Wednesday February 14 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Florida Panthers - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 56 GP, 22-28-6, 50 pts, seventh in Pacific Division Florida Panthers: 53 GP, 24-23-6, 54 pts, fifth in Atlantic Division
Eight days after dropping a 3-1 decision to the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, the Vancouver Canucks will play host as they return to Rogers Arena for a Valentine's Day home game.
But the big news of the day is now official—Jim Benning has signed a contract extension, rumoured to be for three years.
#Canucks announce contract extension for GM Jim Benning.
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 14, 2018
Stream the press conference LIVE on Canucks Facebook at 12pm PT.https://t.co/LUlQDHs7vf
I'm pleased by the timing of the announcement. It gives Benning and his team clarity going into the trade deadline, and should also give the current amateur scouting group the green light to keep going about their business on the way to another high pick in this June's draft.
I've also argued in the past in favour of organizational stability, and the evidence that Benning has made progress along his learning curve as a first-time GM. There have definitely been mistakes, but hopefully there will be less of them going forward as Benning's skillset evolves.
What do you think of the move?
With a firm eye on the future, I think the extension will give Benning more motivation to wheel and deal at the deadline. An Erik Gudbranson trade, for example (if it happens) can now be positioned as being more about the future-focused pieces that are acquired—something that can't be easily assessed in the short run—rather than being judged entirely by what was surrendered to acquire the big defenseman in the first place.
For now, there's a big game to play tonight.
Holm, Goldobin, Biega and Nilsson on the ice for morning skate. I would assume this means we’ll see the same lineup as the Dallas game for #Canucks tonight.
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) February 14, 2018
I assume this assumption is correct.
The Canucks announced the call-up of defenseman Philip Holm on Tuesday—his first of the regular season. Holm is tied for second among defensemen in the AHL with 11 goals this season, to go along with 18 assists. He's 7-7-14 in Utica's 16 games since the beginning of 2018, so the 26-year-old Swede seems to be making a good transition to the North American game in his first year on this side of the pond.
Though he's an extra defenseman tonight, at the rate the Canucks players were getting injured last week, he could see action before long. The Canucks are also kicking off a back-to-back tonight, with a road game tomorrow in San Jose, so they may need to shuffle some bodies.
For now, we do have a timeline for the injured Chris Tanev.
Tanev has micro fracture in small bone in leg. Hearing 10 days. #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) February 13, 2018
Continuing with the injury updates—as expected, the news is not good for Markus Granlund.
Hearing Granlund out 7-8 weeks after surgery on ankle. He got 3 opinions from doctors b4 deciding on procedure. #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) February 13, 2018
Brendan Gaunce is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with his foot injury. Still no timeline for Sam Gagner and his sprained ankle.
Roberto Luongo has been activated from injured reserve after suffering that nasty groin injury two months ago, but he won't play tonight.
Roberto Luongo won’t start tonight vs #Canucks, but he’ll back up James Reimer for @FlaPanthers.
— Joey Kenward (@kenwardskorner) February 14, 2018
Reimer returned to action from his own groin injury on Monday in Edmonton, giving up five goals but earning the win in a wild 7-5 showdown against the Oilers.
Luongo's last visit was a memorable one, of course. On January 20, 2017, Henrik Sedin scored his 1,000th career point in the Canucks' 2-1 win over the Panthers.
Though Erik Gudbranson has played against his old team twice back in Sunrise, tonight will mark his first game in Vancouver against the Panthers.
As Luongo points out, Canucks fans will have plenty of entry points to tonight's Team Canada men's hockey debut at the Winter Olympics, against Switzerland.
Luongo had a pretty funny/sarcastic answer when talking the Canadian Olympic Hockey team - “Half the guys are all ex-#Canucks…
— Irfaan Gaffar (@sportsnetirf) February 13, 2018
Tune in at 4:10 a.m. to see if Andrew Ebbett, Max Lapierre, Mason Raymond, Derek Roy, Linden Vey, Marc-Andre Gragnani and coach Willie Desjardins can avoid the same fate as Team USA and the Olympic Athletes from Russia, and win their round-robin opening game.
Enjoy the games!