Vancouver Canucks Game Day: January 3 vs. Detroit Red Wings, Kassian Back (canucks)

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Vancouver Canucks Game Day: January 3 vs. Detroit Red Wings, Kassian Back

By Carol Schram

Jan 3, 2015 • 2:45 pm

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Saturday January 3 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Detroit Red Wings - 7:00 p.m. - CBC, TSN1040

Vancouver Canucks: 21-12-3, 45 points, third in Pacific Division Detroit Red Wings: 20-9-9, 49 points, third in Atlantic Division

When I think of a Saturday night visit by the Detroit Red Wings on Hockey Night in Canada, I think of the St. Patrick's Day weekend game two years ago. The Canucks debuted their Vancouver Millionaires third jerseys, David Booth suffered his high ankle sprain and the Canucks got smacked by a score of 5-2.

Booth, of course, hasn't been the same since then (now at two points in 18 games with the Maple Leafs this season). One could argue, neither have the Canucks.

I guess I'm still feeling the sting of Thursday's collapse against the Kings. I'll be heading to the rink tonight with decidedly conservative expectations.

The Canucks actually haven't beaten Detroit in regulation in more than three years. The last time was a 4-2 win at home on December 21, 2011. This season, they dropped a 5-3 decision at the Joe Louis Arena to a streaking Wings team in early November—in an afternoon contest best-remembered for an early power outage that delayed the proceedings.

Tonight, the Wings are kicking off a six-game road trip after a spotty December that saw them go 6-4-4, with only one win coming against a playoff team.

According to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, the Wings believe much of their good record so far this season has been the result of a friendly schedule. They're looking at this road trip as a test of their true mettle.

St. James says the only real decision Mike Babcock has made about his team tonight is that Jimmy Howard will be getting the start in net. The Wings are pretty healthy: Jakub Kindl is the only skater who's sidelined, with an elbow injury.

As for the Canucks, Tom Sestito has cleared waivers and been assigned to Utica, which leaves room for Zack Kassian to draw back onto the roster. Jim Benning talks about Kassian coming back and frames the Sestito decision largely as a move intended to get Big Tom some playing time in this conversation with reporters on Friday:

Earlier in the week, Kassian said he was fired up to contribute:

He's pretty wired in this post-practice interview with Joey Kenward from Friday—cutting off the interviewer in his eagerness to declare his intent to play physically and bring his all-round game:

Kassian's name has been bounced around plenty in trade rumours over the past couple of weeks. Nothing is imminent at this point, says Benning:

We have conflicting reports on where Kassian fit in the lineup during Friday's practice. Who do you believe—Paterson or Murphy? And which combinations would you prefer to see?

Kassian also skated with the second power-play group.

Also worth noting—Burrows back on the second line with Bonino, while Higgins drops to the fourth? I'll be watching all of this tonight to see how it unfolds.

The Canucks are holding an optional skate this morning, so we won't get any other info till game time:

One other lineup note:

I wonder just how banged-up Kevin Bieksa is, and how much it's impacting his play. I think he has taken more maintenance days than any other player this season.

I also wonder how much longer it'll be before we see Dan Hamhuis. He's now working out in full equipment—maybe pretty close?

To wrap up today, a couple of quick notes about trades and tanking.

I know I don't speculate about potential deals as often as some of you might like. That's mostly because trades have become such a rarity in the NHL. But here's a little slice of evidence that I'm paying attention to the hum around the league:

I didn't think Pittsburgh would give up a first-rounder, but back in early December, I pegged David Perron as the player I thought could give the Penguins' forward lines the boost that they'll need heading into the second half. I think Friday's trade will be a good deal for them. It certainly tells us that short-term general manager Jim Rutherford is most interested in winning right now.

Secondly, I think most of you know by now that I'm not an advocate of tanking in hopes of securing better draft picks. Yesterday's discussion was fascinating, about how many teams do use a Top 5 pick as their No. 1 center, but not all of those teams used their own picks to acquire those players—and then there are the top picks that don't ever ascend to that elite level.

There's no better example of how you don't have to miss the playoffs to build up your prospect pool than the team we're seeing tonight, the Red Wings. Twenty-three straight seasons in the playoffs and three Stanley Cups—though there were certainly some savvy trades and free-agent signings that contributed to those cup teams, as well.

Still, Detroit hasn't drafted higher than 15th overall in the last decade—and that was just last year. (They took Dylan Larkin, who has been a standout for Team USA this week at World Juniors.)

Here's a quick rundown of when the Wings drafted the key players they're using right now, starting with their most recent picks. It seems the rule of thumb is that they get one guy out of every draft, but he could come from anywhere on the list:

Tomas Jurco - 35th - 2011 Riley Sheahan - 21st - 2010 Tomas Tatar - 60th - 2009 Gustav Nyquist - 121st - 2008 Brendan Smith - 27th - 2007 Shawn Matthias (!) - 47th - 2006 Jakub Kindl - 19th - 2005 Justin Abdelkader - 42nd - 2005 Darren Helm - 132nd - 2005 Johan Franzen - 97th - 2004 Jimmy Howard - 64th - 2003

I generally didn't include players drafted by the Wings who now play for other teams, except Shawn Matthias for the sake of our own interest.

A couple of other interesting notes: not one draft pick from the last three years has played a single game in the NHL yet. The "youngsters" Sheahan, Tatar, Nyquist and Brendan Smith were drafted in the years when the Canucks were picking the likes of Patrick White, Cody Hodgson and Jordan Schroeder.

There's no need to rehash the Canucks' past drafting woes. That has been well-documented. The Detroit model shows us two things: consistency is key and NHL players can emerge from anywhere in the draft order.

This week, I'm hoping that Gustav Forsling is about to turn into a great example of just such a player!

Enjoy tonight's game. We'll get back to more World Juniors action tomorrow.

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