Canucks Coffee: Is there a split here?

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It sure was notable listening to Tyler Myers and Brock Boeser, two of the Vancouver Canucks’ most senior players, talk about how much learning is — and isn’t — going on.

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There’s losing, and then there’s losing bad.

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“As a younger player, you’re still learning and trying to learn the right way to play the game, and you have to work to each and every night. Consistency each and every night,” Boeser said. “And there’s just so many things that I felt I’ve learned over all my time in NHL. We have a young group and there’s a lot of details and things you have to understand to be successful in this league.”

Everything is snowballing right now. One mistake leads to another and to another, to getting trapped in your own end and so on.

“Mental lapses can lead to less offence,” Myers said. “So, you know, play the right way, get in front of guys. Make good changes. I think all that stuff adds up. It’s going to put us in the offensive zone more, it’s going to give guys more rest. It just trickles down the line. So got to keep focusing on those details.”

Good moments can add up. They’re not getting those.

Myers talks about little details — he’s been in Vancouver seven years now. He’s lamented the little details so often, you start to feel bad about that. When you lose, you talk about the little details — and too often he’s found himself speaking about that. The stretches where he’s not had to talk about that, they’ve been so few.

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“You want to be in a good place with the details. You know, it’s been up and down,” he said. “I’m an older guy. I’ve really started to realize, like, no matter how many years you’ve been around, whether it’s whether in your first few years or you’re in year 20, you know, you have to be a student of the game constantly. Have to look for ways to get better. It’s not like it’s just comes to you automatically. Maybe (it does for) a handful of guys in the league. I think you got to enjoy it, you know? I think just be a student of the game. Watch video, talk to guys about different things you can do. Talk to linemates. Because, honestly, that stuff is fun. Whether things are going well, things are going bad, I love talking about the game and figuring things out. So that’s all, that’s all we can do.”

Realizing how many ways you can get beaten in the toughest league in the world, that can be a steep learning curve for young players. And, clearly, the veterans feel they’re smack dab in the middle of it.

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“It’s hard, and you don’t want to be in this position. But, you know, I’m trying to be the best leader I can be for these young guys and try and help out,” Boeser said.

“It takes the whole team. We need the whole team,” he added.

Are they getting the whole team, I countered? He didn’t say that exactly:

“I mean, I think guys are working hard but, you know, just understanding the right way to play,” he explained. “What the coaches are preaching to us, and understand what they’re preaching to us. And, you know, those little details are so important in the game.”

The little details are absolutely killing them, he said.

“I made those mistakes when I was younger, and it’s just part of the process, and it’s gonna suck, but you know, like I said, at the end of the day, you got to come there and each and every day with the right mindset and come and work hard the goal,” he said.

But are they processing what the coaches are saying? There’s a point being made by the veterans that, in the end, there’s a disconnect. That sometimes you’re just going to lose — but don’t do it to yourself.

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“It’s like on the ice, it shows sometimes. A coach tells us something in the pre-scout (meeting) but we don’t do it. We don’t do what they say. It’s like, listen and understand, and take in information and apply it to the game,” he said.

“It’s different from college and everything else,” he said. As in, you can get cooked in so many more ways here in the NHL?

“Yeah, exactly.”

The personal

For his part, Boeser knows how badly things are going for him. Sure, he scored the other night but that doesn’t fix the overall struggles he’s having. This is a guy who re-signed in Vancouver because this is where he loves to be. That it’s all falling apart around him pains him.

That he can’t fix it himself pains him.

“Personally and mentally, like, sure it was good to get that goal, but like, it’s still s — t around here. It’s not fun. Like, you know, I want to just, I want to score and I want us to win,” he said.

And so he presses on. He knows where he’s gone wrong. He can see the rawness of that -29, worst plus/minus in the league. He knows he can be better. He wants to show the young guys how much better he can be, how much better they can be.

“I’m just trying to have a good mindset, of being grateful. Each and every day the sun comes up, I try to have that mindset of just it’s a good day and go work your ass off.”

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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