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And will Willie Desjardins still be the coach if the current five-game losing streak (0-4-1) stretches to eight or nine or 10 games?

The mob on defence will fuel a lot of debate in Canuck Nation because the return to the Utica Comets of the remarkable Stecher, a pure 22-year-old rookie whose average ice time on 21:22 in his first three NHL games ranks second on the team, is the easiest solution to the over-crowding.

But none of this really helps the attack, which is what has the Canucks’ teetering just 2 ½ weeks into the regular season.

Nor will the return of grinders Alex Burrows and Derek Dorsett, who also practised Monday and could play in Montreal after sitting out the Canucks’ 0-3 homestand last week, do much for the scoring.

Burrows and Dorsett have zero goals between them, which at least ties them with pivotal wingers Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi.

But Burrows and Dorsett should provide energy, and maybe that will lead to something. The competition on defence should generate urgency, and maybe that will lead to something good. Yes, these are straws we’re grasping it but that’s about all the building materials the Canucks have to buttress themselves ahead of these six games.

That and the knowledge among those players who experienced the deep, dark dive down the standings last season that the team wasn’t nearly as bad on the road as it was at home.

“It’s us against the world; that’s the mentality we have to have,” Burrows, the 35-year-old from Montreal, said before the Canucks flew east Monday afternoon. “It doesn’t matter what everybody says in the outside world. (Negativity) can’t creep into this locker-room. That’s really important. It’s a great challenge on Wednesday. We’re playing the best team in the NHL right now, in their building, so it’s a great time to show what we’ve got.