Vancouver Canucks at Winnipeg Jets - Friday January 31 - 5:30 pm - TSN
Vancouver Canucks: 27-19-9 63 points fourth in Pacific Division
Winnipeg Jets: 25-25-5 55 points seventh in Central Division
The Vancouver Canucks have left town and will play their first-ever game at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg on Friday. There's a measure of excitement in the 'Peg: it'll be the first NHL visit from ex-Manitoba Moose players like Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, Alex Edler, Jannik Hansen, Jordan Schroeder and Eddie Lack—but not injured Kevin Bieksa or Chris Tanev.
We got word before Wednesday's game against Chicago that Tanev will be out till after the Olympic break with a broken thumb, though Jim Jamieson of
The Province reported on Wednesday that the injury is only a hairline fracture, so he should be able to rejoin the team right after the Olympics.
When Frank Corrado was called up on Thursday, I worried at first that he'd cut into Yannick Weber's ice time, then wondered if there might be another man down. Sure enough, it was announced shortly afterwards that Kevin Bieksa won't be making this road trip. He's listed as being out with a foot injury on the Canucks website. Here's more from Murph:
Bieksa blocked two shots against the 'Hawks on Wednesday—both late in the second period. He went on to play a regular shift in the third but I remember him being felled at one point late in the game and taking a looooong time to get up. Hopefully the injury's not too serious.
No word yet on how the defense pairings will be deployed tonight in Winnipeg.
Ben Kuzma had the forward lines from Thursday's practise, with a few forwards being swapped around in various places:
Up front, the Canucks officially announced on Thursday that Mike Santorelli had successful shoulder surgery and will be out for the rest of the season. That's a nasty blow for a player on a last-chance contract who made such an impact at the beginning of the year—and who hadn't signed a new deal.
Santorelli finishes the year with 10 goals and 28 points in 49 games, which would have projected to a career-high 42 points if he'd stayed healthy. He will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and while I suspect he'll want to stay with Vancouver if possible, he will have options if the Canucks try to lowball him.
On a brighter note, Henrik Sedin is with the team on the trip. Both he and Tanev skated in Winnipeg after Vancouver's optional game-day skate.
Hopefully Henrik's not too far away from returning. He'll do everything in his power to squeeze in some game action before heading to Sochi.
With all that out of the way, there's a game to play tonight, and the Jets likely won't be the soft team that we saw in Vancouver back in December. Winnipeg has gone an impressive 6-2-0 since Paul Maurice took over the head-coaching duties from Claude Noel back on January 12. Along the way, they handed the Ducks their first home loss of the season and beat Chicago at the United Center, though they lost their last game on Tuesday—4-3 to Nashville.
Unfortunately, Canucks fans won't get to check in on potential trade target Evander Kane. He's out of the Jets' lineup for about a month with an infection in his hand. We will see big Buff deployed as a forward. He'll be battling it out in the crease tonight with ex-Moose Eddie Lack:
U.S. Olympian Blake Wheeler missed the last two Jets practises but skated with the team on Friday and is expected to play.
Quick Hits:
- Some levity from the Canucks in last night's new episode of
NHL Revealed. The show gave us the guys on the bus to their game in Edmonton as @stromebone1 was tweeting out #FreeTorts, and some ribbing of Zack Kassian on his 22nd birthday. Kevin Bieksa put up a math problem for him on the white board in the dressing room because "He says he's good at algebra!"
Zack may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's one of the few Canucks playing decent hockey these days...
- Elliott Pap has a positive story about Hunter Shinkaruk's rehab from his hip surgery. He's making the most of his family's winter home in Palm Springs:
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