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Canucks look to bump their slump as Sedin Week begins with Legends Night |
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Monday February 10 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 56 GP, 30-21-5, 65 pts, first in Pacific Division
Nashville Predators: 54 GP, 26-21-7, 59 pts, fifth in Central Division
Will Sedin Week help cure what is ailing the Vancouver Canucks?
Riding high as recently as a week ago, the Canucks host the Nashville Predators on "Legends Night" riding an 0-3-1 losing streak and coming out of a disheartening loss to Calgary on Saturday night.
The pattern matches their worst string of futility from earlier this season, when they lost in overtime to St. Louis before regulation losses against Chicago, Winnipeg and New Jersey.
The good news is that Vancouver bumped that slump with a tidy 5-3 home win over Nashville on November 21. And guess who's in town tonight??
Of course, the Predators are on an odyssey of their own — Stanley Cup Finalists in 2017 and Presidents' Trophy Winners in 2018, but struggling to stay in the playoff picture this year.
They head into Monday's game sitting 10th in the Western Conference: three points behind Calgary in the second wild-card spot, two points behind ninth-place Arizona and just one point ahead of the bottom two teams in the Central — Minnesota and Chicago.
Other Western Conference teams in action on Monday night: the Coyotes in Montreal and Calgary in San Jose. The Canucks may not be able to fend off the chase pack for much longer without putting some more points on the board.
It has been just over a month since the Preds brought in new coach John Hynes. Under Peter Laviolette, they were 19-15-7 this season; since Hynes took over, they've gone 7-6-0. Once considered an airtight team defensively, they're currently 24th in the league in goals against, giving up an average of 3.22 goals per game. Jusse Saros has been solid while carrying the load in net during the current Western Canadian road trip, earning a 2-1 overtime win in Winnipeg and a 3-2 regulation win in Calgary before taking a 3-2 loss in Edmonton on Saturday night.
The Preds are also scoring an average of 3.22 goals per game, which ranks them ninth in the league offensively, just ahead of Vancouver (3.18). That seems a bit surprising, given how many of the team's forwards have underperformed this year.
Filip Forsberg leads all Nashville forwards in both goals (18) and points (38) and looks set to finish somewhere around his usual 60 points, but plenty of others are lagging:
• Matt Duchene - $8 million cap hit - 70 points last season, 35 points in 51 games this season
• Ryan Johansen - $8 million cap hit - 64 points last season, 31 points in 54 games this season
• Kyle Turris - $6 million cap hit - career high 64 points in 2014-15, 24 points in 47 games this season
• Mikael Granlund - $5.75 million cap hit - career high 69 points in 2016-17, 21 points in 48 games this season
The list goes on. But one player who is playing miles above expectations is captain Roman Josi — leading his team from the back end with 54 points in 54 games and a plus-22 on a team with an overall goal differential of minus-1. He's also second in the league in average ice time at 26:01 per game and second in scoring among defensemen — just nine points behind the insane pace of John Carlson.
If the Preds do manage to make the playoffs, Josi will deserve the lion's share of the credit — I even heard some speculation that he's not just a contender for the Norris Trophy but could be in contention for the Hart.
Josi has also spent the last month toiling without his partner in crime. Ryan Ellis was not too far behind offensively, with 28 points in 39 games, before he was knocked out of action in that collision with Corey Perry at the Winter Classic in Dallas on New Year's Day.
Ellis is with the team on this road trip and practiced in Vancouver on Sunday, but is not expected to suit up against the Canucks.
Up front, Calle Jarnkrok took regular line rushes after missing the last five games due to illness, so he could play on Monday night.
As for the Canucks — after Travis Green pulled a fast one and switched up his lines between Saturday's morning skate and the game, I think we'd be well advised to start taking his line rushes with more of a grain of salt from here on out.
That being said, an adjustment does need to be made, with Brock Boeser now officially on injured reserve.
And we're not getting any clues at all from Monday's morning skate:
Sounds like Jacob Markstrom will be back in net — and we might have a new face up front!
Even with Micheal Ferland looking like he's close to getting back into action, the Canucks' injured list is starting to grow again — with Tyler Graovac now into his third month of rehab and Josh Leivo missing for the last seven weeks, plus recent I.R. additions Tyler Motte, Oscar Fantenberg and Boeser.
Once again, I'm thinking about how Motte's absence coincides with the dip in the team's fortunes. The Canucks went 2-2-0 when he missed those four games to start the season. Then, after he was injured against Washington on Oct. 25, the team went 10-10-3 while he was out. Now, they're 1-3-1 since he suffered that shoulder injury at the hands of Erik Karlsson in San Jose on January 29.
All told, that's a 13-15-4 record when Motte is out of the lineup — and the Canucks are 17-6-1 when he plays. That's an amazing differential for a fourth-line grinder who mostly flies under the radar.
Get well soon, Tyler!
Of course, it is possible that having the Sedins around will add a little sprinkle of magic dust to Monday night's proceedings. If you missed it, the twins did a twin thing on Sunday when they finished within one second of each other — and ran a very impressive 1:20 — in the local First Half Half Marathon — with their older brother Peter and Daniel's wife Marinette also participating.
If you recall, their last game at Rogers Arena was so special, when the Canucks outshot the Arizona Coyotes 15-0 and scored two goals in the third period on April 5, 2018. That erased a 3-1 deficit and set the stage for a Daniel-from-Henrik-and-Edler OT winner that was straight out of a Hollywood screenplay.
Monday's game is scheduled to kick off with a Legends Night ceremony to honour the Sedins featuring Markus Naslund, Stan Smyl and the return of Trevor Linden. Those three players, whose numbers already hang in the rafters at Rogers Arena, will also speak with the media before the game.
Should be good times all 'round. Enjoy!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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