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Canucks lose to Florida, on to San Jose as Jim Benning gets down to work |
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Wednesday February 14 - Florida Panthers 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3
Hours after general manager Jim Benning was signed to a contract extension, the team he assembled showed its usual inconsistency in dropping a 4-3 decision to the Florida Panthers at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
With James Reimer in net for Florida, I was irrationally hoping that his backup, Roberto Luongo, might cross team lines and step in to relieve Jacob Markstrom after the Canucks went into the dressing room in a 4-2 hole after 20 minutes.
I thought Markstrom would be in good shape after he stopped Evgenii Dadonov on an early break and the Canucks went down the other way to take a 1-0 lead at the 37 second mark of the first period. But the Panthers went on to beat him four times on 14 shots before the end of the period. Anders Nilsson was perfect the rest of the way, with 20 saves.
For the most part, it was a game of mistakes and poor discipline at both ends of the ice. All told, there were eight minor penalties called in the last two periods. There was only one goal—a Boeser snipe, three seconds into a 5-on-3.
Despite plenty of additional man advantage opportunities, the Canucks didn't get many decent looks on their power play. I found myself missing Sam Gagner out there!
Jamie McGinn's first-period power-play goal was the first goal in three games given up by the Canucks' penalty kill. Darren Archibald had a pretty quiet night in his season debut at Rogers Arena, with just one hit, but he was perfect once again in 3:04 of shorthanded duty.
The Canucks' comeback bid was snuffed out with 2:37 to play in the third period, when Henrik Sedin was whistled for an offensive-zone hooking penalty against defenseman Mike Matheson. Down a goal, with nothing to lose, I would have pulled the goalie on the penalty kill but maybe Travis Green the poker player knows more about the odds in that situation than I do. He elected to wait until the Canucks were back at full strength before sending Nilsson to the bench for the final 33 seconds of the game.
After the final buzzer, a commotion from the fans caused me to look down and notice the Panthers team out in a small circle on the ice. I realized I wasn't hearing boos, I was hearing "Looos," as Roberto took a quick spin before heading for the dressing room.
As far as Jim Benning's contract extension, his press conference with Trevor Linden on Wednesday was a little...muted? It would have been nice to hear a bit of a mission statement that went beyond "We're going to keep doing what we're doing." And the Panthers are a stark reminder that a team can accumulate a truckful of top-level young talent but still struggle to put it all together. But for me, yesterday's announcement was more of an end point to the months of speculation surrounding Benning's future than a starting point for Phase 2 of the rebuild.
Will that turn out to be deadline day on March 26? Perhaps.
Things could be worse. New York Islanders fans are raising money to buy billboards in an attempt to shame their ownership group into firing GM Garth Snow—and have managed to upset forward Anders Lee in the process.
Thursday February 15 - Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks - 7:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 57 GP, 22-29-6, 50 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
San Jose Sharks: 57 GP, 30-19-8, 68 pts, second in Pacific Division
The Canucks are right back at work tonight after a quick flight down to the Bay Area to face the San Jose Sharks.
Because of the goalie switch last night, it's not clear at this point whether the Canucks will stay with Anders Nilsson as expected on the back-to-back or if they'll go back to Jacob Markstrom. The Canucks are 1-1-1 against the Sharks so far this year. Markstrom played all three games.
The Canucks do have a couple of extra bodies available if Travis Green decides he wants to make chances to his skaters. Forward Nikolay Goldobin and defensemen Philip Holm and Alex Biega were scratched against the Panthers on Wednesday.
As for the Sharks, they've quietly make their way up to second place in the Pacific Division, with a three point edge on their California rivals from Los Angeles and Anaheim. They have a record of just 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, since Joe Thornton went down with an MCL injury that required surgery and could sideline him for the rest of the season. In five of those games, San Jose has scored two goals or less, so the time has come once again for Brent Burns to take a spin at forward.
After leading all defensemen with 29 goals and 76 points on his way to a Norris Trophy win last season, Burns' production has dipped a bit. But after a slow start where he didn't score his first goal of the year until November 24, he's now up to 9-39-48, second in scoring among NHL blueliners behind John Klingberg of Dallas.
Joel Ward and Tomas Hertl are both doubtful to play tonight. After seven straight healthy scratches, Jannik Hansen has been back in the lineup for the last three games, since Ward was injured. In 31 games this year, he has no goals and five assists.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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