Saturday March 30 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Dallas Stars - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 78 GP, 33-35-10, 76 pts, sixth in Pacific Division Dallas Stars: 78 GP, 41-31-6, 88 pts, fourth in Central Division
Just one week ago, the Vancouver Canucks were still trying to keep their playoff hopes alive as they prepared to host the Calgary Flames. After going 1-3-0 since that night, the Canucks were officially eliminated from the 2019 playoffs on Friday when the Colorado Avalanche beat the Arizona Coyotes. The Avs currently hold the second wild-card spot with 85 points; the Canucks have just four games left, so there's no possible way to catch Colorado.
Playoff possibilities have now been replaced by Hughes hype. Quinn showed himself marvellously against the cellar-dwelling Los Angeles Kings on Thursday; he'll have a tougher test on Saturday as the Canucks host the surging Dallas Stars.
The Stars are such a weird team. That Christmastime outburst from team president Jim Lites was widely derided in the hockey world, but has kind of turned out to be much ado about very little.
When Lites called out Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn on December 28, the Stars were 19-16-3 and sitting fourth in the Central Division, eighth in the Western Conference. The team's goal differential was minus-one and their leading scorers were Seguin (11-21-32 in 38 games) and Benn (15-15-30 in 38 games).
Forty games later, the Stars head into Saturday's contest against Vancouver...in fourth place in the Central Division and seventh in the Western Conference. They're now 10 games above .500, their goal differential has improved to plus-seven and Tyler Seguin has picked up the pace—he's 20-23-43 since December 28. But Jamie Benn is just 12-10-22 in 37 games. Benn's three missed games were due to an upper-body injury, so there might be something lingering that's hurting his production. The 29-year-old, who won the Art Ross Trophy in 2014-15 but has also undergone numerous offseason surgeries, is heading for his least productive season since his rookie year.
Alexander Radulov and John Klingberg have both had strong second halves after dealing with injuries earlier in the season, but Dallas is still 29th overall in offense, averaging just 2.53 goals per game while the Canucks are now 24th at 2.68. Much of the Stars' second-half success has been due to their strong goaltending tandem. Though Ben Bishop has dealt with his usual injury issues, he currently leads the NHL with his .933 save percentage, and Anton Khudobin isn't far behind at .925.
Bishop has been forced to leave games due to injury twice this month, including midway through last Wednesday's eventual 2-1 win over Calgary. Khudobin came in and earned the win, then followed up with a 3-2 shootout win in Edmonton on Thursday. He's expected to get the start against the Canucks on Saturday.
The Stars' other crazy stat is their road record. They've won eight of their last nine away from home, including seven straight heading into Saturday's contest—crucial points as they've separated themselves from the rest of the Western Conference wild-card pack. They now have a 99.8 percent chances of making the playoffs according to Sports Club Stats and could even move up—they're just two points behind third-place St. Louis in the Central.
One other odd note about the Stars' offensive production: since returning to the NHL after spending two years in Russia, Valeri Nichushkin hasn't scored. His stat line is 0-10-10 in 56 games this season; lately, he has been toiling on the fourth line for coach Jim Montgomery.
Drafted one spot after Bo Horvat in 2013, Nichushkin got off to a promising start with 14 goals and 34 points as an 18-year-old, but has stalled ever since. He now has 23-51-74 in 222 NHL games; Horvat didn't make his debut until one year later but has 27 goals this season alone and is now 98-122-220 in 373 career NHL games.
Here's the Canucks' expected lineup against the Stars:
Extras at morning skate: Goldobin, Teves, Pouliot, Sautner.
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) March 30, 2019
Virtanen is not on the ice for AM skate
Baertschi's back. Where's Jake? He didn't show any signs of injury in a vigourous outing against the Kings on Thursday, and was gleefully sharing Snapchat filters of his grandparents on his Instagram Stories last night.
Also strange—the fact that there has been no update on the status of Will Lockwood to date. When Quinn signed with the Canucks back on March 10, we heard that Lockwood wanted to take a week to ponder his future. Now, nearly three weeks have passed.
I had hoped maybe we'd get some news after Lockwood watched his Michigan teammate Hughes have such a strong debut on Thursday, but it's still crickets.
The Canucks have done such a good job of bringing their NCAA prospects under contract over the past few years; I'm still not ready to accept the possibility that Lockwood might choose to return to college for his senior year—and potentially open the door to unrestricted free agency next summer.
That's the concern Carolina is now facing with Adam Fox, whose junior season with Harvard came to an end on Friday with a convincing 4-0 loss at the hands of Cale Makar and No. 1 UMass. The Hurricanes obtained Fox as part of the Dougie Hamilton/Noah Hanifin trade last summer because it was rumored that he'd already let Calgary know that he wouldn't sign there. Now, we'll see whether he wants to join the so-called #BunchOfJerks.
Fox's defense partner, of course, has been Canucks prospect Jack Rathbone. He's just finishing up his freshman season, so we don't need to worry about his status just yet.
Rathbone - another lefty - finished up his year with 7-15-22 and a plus-13 in 33 games.
The big news on Friday in the NCAA Tournament was St. Cloud State getting upset by American International. St. Cloud State held the top ranking in the country for most of the season and was ranked No. 1 going into the tournament, while American International is making its first-ever tournament appearance. In the Northeast Regional bracket, No. 2 Clarkson was also upset in overtime by No. 3 Notre Dame, so hockey is turning out to be much more unpredictable than basketball this year!
Tyler Madden and Northeastern will try to ride their favoured seeding to a win over Cornell on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. PT. I'm also curious to see if Arizona State can follow in the footsteps of American International and advance in their first-ever NCAA tournament. They're a three-seed, up against No. 2 Quinnipiac at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Enjoy the game!