Friday February 13 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Boston Bruins - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 30-20-3, 63 points, third in Pacific Division
Boston Bruins: 28-19-7, 63 points, third in Atlantic Division
What a difference a year makes. At the end of last season, the Vancouver Canucks had dropped to the bottom tier of the NHL standings while the Boston Bruins were loaded up and making a run for the Stanley Cup. When Trevor Linden was hired as Vancouver's new president of hockey operations, he talked about wanting to run his team under the "Boston Model," then went out and hired Bruins' assistant general manager Jim Benning to help him accomplish his goal.
As Benning meets up with his old team for the first time, the Bruins and Canucks are both in third place in their respective divisions with 63 points, though Vancouver has one game in hand. The Bruins have bounced back from an early season slump that coincided with an injury to Zdeno Chara but these days, they've become known as a team that's staring down serious salary cap challenges for years to come.
Newcomer Brandon McMillan couldn't have picked a better time to become the new Mason Raymond.
The Canucks' old No. 21 has five goals in his last six games, giving him a total of 11 in 33 games this season.
So far, it looks like Willie Desjardins plans to scratch McMillan and stick with his winning lineup from Wednesday's game against the Blackhawks:
As Bo Horvat's game continues to evolve, the next step will be getting him some power play time. Looks like that evolution begins today:
Are we going to see Horvat playing 20 minutes a game by the end of the season?
Dan Murphy confirms—McMillan is scratched tonight, and Ryan Miller is starting:
Miller has faced the Bruins 42 times in his career, and boasts a solid 26-9-7 record against Boston.
The Canucks also play on Saturday in Calgary, so I'm assuming the duties will be split this weekend. After taking over for Miller on Monday in Minnesota, that could mean three appearances in one week for Mr. Invisible, Eddie Lack.
As we head into the stretch run and every point becomes critical, expect to see Lack get more work if Miller's play continues to be inconsistent.
Jim Benning told TSN1040 on Thursday that he expected to resolve Vancouver's crowded crease situation at the draft, rather than the trade deadline. Nucks Misconduct
has the transcript.
As for the Bruins, they're currently healthy, but coming off two home losses earlier in the week—Sunday against Montreal and Tuesday against Dallas. Tonight's game marks the beginning of a five-game road trip for the Bs. I'm looking forward to seeing Boston's star rookie, 18-year-old David Pastrnak, for the first time, though he has cooled off considerably since making a big splash when he joined the big club after the World Junior tournament.
Don't expect to get a glimpse of Matt Bartkowski tonight, who'd been rumoured as a potential trade partner for Zack Kassian several weeks ago. Even as Kassian has worked his way back into the lineup, Bartkowski hasn't seen a minute of game action in 2015. He has now been a healthy scratch for 16 games, having played last on New Year's Eve.
With Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand back in town, we should expect to see some intensity at Rogers Arena tonight. Looking forward to the game!
Torts Speaks
For the first time since his firing last May, John Tortorella has made a media appearance. He's taking part in the
Hockey Day in Tampa Bay festivities this weekend at Amalie Arena, which led to a radio interview on WDAE in Tampa Bay.
Click here if you'd like to listen to Torts' comments in their entirety.
The big news: he admits that he deserved to be fired after watching the Canucks go off the rails during the second half of last season.
These are the two parts that I find the richest, from Sean Leahy at
Puck Daddy:
Tortorella mentioned that he and his former assistant coach Mike Sullivan have been developing their own “analytic package” while watching every 5-on-5 goal scored from last season.
Also, from the man himself:
That’s what I miss most, is being in the room and seeing what [the player's] personalities are, them coming back at me if they don’t like what they heard from me. That’s how you develop the relationships. I have some strong ones out there in Vancouver, and along with the other teams too. I think there’s a little bit of misperception, but nothing I can do about that.
But I tell ya, I miss that part of it terribly, is being in the locker room with teams.
Check out how that aligns with Dale Weise's description of his trade out of Vancouver, shared earlier this week with
Christopher Curtis of the
Montreal Gazette:
"John Tortorella had just returned from his two-week suspension,” Weise said. “So we sat with him for a 45-minute video session where he carved every single person in the room. The mood wasn’t very good. We got dressed for morning skate — John Tortorella doesn’t come out for morning skate — so I went out onto the ice, took two full laps, shot a couple of pucks and the trainer gives me this one from the sideline (Weise recreates the beckoning motions with his finger).
“He says, ‘You gotta go see Torts (Tortorella).’
“At this point, I knew I was traded for sure. That or they were going to put me on waivers. John Tortorella wasn’t just going to tell me to pick my game up. I was getting taken off the ice.
“I wasn’t nervous so much as excited for something to happen. Things were miserable in Vancouver, even if it was about going down on waivers, I had enough faith in myself that I knew I could succeed in a new situation.
“I went into the dressing room, Tortorella was just standing there alone. He says, ‘There’s a trade in the works, I can’t tell you where to yet, there could be a few teams bidding right now. Get undressed.’
“Then he just walked out of the room. Didn’t say goodbye, didn’t say good luck, nothing. That was it.”
The whole in-depth feature is well worth a read, as Weise has ascended to near-deity status in Montreal.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»