Tuesday January 27 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Anaheim Ducks - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 26-16-3, 55 points, third in Pacific Division Anaheim Ducks: 31-10-6, 68 points, first in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks get back to work tonight and will try to show that this year's group has what it takes to secure a playoff spot through the second half of the season.
The first leg of the journey is a tough one, as the league-leading Anaheim Ducks are in town on Tuesday night.
All three Vancouver games against the Ducks this season have ended in ties after regulation, giving Vancouver a 1-0-2 record against Anaheim. The Canucks won in a shootout down at the Honda Center on Nov. 9, then the Ducks returned the favour at Rogers arena on Nov. 20 and won a 2-1 overtime contest in California on Dec. 28.
Kevin Bieksa's injury means we'll see some tweaks to the defense pairings and the second power-play unit tonight. Here's how they looked at practice on Monday:
Nux d-pairings at practice: 23-8; 2-26/18; 5-6. #Canucks
— Elliott Pap (@ElliottPap) January 26, 2015My guess is that Hamhuis will play with Corrado, while Ryan Stanton sits out.
As for the second power-play unit, Hamhuis will sub in there—for better or worse:
#Canucks PP2 with 13, 20, 51, 7 & 2 has a combined total of 8 PP points this season. Vey has 5 of 'em
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) January 26, 2015A couple of other grim stats, courtesy of Canucks.com:
• The Ducks have gone 7-0-2 in their last nine visits to Rogers Arena, with no regulation losses in more than four years.
• The Canucks were 0-6-0 last season when Kevin Bieksa was out of the lineup with injury.
Brad Richardson was out for the game-day skate this morning but left early, so it's assumed that his injured ankle is still giving him some trouble. That means Zack Kassian is in. Here's how the lines will likely shake down:
Richardson leaves #Canucks prac early, so it appears 22-33-17/27-13-9/20-7-14/51-53-36 up front #TSN1040
— Jon Abbott (@HockeyAbbs) January 27, 2015The Canucks also held a news conference this morning, announcing the latest inductees into the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame.
BCHHOF 2015: Markus Naslund, Rob Niedermayer, Curt Fraser
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) January 27, 2015Ryan O'Reilly Buzz
There was some talk yesterday of rumours of a possible Ryan O'Reilly trade for Alex Edler.
Iain MacIntyre asked Trevor Linden directly about this possibility in a wide-ranging interview that ran over the weekend in the Vancouver Sun.
I'm thinking this is a "no-go." Here's Linden:
Alex is a foundational player for us. He’s a 25-minute, all-situation defenceman that every team is looking for. We haven’t had any trade discussion involving Alex. He’s going to be a cornerstone for our organization moving forward.
Throughout the interview, Linden emphasizes the importance of building from within and admits that the rebuild won't be a quick fix.
Insider Bob McKenzie was on TSN1040 this morning and echoed those sentiments, according to this transcript from Nichols on Hockey.
Well, it might be that they do nothing. As I said – is there interest in doing something? Yes. Only if it makes sense and only if it stays within the plan that Jim Benning has put in place.
We saw Trader Jim generate a good deal of activity at last summer's draft. It'll be interesting to see if he can acquire that top-six winger he's been looking for all year, without giving up any of the team's key pieces.
Markstrom Wants a Shot
I watched Jacob Markstrom's period of last night's AHL All-Star Game, where he stopped 16 of 18 shots to get the Western Conference off on the right foot on their way to a 14-12 win over the Eastern Conference. No other goalie allowed less than four goals, earning Markstrom co-MVP honours along with forward Charlie Hudon of the Hamilton Bulldogs, who finished the game with three goals and an assist.
Markstrom's 6'6" size really stands out at the AHL level, and his goaltending work looked very impressive considering the lack of help he was receiving from his defense corps. He looks like a very different goaltender than the one we saw during his four brief appearances with the Canucks last season.
Joe Yerdon of NHL.com has a new interview with Markstrom, where he talks about his tumultuous last year. The article is headlined "Utica's Markstrom hopes for real chance with Canucks," but doesn't really include any direct quotes to that effect.
Markstrom talks about how well he was treated by the Canucks players when he was here last season, especially the Sedins. And he talks about how he decided to "work my bum off and try and get better and prove these people who doubted me and still doubt me, try to prove them wrong."
I like Markstrom's determination, and I liked what I saw on the ice last night. At this point, I'd really like to see the Canucks find a way to move Eddie Lack so that he can play more games, and Markstrom can get a proper chance to show what he can do at the NHL level.