VANCOUVER – The duration of the Vancouver Canucks’ rebuild, the length of time it takes the organization to start winning again, will be determined partly by how quickly and solidly they establish new standards and a better culture than they’ve had for most of the last decade.

Sure, talent is paramount. The Canucks have to continue to accumulate talented prospects and develop them into National Hockey League players. But talent wasn’t this team’s biggest problem in recent years.

They need better culture and that, at least, can be worked on every day. You shouldn’t need to wait years for that.

In this respect, the degree to which the league’s worst team has dug in and battled in recent games is a small step in the right direction.

On Monday, they lost 2-0 to an aggressive, heavy Ottawa Senators team that scuffled through the first half of the season but is 9-1-2 since Jan. 25. Brady Tkachuk scored into an empty-net and the Senators’ other goal, by Ridly Greig in the second period, probably shouldn’t have counted if the referees had actually read the NHL’s Rule 79 on hand passes.

The Canucks took three out of four points in back-to-back weekend road games against the Winnipeg Jets (3-2 overtime loss Saturday) and Chicago Blackhawks (6-3 win on trade-deadline Friday).

It’s possible none of these opponents will actually make the playoffs, so it’s not like the Canucks are squaring up against Stanley Cup heavyweights.

But they are squaring up and competing tenaciously, which is more than what transpired most of this winter when the Canucks, during a dismal stretch of two wins in 23 games, lost by three or more goals in regulation 13 times.

“I think the compete has been great,” goalie Kevin Lankinen said after his second straight A-grade performance. “Other guys have been stepping up in bigger roles. I know it’s not easy always to do that, but I’m really happy to see guys taking ownership, taking leadership within the room and on the ice as well, so it’s fun to watch.”

These three games have happened, of course, post-deadline — after the Canucks traded away veterans Tyler Myers, Conor Garland and David Kampf, whose exits were preceded by the trades of Quinn Hughes and Kiefer Sherwood.

It’s a different team now, and it has a different vibe, too.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us younger guys,” 22-year-old rookie winger Liam Ohgren said. “They’ve showed that they believe in us, and they play us a lot, so it’s great for every one of us. It’s great for our future and all that stuff. And yeah, that brings a little confidence boost.”

“It’s getting much better,” another recent acquisition, Marco Rossi, said of the compete level. “Especially the last few games, we’ve been playing a better game. There’s a few areas where we have to improve, but I think overall we are playing a better game. We can focus on us.”

The focus before the deadline, with half the roster spinning in the vortex of trade conjecture, was a little distracted. The timing of the Canucks’ uptick in focus and intensity, and the elevation of their younger players, is not a mystery.

“That’s usually what happens once the deadline passes,” Lankinen said. “Obviously, we lost a lot of good guys. I hate to see that, guys that have been part of this thing for a long time, and a couple of guys that haven’t been (here) so long. But all in all, just great human beings and obviously we are going to miss those guys. But that’s how the business goes. We’re going to turn the page and focus on what we have here, and I really do like the young talent that we have.”

But this talent needs to develop. The competitiveness they’re showing could provide them the foundation to get better.

Against the Senators, the Canucks managed only 16 shots, and none during four minutes of third-period power-play time when Vancouver attempted only four shots. Three missed the net and one was blocked.

The Canucks power play is just 5-for-48 (10.4 per cent) over the last two months. The only first-unit player gone since the season started is the best one, Hughes. Vancouver needs to do better at five-on-four. Especially as this ever-younger team is going to be challenged to generate even-strength scoring chances, the Canuck power play must find ways to make a difference when it can – like in Monday’s game.

“We just didn’t execute,” Rossi said of the third-period failure. “It doesn’t matter if it was in the (offensive) zone or in the breakout, we just had too many mistakes. 

“Sometimes, you know, you just try too much. And I think that doesn’t help your team. We just need to keep it simple, just put the puck to the net. Once we do that, then probably the PK will be more passive, and then other things are going to open up. But we try to do the (fancy) stuff first, and then at the end we try something else. But that just doesn’t work.”

Canuck penalty killing, however, was good. It blanked the Senators’ eighth-ranked power play on four chances.

Critically, one of the kills came after Vancouver coach Adam Foote unsuccessfully challenged Greig’s fortuitous goal for Ottawa at 10:11 of the middle period. 

A fluttering point shot by Artem Zub was instinctively parried away by teammate Shane Pinto, who got his glove in front of the puck as it was about to hit his face, sending it bouncing at a right angle to Greig, unchecked and alone in the slot.

Foote challenged for a missed stoppage on a hand pass. The NHL rulebook is clear that intent is not required for a hand pass to be whistled and that play should be stopped if a puck deflected off a player’s glove “has allowed his team to gain an advantage.”

We’re thinking that a go-ahead goal in a 0-0 game constituted an advantage for the Senators. But we also know there is no such thing as a “clear” rule in the NHL, and referees Kyle Rehman and Corey Syvret disagreed with Foote.

“Well, I was told by the referee (Rehman) that if a guy protects his face, it’s a goal,” Foote explained to reporters. “I told him it’s not the rule book. In 79.1, it’s clearly not stated that. You know, the Situation Room (in Toronto) came out so quickly with a statement for me that… it is inconclusive. But clearly on the video, he was protecting his face. But the oddest thing is the same play happened in December in Tampa, and it was called no-goal by the same ref. 

“For me, it bothered me because if they get that wrong and we get a penalty, they can make it 2-0. You can’t get that wrong. I think there’s been an argument on hockey shows about this rule, and it may be changed in the future. But the way it’s stated (in the rulebook), it should have been overruled.”

Yes, shocking, NHL. Shocking.

But so would a Vancouver victory have been without the Canucks managing to score a goal themselves.

Still, the harsh rule interpretation felt like piling on a Canuck team that, while fully accountable for their collapse to the bottom of the NHL, has also had almost everything go against them this season.

At least their intensity and competitiveness are starting to move in the right direction.

Their fifth shutout loss of the season — and fourth at Rogers Arena — opened an eight-game homestand. The Canucks’ next game is Thursday against the Nashville Predators.