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With Markstrom injured, Canucks acquire Domingue and hand the net to Demko |
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Tuesday February 25 - Vancouver Canucks at Montreal Canadiens - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN2 in Montreal area, RDS, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 61 GP, 33-22-6, 72 pts, third in Pacific Division
Montreal Canadiens: 64 GP, 29-27-8, 66 pts, sixth in Atlantic Division
The trade deadline has come and gone, but the big news is that the Vancouver Canucks are kicking off their four-in-six road trip without Jacob Markstrom.
The Canucks' only deal on Monday was an innocuous-looking swap that saw the club acquire depth netminder Louis Domingue from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Utica Comets goaltender Zane McIntyre. But news quickly started to filter out that the trade was made because Markstrom was dealing with an unforeseen injury.
The late-breaking news meant a trip down to Rogers Arena for me, where I sat in on Jim Benning's news conference.
As I'm sure you've heard by now, Markstrom's injury is lower-body — rumoured to be his knee — and he's flying back to Vancouver to be assessed by team doctors. Domingue has joined the Canucks in Montreal and is set to be Thatcher Demko's backup against the Habs.
There has been some talk that the injury has a 3-4 week timeline. Benning said that "could be" right, but they'll have a better idea after Markstrom gets checked out on Wednesday.
The Canucks are entering a very busy part of their schedule, with three sets of back-to-backs in the next three weeks and the rest of the games coming nearly every second night. Domingue, 27, has had a bit of a nomadic year.
If you remember back to last season, he went on a nice run with the Tampa Bay Lightning, going 11-3 when Andrei Vasilevskiy missed 14 games after fracturing his foot in mid-November. Domingue finished the season with a 2.88 goals-against average and .908 save percentage, but was then supplanted by Curtis McElhinney as the Lightning backup this season.
Domingue played four games with the AHL's Syracuse Crunch before being traded to the New Jersey Devils in November. He then played 16 games in New Jersey and seven in Binghamton, as well as missing seven games due to injury, and was on Binghamton's roster when he was picked up by the Canucks on Monday.
The rest of the Canucks' lineup looks like it'll be status quo against Montreal. Brandon Sutter missed Monday's practice due to illness, but took Tuesday's optional morning skate and is expected to play.
As for the Habs — with wins in their last two games, they're only six points behind third-place Toronto — a not insurmountable gap to bridge in the stalled-out Atlantic Division, where the Bruins and Lightning have separated themselves dramatically from the rest of the pack.
Habs' GM Marc Bergevin was in sell mode at the trade deadline — most notably, moving Ilya Kovalchuk to Washington. He also traded away Nate Thompson, Nick Cousins and minor-leaguer Matthew Peca on Monday.
He didn't go full tear-down, though — hanging onto defenseman Jeff Petry and forward Max Domi, whose names were swirling in trade rumours.
After all his deals, Bergevin now has 14 picks lined up for this June's draft — which just happens to be taking place in Montreal.
The Canadiens also took an optional skate on Tuesday morning, so we won't really know line combinations till game time. Here's how they rolled on Monday, before Cousins was dealt.
Carey Price is the likely choice in net, after beating Vancouver 3-1 at Rogers Arena in December, just before the Canucks started their winning streak.
As for other possible deals for the Canucks, Jim Benning made it sound like nothing was really close. When asked about Wayne Simmonds, he said he thought Zack MacEwen can fill that role. He declined to speak on Tyson Barrie and gave this response when asked about Troy Stecher.
With prices rising toward the end of the day on Monday — the Sharks got a first from the Lightning for Barclay Goodrow and a third! — Benning said he was glad that he'd made his big deal early when he acquired Tyler Toffoli last week. And with Chris Kreider ultimately signing a contract extension with the New York Rangers, Toffoli was arguably one of the most talented wingers to change teams.
The Arizona Coyotes were quiet after their big acquisition of Taylor Hall last fall, and are getting Darcy Kuemper back on Tuesday after he missed two months with an injury. The rest of Canucks' rivals in the Pacific Division were pretty active, with Vegas adding an impressive goaltender in Robin Lehner to go along with stud defenseman Alec Martinez while Edmonton added Andreas Athanasiou and Mike Green from the Red Wings and Calgary picked up a few spare parts.
The Canucks go into Tuesday's games sitting four points behind Vegas in the Pacific Division standings, with three games in hand, and two up on the Coyotes and Flames in the Wild Cards — also with games in hand.
Calgary's also on the East Coast, with a 4 p.m. PT game in Boston on Tuesday. Arizona hosts Florida at 6 p.m. PT — which will be joined in progress after the Canucks game on Sportsnet Pacific — and Edmonton's in Anaheim at 7 p.m. Vegas is idle on Tuesday — they'll host Edmonton on Wednesday night.
With Zane McIntyre now gone from the Comets and Richard Bachman loaned to a club in Sweden, Jake Kielly has been recalled from the ECHL to serve as Mikey DiPietro's backup in Utica while Domingue's with the Canucks.
Benning said Bachman can also be recalled from Sweden if he's needed.
With that, you're up to date. Enjoy the game — stretch run begins in earnest now!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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