from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

If the Vancouver Canucks jersey that landed on the ice in protest late Saturday night came attached with a note, hopefully the fan who disavowed their team would have explained: “It’s not you, Bo, it’s everyone.”

The jersey had captain Bo Horvat’s name on it, and it was scooped up from the ice at Rogers Arena quickly and respectfully by Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Brian Dumoulin, who returned it over the glass where it was claimed by a fan still willing to wear Canuck colours.

There are still plenty of those. But many who kept their shirts on still booed the home team towards the end of 4-1 loss to the Penguins, who outshot Vancouver 44-23 and extinguished what little momentum the Canucks generated this week by finishing a road trip with wins in Montreal and Ottawa against teams that are even worse than they are.

The trend of fans throwing away their jerseys is horrifying to every National Hockey League team, and was evidence Saturday that the unrest in Canucks Nation spills beyond just general manager Jim Benning and owner Francesco Aquilini.

“Not a good one, obviously,” Canucks winger Tyler Motte said when asked about the feeling of being jeered at home. “(But) the only way to get past this is to get through it. We've . . . got to continue to look ourselves in the mirror and find a way to be better because we owe it to more people than just ourselves.”

Later, he added: “We heard the frustration from the fans tonight. And again, we look ourselves a mirror and find a way, because we do owe it to more people than just ourselves to put a better product together.”

Horvat, fed to the media more than any other player to explain the Canucks’ spectacular shortcomings this season, said simply: “Fans want wins, and we're not giving it to them.”

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