TORONTO – With injuries and losses both mounting in December, the Vancouver Canucks felt they couldn’t catch a break last month. But they got one this week from the schedule maker in the form of three consecutive days between games and head coach Travis Green wanted to make sure he made the most of the respite. After ringing in the New Year with a 5-0 loss on home ice to Anaheim Tuesday, Green had the luxury of a pair of practices before his team opens arguably its toughest stretch of the season – seven straight away - from here on Saturday night.

The hockey club is hoping the break can serve as a reset button of sorts for a season on the brink of going sideways. The Canucks have just one win in their past seven games and only two in the past dozen. They had a hard practice on home ice Wednesday, traveled to Toronto Thursday and hit the ice again at the Leafs practice facility on Friday.

“It’s been good,” Green said of the mid-season reset. “We’ve had some good video sessions. It’s important to get practice time when things aren’t going well. When you’re winning, it seems to flow well and guys feel confident. I think you can start to get your confidence back throughout your line-up with some good practice time.”

Although Sven Baertschi is with the club, Green said after practice that the Swiss winger who has been out since breaking jaw on December 9 in Calgary is not ready to return to the line-up on Saturday. So the Canucks will push forward with the same forward group they have been leaning on for weeks now in the absence of Baertschi - Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter.

The only change up front on Saturday will be the return of Jake Virtanen, who missed Tuesday’s loss with the flu.

And the coach is hoping a change of scenery can lead to a change of fortune for his beleaguered hockey club.

“I like it right now,” he says of getting out of town for an extended run. “I think it’s a good time for our group to get on the road. We’ve had some success on the road and we want a team that doesn’t change its game from a home venue to a road venue. I think that’s the way the league is going nowadays.”

While it’s true the Canucks have nine of their 16 wins on the season as visitors, it’s been tough slogging for them of late regardless where they’re playing. They have just one win in their past seven as the visitors and that came November 30 in Nashville. They picked up just one of a possible six points on the road in three games in December.

Still, defenseman Erik Gudbranson is looking at this road trip as a chance to jumpstart the Canucks season.

“Time is ticking,” he says bluntly. “Where we are in the standings, we have to step our game up. We have to pick up some wins on this road trip. We’re comfortable on the road. We like going into opposing buildings and turning a crowd quiet and making it a tough game. Our December was tough with the injuries and everything that followed and our game wasn’t up to our standards. But this is a perfect opportunity. It’s a new year, we get on the road early, we’ve got some tough games against some really good hockey clubs, but this is a good chance for us.”

Gudbranson’s fellow blueliner Michael Del Zotto had a tough outing on Tuesday against Anaheim. He was on the ice for four of the five goals the Ducks scored against the Canucks. At practice Friday, he was once again paired with Chris Tanev – a duo that could very well be tasked with trying to keep Leafs scoring leader Auston Matthews in check on Saturday night.

Del Zotto, a Toronto native, appreciated the short break in the schedule and hopes he has used it effectively to tidy up some areas of his game. As bad as the score looked against Anaheim, Del Zotto felt the Canucks made some progress in the game.

“Obviously there were some breakdowns and goals against, but I thought of all the games of the past couple of weeks, the game against Anaheim had the most sustained offensive zone time,” he explains. “We had multiple shifts where we were in there over a minute and it’s usually a one and done with us of late. So I think that was a positive. You’re not going to win any hockey games if you don’t score any goals. That’s not a secret. We’re trying to work on that every day and pay attention to the defensive details.”

Another way the Canucks can help themselves is by getting their power play back on track. One of the positives even through the rash of injuries the team suffered prior to Christmas, the power play has gone colder than Toronto’s frigid temperatures this weekend, failing to score in 14 opportunities over the past five games.

But Green is confident that his best offensive players will figure things out and believes these few days of practice may be all it takes.

“When you’re talking about power play guys in general, you’re talking about guys that have confidence and a good understanding of the game,” he says. “They’re the guys that score goals, quite frankly, and they’re the ones that usually have the confidence with the puck. They had a really good stretch that was probably going to be hard to carry through and they’ve got to find a way to get it back on track and I know they have confidence that they can.”

On road trips of more than two games this season, the Canucks are three for three when it comes to opening with victories. They will try to extend that streak – and in the process attempt to snap a two-game losing skid – when they face the Leafs at Air Canada Centre.