The Vancouver Canucks are the golfer who has hit a lot of greens and missed a lot of putts.
The Canucks shot 74 in the first round of the National Hockey League season. Ugly as that is, they should have been around 70, could have been 68 — a lot further up the leaderboard. But they’ve blown leads and games, endured bewildering special-teams slumps, collapsed on their longest road trip in two years, impaled themselves on three-on-three overtime and, lately, have suffered indifferent goaltending.
Yet, their hockey record — 8-8-6 — gives them 22 points from 22 games.