Lekkerim\u00e4ki<\/a> was at least partly at fault for the Leafs\u2019 first goal that tied the game 1-1, as he missed his defensive assignment and left Nic Roy open. But he was also responsible for giving the Canucks the 1-0 lead in the first place.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s more the defensive side of it,\u201d said Foote when asked about Lekkerim\u00e4ki\u2019s limited ice time. \u201cHe\u2019s getting there, for sure. The more time he\u2019s with us, the more he\u2019ll know certain things, and the trust will be there. It\u2019s just slight movements defensively. It\u2019s just being young. It\u2019s not even a mistake\u2026he\u2019s a smart guy, he\u2019ll get that pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a fair argument for benching a young player in a tight game. Or, at least, it would be if the Canucks were in the midst of a playoff hunt where every single point mattered, and Foote had no choice but to lean on his reliable veterans to get a game to overtime.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the context of the current Canucks.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Canucks are thoroughly in last place in the NHL standings, seven points back of the next-worst team. They\u2019ve traded their leading scorer and captain, Quinn Hughes, as well as their leading goalscorer, Kiefer Sherwood. They\u2019re clearly tanking.<\/p>\n
In other words, there\u2019s not a lot to lose.<\/p>\n
It seems like this would be an ideal time to increase the usage of young players like Lekkerim\u00e4ki, putting them in situations like a tie game late in the third period in order to see what they\u2019re made of, and give them experience that could be valuable in the future.<\/p>\n
In addition, it\u2019s largely through depending on those \u201creliable\u201d veterans that the Canucks are in last place. Tyler Myers has a 5-on-5 goal differential of minus-26. Brock Boeser is at minus-18. Evander Kane is minus-11 at 5-on-5, and Elias Pettersson is minus-10.<\/p>\n
How much worse could someone like Lekkerim\u00e4ki be in those tight situations than the veterans who have been so thoroughly outscored this season?<\/p>\n
There are just two Canucks forwards with a positive goal differential at 5-on-5 this season, if only just barely: Lekkerim\u00e4ki and Aatu R\u00e4ty. It could be argued that those two are the least responsible for the Canucks\u2019 predicament, but R\u00e4ty, in particular, is the first to hit the bench or even the press box.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be clear: it\u2019s important for young players like Lekkerim\u00e4ki to learn from this season, including how to play on the defensive side of the puck. But is benching him teaching him the right lessons? Or is it more likely to make him second-guess his instincts?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve seen it before: players getting so lost in the weeds trying to avoid every mistake that they become afraid to make one wrong move for fear of getting benched or scratched. Maybe that fate won\u2019t befall Lekkerim\u00e4ki, who ought to be brimming with confidence given his 10 goals in 16 AHL games this season.<\/p>\n
It should also be noted that Foote has given all kinds of opportunities to some of his young players, mainly the defencemen. Zeev Buium, before his face got fractured by a puck, was third in average ice time on the Canucks behind Filip Hronek and Marcus Pettersson. Tom Willander has been playing on the first power play unit.<\/p>\n
Elias Pettersson<\/a> and Victor Mancini? Well, they have the lowest ice time among Canucks defencemen this season, apart from journeymen Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Not every young defenceman is getting major opportunities.<\/p>\nThe counter-argument to the likes of Lekkerim\u00e4ki and R\u00e4ty getting limited ice time is that Foote knows what he is doing. He\u2019s said before that he doesn\u2019t want to ruin the confidence of his young players by throwing them into situations for which they\u2019re not ready. The veterans are there to insulate the youth, right?<\/p>\n
But an appeal to authority doesn\u2019t work very well here. As much as Lekkerim\u00e4ki has yet to earn Foote\u2019s trust, Foote has lost the trust of the Canucks\u2019 fanbase.<\/p>\n
Sponsored by bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rookie winger was benched late in the game by Head Coach Adam Foote, playing just three shifts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-448307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}