MONTREAL — The Vancouver Canucks have had bleak, long road trips like this one before, but those usually involved asterisks and corrosive coaches.
Only two seasons ago, the Canucks went 0-5 on a February trip. But John Tortorella was the coach coming back from suspension, and Henrik Sedin was injured and Roberto Luongo was about to be traded.
And back in 1998-99, the Canucks returned home from a November five-game tour at 0-4-1. But Mike Keenan was the coach and Brian Burke was the general manager and it couldn’t have been more a freak show had the Canucks a Cyclops at centre, the Elephant Man on defence and Donald Trump in goal.