VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks have entered the despairing part of their slump, which feels like it is heading into its 15th month but certainly covers the 2025-26 National Hockey League season so far.

Having found their way to the bottom of the standings by all the conventional means — injuries, slack defending, inferior special teams, not enough saves and a forwards group assembled like a donut (no centres) — the Canucks are now losing games while outplaying opponents.

This is a new phenomenon, but possibly the most discouraging path to defeat because there really isn’t much to fix. Except maybe some luck, and nobody has a foolproof formula for that.

The Canucks outplayed the Utah Mammoth on Friday and lost 4-1. Just like they outplayed the San Jose Sharks one week earlier and lost

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