Friday January 31: Winnipeg Jets 4 Vancouver Canucks 3
The Vancouver Canucks finished the month of January much as they started it—with a disheartening loss. Our hockey team may not do very well at entertaining us these days, but the good folks at the MTS Centre did their best. Here are your highlights:
The game was Winnipeg's last at home before the Olympic break, so they started the night with another ceremony honouring the seven Canucks and five Jets who will be making the trek to Sochi. The Jets' fans were warm and supportive, so I was hoping the Canucks would get a boost from the positive energy.
No such luck. By the six-minute mark of the game, Winnipeg had built a 2-0 lead on goals by Zach Bogosian and Devin Setoguchi. Much was make of Setoguchi ending his goal drought—especially after he also potted the winner late in the third—but as I glance at his game log, it looks pretty normal to me. Compare
Setoguchi's to, say,
Daniel Sedin's. Sigh.
Daniel had no goals and three assists in January, but Twitter went bonkers when he left the bench in the second period—for what turned out to be a skate problem.
Canucks Nation is definitely on high alert when it comes to injuries, but we did lose another player on Friday. Yannick Weber left the game shortly after crashing into Eddie Lack as Winnipeg's second goal was scored. He played one 33-second shift after that, before calling it a night.
Mike Sullivan didn't say much after the game about the injury:
Who's the next defenseman on the depth chart? I'm even starting to wonder if Andrew Alberts might ever come back?
I'm also eager for Torts to get back in the fold. I expected the boys to respond with a better effort once the Jets fans brought a reasonable facsimile down to the Canucks' bench:
Interim coach Mike Sullivan went 2-4 during Torts' suspension, and made reporters wait for 45 minutes before addressing the media after Friday's game. Jason Botchford
makes light—I think—about the team summit before the presser...though maybe Aaron Rome would help right now. Hasn't he been on waivers once this year?
Maybe trade for Aaron Rome? Is that what the big post-game meeting was about? Everyone was in there, Gillis, Gilman and the current coaches.
Had to think Torts was on speaker phone.
The Canucks were scheduled to practise on Saturday in Winnipeg before heading to Detroit, but decided to—yes—cancel. Apparently there's a big snowstorm on the way, so they wanted to try to avoid the bad weather. Brad Ziemer was not so lucky:
Now we remember why the suits thought it would be a good idea to move the hockey team to Arizona....
Tort's suspension officially runs through February 2, so he won't be eligible to re-join the team until game day on Monday in Detroit. If he can get there, I guess.
All Canucks Must Go?
During one of the intermissions on TSN last night, Bob McKenzie said that every member of the Vancouver Canucks is available for trade except the Sedin twins. There was no indication that Mike Gillis is going to gut the team—and given Gillis' track record, I think we can assume that won't happen. But McKenzie did suggest that even a player like Ryan Kesler could be available for the right price—though that price would be high.
The panel suggested that if the Canucks miss the playoffs, all those no-trade clauses could evaporate into thin air as players start looking for better opportunities.
I'd tend to agree with Botchford's reasoning in the article I linked to above: Mike Gillis doesn't typically make sudden moves. As bleak as the picture looks right now, I'd be surprised if a major move comes down before the Olympic trade freeze kicks in next week.
The Canucks are now in eighth place in the Western Conference. The Phoenix Coyotes are three points back, with two games in hand. It's a scary thought, but Vancouver could very well be sitting outside the playoff picture for the duration of the Olympic break.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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