold my beer". We aren't aboard the SS Minnow but the Exxon Valdes. They are going to lose some fans in a rebuild, but it'll be worse if they don't course-correct, and soon. And fair enough - tickets aren't cheap, and the entertainment value has been minimal lately.

There is something to be salvaged yet. The Canucks have started to rebuild their prospect pool. They have picked up younger, capable players. They seem less likely to trade away high draft picks, though the night is still young. All that is positive, though we're going to need to see that through the draft and into next season to check if it's a blip or a habit.

I'm not too worried about the effect of bad coaching on the young players this season because everyone is going to try to forget it. And yes, being unable to communicate your plan or failing to adjust it to the players available is bad coaching. It's not impossible that Foote can improve in the offseason, but seeing improvement before then would be more reassuring.

Leave the Canucks, though? Nah. They're my team, and I've been here longer than damn near anyone drawing a paycheque from them. I don't know if I've seen a worse season, certainly not one with a greater discrepancy between expectations and results.

But I am a very patient fan.