Sunday November 30 - Detroit Red Wings 5 - Vancouver Canucks 3
The Vancouver Canucks' record on their seven-game road trip dropped to 1-1-0 after a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in a rather strange matinee affair at Joe Louis Arena.
Here are your highlights:
The game got off to a bumpy start when the rink lights went out just 29 seconds into the game—with the Canucks in possession of the puck in the offensive zone.
Power surge causes lights to go out during Canucks-Red Wings game - http://t.co/dyXmCjOgcU pic.twitter.com/rsYIPYfItT
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) November 30, 2014It took about half an hour to get the system reset and get the game back underway. The Red Wings took control quickly, opening the scoring at the 3:15 mark on a goal by Niklas Kronwall. The Score points out that Ryan Miller faced an unusual challenge on the play, as Justin Abdelkader was standing on his stick when the goal was scored.
The game continued to fall Detroit's way when Alex Burrows was whistled for a rather mysterious high-sticking penalty on Jimmy Howard at 11:06 of the opening frame. The Red Wings' power-play has been on fire lately, and it took just 10 seconds for sniper Gustav Nyquist to open up a two goal lead.
By that point, it seemed pretty clear to me that it wouldn't be Vancouver's day. Credit to them for not throwing in the towel.
My favorite moment of the game came with just over four minutes to go in the third period. The Canucks had briefly pulled within a goal earlier in the period, but were trailing 4-2 when Willie Desjardins took advantage of a strong possession shift by the third line in the Detroit zone to pull Ryan Miller in favour of extra attacker Daniel Sedin.
It worked. Linden Vey potted his second of the night, got the Canucks to 4-3, and set up a furious final stretch where Vancouver continued to fight to tie the game.
Even after Pavel Datsyuk scored an empty-netter with 50 seconds to go, Vancouver battled right to the final buzzer. It was an impressive effort to see.
Also impressive—that third line. Vey finished the game with a career-high three points—his first multi-point game as a Canuck—while Shawn Matthias drove to the net all night and was rewarded with a goal and an assist, stretching his scoring streak to three games. Brad Richardson had one assist and went 8-for-15 in the faceoff circle—the only regular centre who was over 50 percent in a game where the Red Wings won 58 percent of the draws.
If this was still last year, I'm sure that Alex Burrows would have been much more seriously injured when he was cut below the eye by Johan Franzen's skate during the second period.
“It was scary, I didn’t know if I just lost half my face,… Burrows said.“But Franzen said ‘It’s deep but it’s not that bad.'…
Alex Burrows needed seven stitches after taking a skate to the face. "It was a scary moment for sure" #Canucks pic.twitter.com/YTYeyJT6Gn
— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) November 30, 2014It was a big relief to see Burrows return to the game in the third period.
Not a great game for the defensive pair of Kevin Bieksa and Luca Sbisa. Bieksa was on the ice for four of Detroit's five goals, including Pavel Datsyuk's power-play marker and his empty-netter, while Sbisa was on for three. I thought the Sedin line was also especially lazy defensively on the opening goal.
We're not going to get shutouts every game, but the defensive lapse comes as we finally get some concrete details on the status of Dan Hamhuis. Ben Kuzma of The Province has the update:
Dan Hamhuis doesn’t require surgery to recover from a right leg groin tear, but what the defenceman will need is time. Lots of time. He was injured Nov. 23 against Chicago and a second medical opinion concluded that another six weeks are required for the ailment to properly heal.
Hamhuis has already been out for about 10 days, so it sounds like we're looking at around eight weeks in total. Honestly, that's better than I anticipated when I was thinking that he'd blown out his ACL.
Groin injuries are a bit mysterious, but I'll take this as reasonably good news.
Kuzma also reports that the team isn't looking at trades at this time and is hoping to get through with the personnel already on hand:
The company line is that he has confidence in his defencemen and the recalled Frank Corrado is a lineup option. The problem is many teams are looking for blueliners and the asking price is usually high, because you have to outbid rivals who may be even more desperate.
Perhaps Corrado will draw in for one of the Canucks' back-to-back games this weekend, against Toronto or Ottawa?
Virtanen to World Junior Selection Camp
Hockey Canada announced its roster for World Junior Championships selection camp this morning. Click here for the full list.
Canucks' prospect Jake Virtanen has earned an invite on the strength of his 19 points in 17 games since joining the Calgary Hitmen after shoulder surgery during the summer.
The selection camp runs from December 11-15 in Toronto, then further cuts will be made before the tournament itself gets underway on December 26.
NHL teams don't have to announce whether or not they'll be sending their junior-age players, like Bo Hovat, until the holiday roster freeze on December 19th. Lineups will be finalized on December 25th.