Thursday October 2: Vancouver Canucks 2 at Edmonton Oilers 1
The Edmonton Oilers have taken steps to become a "heavier" team to play against this season. Despite their increased toughness, and scoring the game's first goal, they fell to the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 2-1 on Thursday.
Here are your highlights:
Glossed over in the highlight package was the clean open-ice hit by Lance Pitlick that knocked Bo Horvat out of the game. Click here to take a closer look, courtesy of Sportsnet.
Horvat was hit just 45 seconds into his first shift of the game, playing on a rugged line with Tom Sestito and Derek Dorsett. He was said to have an upper body injury.
Jeff Paterson got more than I would have expected from Willie Desjardins on Horvat's status:
#Canucks Desjardins didn't want to speculate on Horvat's injury, then added 'maybe it's only a 3-4 day injury'
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 3, 2014If Horvat turns out to be sidelined for a week or more, he could start the season on injured reserve: getting paid as a member of the Canucks, but not starting the meter on his nine-game trial until he actually gets into the lineup.
Frank Corrado's status is similar:
#Canucks Desjardins: Corrado will be out for a few more days...at least
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 1, 2014I don't think I heard the broadcast team mention Hunter Shinkaruk's name all night. He had a quiet game, recording just one shot in 10:50 of ice time.
The Canucks announced on Friday that Shinkaruk has been assigned to Utica. Though it wasn't officially announced, Cal O'Reilly was also placed on waivers for purposes of assignment to the Comets.
For now, that does it, roster-wise. The Canucks are down to a 15 forwards, 8 defensemen and 2 goalies. That makes 25. Assuming Zack Kassian and Brad Richardson are ready to re-join the lineup on Saturday, no further cuts will be needed until Horvat or Corrado are healthy.
Both Kassian and Richardson are practising on Friday:
Zack Kassian and Brad Richardson both on the ice for the Canucks full practice. #Canucks
— Elliott Pap (@ElliottPap) October 3, 2014Along with Corrado and Horvat, Kevin Bieksa is missing from Friday's practise. He looked like he might have hurt himself when he missed a hard body check on Keith Aulie early in last night's game, but stayed in the lineup and logged 24 minutes of ice time—one second behind team leader Dan Hamhuis.
On balance, I thought most of the Canucks incumbents played well on Thursday—getting into the groove as the real season draws closer.
We saw plenty of hustle from Jannik Hansen and Shawn Matthias. Alex Burrows was a buzz-saw and proved to be an excellent decoy on the Canucks' first goal. Alex Edler was involved at both ends of the ice, scoring the winning goal in a four-on-four situation and tallying an assist on Nick Bonino's shorthanded marker. And Tom Sestito certainly made his presence known, accumulating 11 minutes in penalties in 9:59 of ice time.
#Canucks Sestito just a goal and an assist shy of the Gordie Howe hattrick
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 3, 2014Though I've been leaning towards "We don't need a fighter," I thought Sestito played a useful role on Thursday.
He was pretty deadpan when he told Joey Kenward that he wanted to go for 50 goals this season. No harm in aiming high!
As far as the Canucks' new additions, Nick Bonino was the best of the bunch on Thursday. His shorthanded goal was good fun, he was solid in the faceoff circle, and he tied for the team lead with four shots on goal. Derek Dorsett seemed fine in his role. Linden Vey didn't seem noticeable to me: he was playing on the wing with Bonino and Burrows and also took some shifts at center with Sestito and Dorsett.
Then there's Luca Sbisa. Still a work in progress.
Even if we have a pretty good idea of our roster at this point, I don't expect to see consistently set lines anytime soon. Radim Vrbata has done enough to earn his spot with the twins, but I think the bottom nine will continue to be mixed and matched—at least, until the offense starts to flow a little more consistently.
The Canucks have managed just one five-on-five goal in the last two games. Special teams are important, but they'll need to be able to produce at even strength if they hope to win some games and get into the middle of the pack in the Pacific Division.
Prospect Update
To wrap up today, some good news and bad news on the progress of the Canucks' 2014 first-rounders. It sounds like Jake Virtanen is making good progress:
Calgary Hitmen gm Mike Moore tells me that he hopes Jake Virtanen will be cleared for contact in practice by mid-October. #Canucks
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) October 3, 2014Moore says he's hoping to get Virtanen into games by the end of October.
The news is not so good for Jared McCann:
#Canucks 1st round pick Jared McCann has missed Sault Ste. Marie's 1st 3 games, still out with mono.
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) October 3, 2014No word yet on when McCann will be able to get back into the lineup.
Our other victim of mono, Cole Cassels, is back in the thick of things. He has been named captain of the Oshawa Generals and has recorded four points in Oshawa's first three games.