Thursday April 8 - Calgary Flames 7 - Vancouver Canucks 3
Nikita Tryamkin scored his first NHL goal and Hunter Shinkaruk's only assist came when he tipped the Tryamkin puck past Joni Ortio into the Calgary net, but those were the rare bright spots in another rough outing for the Vancouver Canucks.
Here are your highlights:
Mikael Backlund's first-career hat trick was the centerpiece of a seven-goal outing for the Flames—the worst defensive performance of the year for the Canucks. Before giving up six to Edmonton on Wednesday, the only other time this season that the Canucks had been shelled that badly was that horrible 6-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild back in December.
The Canucks do realize this isn't the final game ever at the Saddledome too, right?
You can talk about playing for pride, but I think it's safe to say that a good chunk of the Vancouver roster has now checked out after stringing together three pretty good games last week against the California teams.
After pointing fingers at his teammates for poor efforts in recent weeks, Daniel Sedin targeted himself this time around.
Daniel Sedin: "On a back-to-back like this you need your top players to be at your best. We didn't do that." pic.twitter.com/MBS8RSQ5eO
Considering the only goal against that was charged to the twins was the shorthanded marker by Backlund, he didn't really have to bear that weight. I respect the face that, in the end, he made sure not to infer that he and Henrik were above the fray for the team's issues this year.
Hopefully the Canucks can follow in the footsteps of their Alberta brothers and put together one last good performance for the home fans when the season wraps up at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.
The Canucks announced on Thursday that they're pulling out all the stops for their annual Fan Appreciation event.
Greet the #Canucks as they arrive for the #20in20 Fan Appreciation night!
Fans will have a chance to rub shoulders with the players as they arrive for Saturday's game, then enjoy a party on the patio before the annual awards ceremony and the game itself. It's a solid gesture by the team—a way to try to give back and keep fans engaged.
The Canucks are off today—their last required team day off as they wrap up the year with four games in six nights.
The good news—after last night's loss, the Canucks are now guaranteed to finish in 27th or 28th place. Sports Club Stats pegs their odds at 62 percent for 27th place and 38 percent for 28th.
The one team that can still pass them is Columbus—currently one point back, but with two games left to play. The Blue Jackets are in Buffalo tonight, then host Chicago on Saturday.
To review:
If Vancouver finishes 27th, they'll have a 9.5 percent chance to winning the draft lottery to pick first overall. If it's 28th, the odds increase to 11.5 percent.
A 27th-place finish would mean the worst-possible draft position would be seventh, while 28th would put them at sixth overall.
Lottery day on April 30 is going to be mighty important to this franchise!
Frozen Four Update
Boston College battled to the end, but ultimately fell 3-2 to Quinnipiac in Thursday's NCAA Frozen Four semifinal.
Now that Thatcher Demko's season is over, Jim Benning is wasting no time making his move:
Canucks' GM Jim Benning will meet with Thatcher Demko, family and rep, tomorrow at noon in Tampa.
Demko finished his season 27-8-4 with a 1.88 goals-against average, 0.935 save percentage and 10 shutouts. BC got overwhelmed early on Thursday and found themselves down 2-0 before they even got their first shot on goal in the third period, so Demko and his teammates deserve a ton of credit for battling right till the end to try to tie the game.
Fans round these parts will be mighty relieved once Demko's name is on the dotted line.
From folks I've talked to recently, I would expect Thatcher Demko to sign with Vancouver instead of returning to Boston College next year
The Hobey Baker Award ceremony happens today at 3 p.m. PT and is being livestreamed. Click here for the link. Demko is a finalist, along with Kyle Connor of Michigan and Jimmy Vesey of Harvard.
Meanwhile, Brock Boeser will be playing for the national championship on Saturday after he posted two assists in North Dakota's 4-2 win over Denver on Thursday. For a guy that's known as a shooter, this was a pretty sweet dish:
Because he's not a CHL product, he's not forbidden from playing in the AHL next year at age 19. More likely, though, I bet both Boeser and the Canucks are hoping that he can make like Dylan Larkin and jump straight to the NHL.
We'll have to wait and see how that story turns out.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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