The Vancouver Canucks are one day away from resuming their NHL schedule, hoping to do a complete 180 from where they left off—seven straight losses before the Olympic break.
The schedule opens up with three home games: Wednesday against St. Louis, Friday against Minnesota, then Sunday's Heritage Classic against Ottawa.
After that, it's on to the road for two key games with teams that are now our playoff rivals: Phoenix and Dallas. By the time the Canucks visit the Stars next Thursday, March 6, the trade deadline will have come and gone and the roster will be set for the season.
Vancouver's final regular-season game is April 13th. Will the 2013-14 season be over in just seven weeks?
As everyone gets back to work, there's lots of good new video up on Canucks.com. From the horse's mouth, here's Torts with the latest on the injured players:
To summarize:
- Henrik Sedin has missed the last couple of days with personal issues. Should be rejoining the team soon.
- Kevin Bieksa didn't skate Monday because he's being given more time to rest and recover. The goal is to have him back for the game on Wednesday.
- Alex Burrows could be at practice on Tuesday.
- Ryan Kesler has had an MRI and will be re-evaluated today. Torts didn't know too much about his situation, so he wouldn't speculate and would only pronounce Kesler "day-to-day."
- Nothing on Chris Tanev, though earlier news indicates that he's out for at least another week. To me, he was one of the more interesting trade-deadline possibilities—a player that's going to cost more money to re-sign next year, and who is one of the few without the dreaded no-trade clause. If he's not healthy, though, it makes him virtually impossible to deal, at least until summer.
The Canucks did not recall Nicklas Jensen from Utica, opting instead for big center Kellan Lain. Hopefully that's not because Kesler isn't fit to play; I'd like to think it's because they want to make sure that Jensen keeps getting lots of quality minutes and continuing his current development on the farm.
So, probably the best-case scenario against the Blues would look something like this. I'm gonna be bold and put Kassian up on the second line, though we all know that won't happen:
Daniel - Henrik - Burrows
Higgins - Kesler - Kassian
Booth - Schroeder - Hansen
Sestito - Richardson - Dalpe
Hamhuis - Bieksa
Edler - Garrison
Stanton - Diaz
Scratches: Lain, Weber
Return From Sochi:
I don't think Daniel Sedin has yet been accounted for, but the media was on hand at the airport to greet Dan Hamhuis and Roberto Luongo when they returned to Vancouver on Monday.
Hamhuis still doesn't smile, but sounds like he really enjoyed his time in Sochi:
Interesting that he talks about the team-building exercises that were done at the orientation camp last summer as part of what helped to build the bond that worked so effectively for the Canadians. It's nice to know that Hammer is happy, healthy and rested—let's not forget that he was dealing with a groin issue before the Olympic break.
Roberto Luongo has some pretty serious bags under his eyes, but I guess it's not fair to judge anybody's appearance immediately after transcontinental travel:
He does a good job with the questions about his role as a backup and is enthusiastic in his praise of the team, saying he's "never seen anything like it." He does stop rather obviously short of paying Carey Price any direct personal compliments, though.
Make Hockey Happen:
I'll finish off today with a pretty cool video of something we don't see much out west: pond hockey.
Click here for some background info on the event, from Ian Austin of
The Province.
Three local guys have been staging the event for the past two years and turned their pond-hockey pilgrimages into successful viral videos. This year, as a bit of foreshadowing for the appearance of the 1994 Canucks at the Heritage Classic events this weekend, Kirk McLean, Dave Babych, Cliff Ronning and Geoff Courtnall joined in the festivities. The results are pretty great:
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