NHL Preview: Canucks facing more questions than answers

Vancouver Canucks' Jake Virtanen skates during the first period of a preseason NHL hockey game against the Arizona Coyotes in Vancouver, B.C., on Monday, September 28, 2015. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)Question marks have replaced the exclamation marks of a 101-point season.

Despite the Vancouver Canucks hitting that lofty plateau last spring, post-season hope evaporated in a sobering six-game, first-round playoff loss to the Calgary Flames. It didn’t result in the makeover of an aging roster, just a face-lift — the Canucks traded for second-line centre Brandon Sutter and fourth-line grinder Brandon Prust and inked free-agent defenceman Matt Bartkowski. They lost size when free agent…