Sunday October 23 - Anaheim Ducks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2
The Vancouver Canucks ran out of tricks on Sunday in Orange County, recording their first regulation loss of the season with a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks.
Here are your highlights:
Despite all the planning for Vancouver's very heavy early schedule, the workload got the better of the team on Sunday, especially with not even 24 hours to recover after Saturday's shootout loss in Los Angeles.
Back on their heels right from the opening faceoff, the Canucks surrendered their first goal to Andrew Cogliano just 33 seconds into the first period. But even though they were outshot 30-11 in the first two frames, Henrik Sedin's third goal of the season at the 4:19 mark of the third period put Vancouver into a 2-2 tie and set them up for a chance to pick up some more points.
This time, though, it was not to be. Nick Ritchie scored what turned out to be the game winner with 8:36 left in the third and Corey Perry slipped a dribbler between Ryan Miller's pads to erase any hope of another comeback with 1:17 remaining in regulation.
It's actually pretty amazing that the game was even close. Playing their sixth game in nine nights and missing Derek Dorsett and Alex Burrows after both players were injured on Saturday in L.A., the Canucks were dominated in every important statistical category:
Shots: Anaheim 37 - Vancouver 19
Shot Attempts: Anaheim 77 - Vancouver 40
Hits: Anaheim 37 - Vancouver 23
Faceoffs: Anaheim 65% - Vancouver 35%
Even Antoine Vermette went 12-for-18 in the faceoff circle for the Ducks!
The Canucks are taking a much-needed day off on Monday, then they'll face the rested Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. Then Sens rolled into Vancouver on Sunday, before the Canucks had even finished their game, after dropping a 4-1 decision to Tampa Bay on Saturday night.
I was expecting fatigue to be an issue on Sunday but I'm bummed that the script for the weekend seemed eerily reminiscent of other early-season weekend trips to SoCal.
Remember the talk during the summer about how the Canucks were going to be tougher to play against this year? Once the Kings rubbed out arguably Vancouver's two most aggressive forwards this season in Dorsett and Burrows, there wasn't a whole lot of jam left for the Ducks on Sunday. Jake Virtanen and Jack Skille led the forwards with three hits apiece but none was of the game-changing variety.
The oddest stat line of the night belongs to Alex Edler—who led the team with 23:53 of ice time and did it all while he was out there.
#Canucks Edler had 6 shots, 6 hits and 7 blocked shots...and was on for all 4 ANA goals. #busynight
Edler's game-tying goal against the Kings already feels like it happened a lifetime ago.
Against a big team like Anaheim, the Canucks might have been better off using big Nikita Tryamkin as the emergency injury replacement instead of the the 5'10" Alex Biega. Biega's a gamer, but the only item on his stat line last night as a fourth-line replacement for Burrows was a single blocked shot.
Iain MacIntyre reports in the Vancouver Sun that the Tryamkin situation is just as we feared—he has refused to go to Utica, even for a conditioning stint, so he's now stuck in awkward roster limbo.
“There is no possibility that he will play in the American Hockey League,” general manager Jim Benning told MacIntyre this weekend. “We’ve explored that. We’ve talked to him and his agent and he has said no. In a perfect world, we’d like him to get some games (in the minors). But it is what it is. He is working hard in practice and doing extra work.”
Tryamkin did take warmup for both California games this weekend. It remains to be seen if that moves him any closer to drawing into the lineup or if it's just another way to get him a bit more ice time.
Who knew Tryamkin’s weight was such a mystery. Turns out, it is.
Looking back, a Willes column from April has him at 245 pounds.
A Ziemer column from March has him at nearly 240 pounds.
I wrote a story in March and I listed him at 230 pounds.
Hockey DB has him at 228 and so too did the Canucks last year, and now he’s 265.
What exactly is going on here?
How did this become a thing?
Seems the Canucks didn’t have a weight for him when he got here last year so they just went with what was online.
This training camp he weighed in at 265.
That folks is one massive load.
The Sens come into Tuesday's game ranked fourth in the NHL in average penalty minute per game and ninth in total hits. It could be another heavy game. Will the Canucks be ready to give back in kind?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»