Tuesday September 22 - San Jose Sharks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 0
After a bit of a snoozer for the Kraft Hockeyville game on Vancouver Island on Monday, I was worried that I'd miss the best of the "real" Canucks when they hit the ice at Rogers Arena last night to take on the San Jose Sharks once again.
Instead, it got worse. The Canucks failed to score and gave up four goals on their way to a grim loss. Here are the highlights:
I suppose we can take some local pride in North Vancouver's Martin Jones delivering a 30-save shutout in his first game as a Shark—and his first-ever NHL game in his hometown.
Less impressive were the Canucks' young players who are supposed to be fighting for jobs.
Maybe Jake Virtanen set the excitement bar too high with his big hit on Connor McDavid at prospects camp, but his contribution was limited on Tuesday. Virtanen's most memorable moment was having linemate Alex Burrows come to his defense after he was cross-checked by Mirco Mueller late in the second period.
Ronalds Kenins was a non-factor as the right-winger for the Sedins, Cole Cassels barely earned a mention and Hunter Shinkaruk's offense was limited to this second-period flurry.
On the blue line, Ben Hutton played his second straight game and continues to show well. And Jared McCann's doing what he can to extend his time with the Canucks into the nine-game trial phase:
Some lineup space on the wing opened up on Tuesday when the Canucks announced that Chris Higgins suffered a broken bone in his foot after blocking a shot on Monday night:
Note the phrasing in that tweet. Higgins *could* be sidelined much longer than three weeks. Remember the trouble that Brad Richardson went through last season after taking a puck to the foot from a Chris Tanev shot?
Though he didn't play last night, Brendan Gaunce may be the man with the inside track on Higgins' job. He brings the right sort of two-way style to step into Higgins' role and has shown well so far through training camp and in his first game on Monday.
Willie Desjardins got back behind the bench on Tuesday, and addressed the media after the game:
Willie specifically mentions penalty-killing as a duty that Higgins' replacement will need to undertake and calls Gaunce "a natural fit" to replace Higgins while he's sidelined—but cautions that he wants to continue to try different things through the exhibition season.
If you missed it, the Canucks also reduced their roster by 12 players on Tuesday.
Two 2015 draft picks, Guillaume Brisbebois and Dmitry Zhukenov, were both returned to their junior teams in the QMJHL. They were both listed in the lineup for the Kraft Hockeyville game on Monday but I'm not sure that they saw any shifts.
Four players were released and will attend the Utica Comets training camp:
Travis Ehrhardt
John Kurtz
Clay Witt
Mike Zalewski
And six players have been assigned to the Comets:
Anton Cederholm
Dane Fox
Evan McEneny
Ashton Sautner
Mackenze Stewart
Jordan Subban
I'm most surprised to see Jordan Subban's name on this list—especially since he showed pretty well in preseason games with the Canucks last year. I suppose it's an indication that the team now considers Ben Hutton to be ahead of Subban in terms of his NHL-level development.
I'm disappointed not to have gotten the opportunity to see Mackenze Stewart firsthand.
The Comets training camp doesn't start till next week in Lyon, France, so we'll see more cuts before that time.
According to the
Canucks website, the training camp roster is now down to 21 forwards, 11 defensemen and four goalies—36 players in total. With Higgins on IR, 10 more skaters will need to be cut before opening day.
At a glance, I think, Ludwig Blomstrand and Joe Labate are the only players still on the roster who have yet to see game action.
With two days off before their next game in Calgary on Friday, the Canucks can enjoy what's almost another mini training-camp. They're out at the Pacific Coliseum for practice today:
Preseason is rarely a good predictor of a team's regular-season success, but I'm nervous about the team's lack of finish when the question has lingered all summer about where the Canucks will manufacture scoring this season.
I'll leave you for today with this cipher to ponder:
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