VANCOUVER – If you are wondering what to make of the Vancouver Canucks after Thursday’s 9-7 carnival-ride loss to the Edmonton Oilers, you are not alone.

“I don’t know what to think of it,” the Canucks’ senior skatesman, defenceman Luke Schenn, said after a loss in which his team surrendered seven goals over 14 minutes and trailed 5-0 and 8-2. “Careless with the puck, didn't defend hard enough, kind of lost structure and details. At times it looked like everyone was on their own page a little bit. If we want to have a chance. . . we’ve got to play as a five-man unit. That's the only way. Obviously, we're going to turn the corner here and continue to improve, but I would agree with your statement: that was playing losing hockey.”

The statement actually originated with Canucks coach Manny Malhotra, who told reporters on the eve of his first training camp a couple of weeks ago: “There’s a very big difference between losing games, which is inevitable. . . and playing losing hockey. The measure of our group will be on playing the right way, doing the things that we’re talking about, having details to your game, which is going to give us an opportunity to win. Those are the measures that, when you look back on a game, did we check the boxes?”

On Thursday, the Canucks incinerated the boxes in the first 29 minutes.

Maybe there were a few checkmarks in the third period, when they scored four times and twice climbed within two goals.

It is difficult to draw conclusions from a rebuilding team’s first two games, especially when we haven’t seen a home-and-home series like they just played against the Oilers, who went 1-1 but won 14-13 on aggregate.

But this much we know: the way the........

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