Monday September 28 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Arizona Coyotes - 7:00 pm. - Sportsnet One - TSN1040
The Vancouver Canucks will try to post their first win of preseason at Rogers Arena when they take on the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night.
The roster sheet has just been released, although I need a magnifying glass to read it.
Game day rosters for the #Canucks and #Coyotes tonight. pic.twitter.com/MalAFZFnI3
— Irfaan Gaffar (@sportsnetirf) September 28, 2015I'm a bit confused to see that Jacob Markstrom and Richard Bachman are listed as tonight's goaltenders. Bachman was placed on waivers on Friday—and cleared on Saturday morning—so I'm surprised that he's still allowed to be part of Vancouver's exhibition mix.
Maybe it doesn't matter because Bachman's not expected to play?
Markstrom starts in net and there is no plan to split time with Bachman. #Canucks
— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) September 28, 2015We haven't seen an official announcement yet, but it looks like the Canucks reduced their roster by another three players yesterday:
Buzz from Utica is Jensen, Cassels, Cannata assigned to Comets. Jensen vowed to show grit in his game, didn't happen. #Canucks
— Ben Kuzma (@benkuzma) September 28, 2015Nicklas Jensen was noticeable at times during preseason. He picked up some top-six ice time in the second half of the game at Kraft Hockeyville after Chris Higgins was injured and crashed the net a few times. I also thought he was more noticeable in the second half of Saturday's game against Calgary.
I didn't see any glaring mistakes from Jensen, but with real competition for NHL jobs this year, he simply didn't do enough to keep himself in the mix heading into the second week of preseason.
Jensen's 22 now, and going into the last year of his entry-level contract. He'll need to take some big strides forward in Utica if he hopes to remain with the Canucks organization past the end of this season.
As for Cole Cassels, he didn't look like the inescapable buzz-saw that we saw during the Memorial Cup run last spring, but that's OK. After spending much of the summer rehabbing that abdominal injury, he can afford to start his pro career in the AHL.
I haven't found any line combinations for tonight's game, but here are the key players that are in the mix:
Sedins-Burrows-Vrbata-Sutter the #Canucks vets up front tonight vs ARZ
McCann-Grenier-Baertschi-Virtanen-Vey the hot-seat guys
Hutton on D
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) September 28, 2015We also have a list of who's not expected to play tonight:
#Canucks non playing group on the ice now. Miller, 23-8-44-55-9-36-15-50-53.
— Irfaan Gaffar (@sportsnetirf) September 28, 2015I'm not sure what we should read into the fact that Jannik Hansen is sitting out for a fourth straight game. His only appearance of preseason so far was at the Kraft Hockeyville game—when he apparently committed a postgame faux pas by leading his teammates in throwing jerseys into the crowd instead of giving them to the kids on the ice with them.
That can't really be why he hasn't played since, can it? I'd assume it has a lot more to do with wanting to take a look at other players on a deep right side—like Nicklas Jensen, Jake Virtanen, and Alex Grenier. Even Adam Cracknell's still around and might turn to be the veteran that Willie anoints to spoil the prospects' dreams on opening night.
Furthermore, the Canucks are kicking off another set of back-to-back games. We can be virtually certain that everyone who doesn't play tonight will be on the ice on Tuesday in San Jose.
That group will also include Brendan Gaunce and Bo Horvat, who won't play tonight.
I get my wish! Virtanen will play with the twins!
#Canucks Willie says Virtanen gets the start alongside the twins tonight. "He skates well, he can play physical," Willie says.
— Steve Ewen (@SteveEwen) September 28, 2015Perhaps the lines end up looking something like this:
Sedin-Sedin-Virtanen Baertschi-Sutter-Vrbata Burrows-McCann-Grenier Kenins-Vey-Cracknell
Hamhuis-Weber Sbisa-Corrado Hutton-Fedun
As for Arizona, their preseason is already off to a rough start, injury-wise. Here's their injury report for tonight, from Canucks.com":
F Shane Doan (lower body) is probable. G Mike Smith (undisclosed), F Henrik Samuelsson (lower body), and F Jordan Szwarz (upper body) are questionable. F Anthony Duclair (undisclosed) and F Brad Richardson (undisclosed) are doubtful.
The Coyotes are 0-2-1 so far in preseason. Their last game was listed as a 4-1 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Friday—they were down 3-1 after 60 minutes, then lost the mandated 3-on-3 overtime session as well.
I'm hoping we get to see third-overall draft pick Dylan Strome tonight. He's not quite McDavid or Eichel, but apparently he has been showing well so far during training camp:
Dylan Strome played 20:49 last night vs SJ.
3 more mins than Domi and 5 more than Duclair. Could be a Tipp favorite already with those mins
— Corey Hirsch (@CoreyHirsch) September 26, 2015Brad Richardson has been active in preseason to this point after dealing with that foot problem through the second half of last year when he was with Vancouver. His injury today is said to be "minor." I hope for his sake that it's not yet another flare-up of that same issue.
Enjoy the game!