Samuel Beckett would have been a big fan of the Canucks this season had the absurdist playwright been with us.

He was the man who wrote Waiting for Godot, a play in which two lamentable figures wait forever for somebody who never seems to materialize, the piece going on at great length with the two characters explaining their entire experience in terms of waiting.

That's what the Vancouver players seem to be doing these days. They're waiting.

They're waiting for a third-line centre to arrive, perhaps, and for somebody to leave as a result of a deal that would bring him here.

They're waiting for Roberto Luon-go to be moved or Ryan Kesler to get better.

They were waiting for David Booth to get going for the longest time, now they're waiting for him to get back from his ankle sprain and they'll be waiting indefinitely.

Some are waiting for coach Alain Vigneault to be moved out after seven years with the same group.

They were waiting for the power play to come to its senses and begin to function the way Vancouver power plays have functioned since the Sedin twins came into their prime.

Others are waiting for this team to start playing the way they used to in the third period when they dominated teams, instead of folding like a cheap straw house blown upon by the less-than-big, bad wolf.

They're waiting for the strength of this team on paper - its goaltending - to start stealing some games, instead of stealing money. Not that this was the case Monday night, Luongo was tolerable. But are the Canucks getting their pro-rated, $11.7-million US worth out of this pair of goalies?

They seem to be waiting for general manager Mike Gillis to actually do something definitive with this roster or the coach just to get it out from the traditional holding pattern of steady as she goes.

They're waiting because the way she usually goes of late, even when the team is healthy, is to win games by the skin of their teeth in the regular season, get filed in short order in the playoffs, then forget the playoffs ever happened. And while this team is in this holding pattern, the games are flying by so quickly and the points slipping through their fingers so surely that making the post-season now is increasingly beginning to look like a long shot.

And who could blame players for waiting for the coach to get fired? Here is an organization that determined over the last couple of years that Cory Schneider was emerging as their No. 1 goalie and his play warranted them moving Luongo. But in the absence of a deal what do they do? They use the guy they themselves determined to be the lesser player more than the guy they figured was better. In what universe does this make any sense?

Right now this group seems incapable of helping itself. Minus Kesler to give them a second unit to threaten offensively five-on-five and make the first power-play unit effective, they can't score enough to play the style they were designed to play, yet aren't getting the goaltending to win the 2-1 games.

They can't even win a faceoff these days with the bogus centres they have, the team constantly starting without the puck.

"I thought we actually played a pretty solid 60-minute game," said captain Henrik Sedin, admitting faceoffs were a problem, "but when the power play isn't going and you start every shift without the puck and you're chasing, it makes it tougher to get some offence going."

How long this wait will last remains to be seen, but it's becoming increasingly clear that the team accountants should at least be easing off on their projections when it comes to playoff revenues this year.