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Canucks' cuts continue after wild 7-5 loss to the Kings in Salt Lake City

September 22, 2019, 1:51 PM ET [342 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Saturday September 21 - Los Angeles Kings 7 - Vancouver Canucks 5 (Salt Lake City)

Playing in the home of the NBA's Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Kings did their best to run up a basketball-worthy score in a run-and-gun game with goals aplenty in Year 2 of the Salt Lake Shootout on Saturday night.

At least we didn't have to deal with the nets getting endlessly dislodged this year!

Here are your highlights from Vivint Smarthome Arena:



Heading into the game, the big news was Brock Boeser's return to the lineup after the conclusion of his contract impasse. Here's how Travis Green deployed his lineup in Salt Lake City.



Boeser was held off the scoresheet, but looked sharp in his debut. He was skating well, showed off his heavy money-shot from the left dot and was dynamic on a first power-play unit with Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes that didn't score but moved the puck well.

The Kings iced mostly a grinding lineup, and gave former Canuck Ben Hutton his first game since he signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with L.A. last Wednesday. Hutton responded with a goal and an assist.



We don't get full stats for neutral-site games, but a quick look at the basic numbers underscores that Vancouver was undone by goaltending, penalty killing and some poor defensive-zone play. Though the Canucks played from behind for most of the game, five goals on Jack Campbell is nothing to sneeze at. He put up a 2.30 GAA and .928 save percentage in 31 games with the Kings last year, and went the distance on Saturday.

The Canucks actually outshot the Kings 39-29 in the game. Tanner Pearson led the way with five shots — and scored one goal — while Josh Leivo, Tyler Motte, Tyler Myers, and Chris Tanev each had four. Leivo also scored, while Adam Gaudette had two goals on two shots and Tyler Graovac also connected on his lone shot.

Travis Green went out of his way to praise Gaudette after the game, and leave the door open for him.

“What I like is Adam is trying to make the team,” said Green after the game, per Ben Kuzma of The Province. “Other guys should take notice. There’s a lot of competition for spots and time’s running out. Guys need to make sure they play well next week.”

Gaudette has played in four of the five Canucks' preseason games so far — more than any other player. And Green's not finished with his audition.

“I want to make sure on him,” Green continued. “I want to get him into as many games as we can and he might play all of them — I haven’t decided. I want to give him every opportunity. You get into game speed and it doesn’t take a few to get used to it and all the little nuances in a game that you don’t get in practices or scrimmages.”

Gaudette told Kuzma that the extended audition is helping him find his groove.

“Coming off of a good summer, I just expected to be great right away and put that pressure on myself and the nerves kind of took over a bit in the first two games,” he said. “And then I finally got settled. I’m going to do what I can to stick here.”

Gaudette took some heat on Twitter for poor play in his own end on Saturday, but I'm not sure he was getting a whole lot of help from his defensemen, either. I'm hopeful that some of the Utica blueliners will eventually be able to take the next step, but Ashton Sautner and Jalen Chatfield were both minus-two last night and didn't do much to improve their stock with Travis Green.

Now that the cuts have begun, Tyler Motte has also dialed up the buzz-saw approach that saw him outwork Sam Gagner to earn a roster spot out of camp last year.

“It’s always my mindset is that you have to earn your keep in this league and once you get there, it’s almost harder to stay there,” Motte told Kuzma. “The mindset can’t change, whether it’s this year or years down the road.”

Sunday's waiver list has been released. It includes Sautner, along with forward Reid Boucher and goaltender Zane McIntyre.



Sautner was pointless and a team-worst minus-four in three preseason games. Boucher was pointless and a minus-one. MacIntyre was 0-1 in 58:48 of game action over two games, with a 5.10 goals-against average and .857 save percentage. He gave up four goals on 21 shots through two periods in Salt Lake City on Saturday before Richard Bachman allowed three on eight shots in the third.

After his standout performance in Calgary earlier in the week, though, Bachman remains the third goalie still in the Canucks' camp, along with Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko.

Forward Francis Perron was placed on waivers on Saturday, and has now cleared. Six other players were also assigned to Utica on Saturday — forward Justin Bailey, who was placed on waivers on Friday, plus waiver-exempt forwards Lukas Jasek and Kole Lind and defensemen Olli Juolevi, Brogan Rafferty and Josh Teves.

While the Canucks put Juolevi through his paces in training camp, they stuck with their original declaration that they weren't going to push him by keeping him out of preseason action. One positive about his re-assignment to Utica — it means he's healthy. Injured players aren't allowed to be moved to the minors.

Landon Ferraro was also released from his PTO on Saturday. Word is that the team felt that he played well, but there are already too many bodies in Utica to offer him an AHL contract.

The Canucks are off on Sunday, then will stick close to home for their final three preseason games. They'll play the Ottawa Senators on Monday in Abbotsford, then return to Rogers Arena for another game against the Sens on Wednesday, and finish up the exhibition schedule by hosting the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.

Here's a handy chart of the team's roster moves as of Sunday morning.



Up front, things are still intense. Boucher's demotion leaves 18 healthy forwards, not counting injured Antoine Roussel. At least four more players will have to be moved.

With Gaudette, Motte and even Tim Schaller making strong showings in recent games, the time is now for Jake Virtanen and Nikolay Goldobin to step up. Last week, it was suggested that neither player was in the mix as trade bait but it feels like both are getting precariously close to a career crossroads.
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