Things couldn’t be going a whole lot better for the Vancouver Canucks, who have won nine of their first 15 games despite injuries to key players in Elias Pettersson, Alexander Edler, Brandon Sutter, Sven Baertschi and Chris Tanev.
All things considered, a 9-6-0 start to the season is impressive. Throw in the struggles of their Pacific Division rivals — the three California rivals and the Vegas Golden Knights — and the Canucks have every reason to feel good about where they stand.
But as the Canucks know, it just takes one big-time slump to erase an excellent start.