Thursday February 4 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Columbus Blue Jackets - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 50 GP, 20-19-11, 51 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Columbus Blue Jackets: 52 GP, 19-18-5, 43 pts, eights in Metropolitan Division
After an eight-day layoff, the Vancouver Canucks get back to work tonight when they host John Tortorella and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Torts did meet with the local media after the Blue Jackets' practice on Wednesday. I think his best quotes addressed his return to the infamous hallway outside the visitors' dressing room:
He took full responsibility for that misguided tirade against Bob Hartley.
However, in
this post by Ben Kuzma of
The Province, he takes the media to task for how he was portrayed during his time here in Vancouver.
These (media) guys in Vancouver put me up as some sort of lunatic. I had no problem with the people here. Media and coaches are going to argue, but it’s never a personal thing with me.
I'll grant him this—his team really got into trouble as the injuries piled up and the replacements were less than adequate. "I thought the first half, we were doing things the way we should play. We got banged up and with depth, a lot of guys who were on my third and fourth lines aren’t even in the league anymore."
Players from Torts' reign who are currently outside the NHL include David Booth, Ryan Stanton, Tom Sestito, Zac Dalpe, Jordan Schroeder, Nicklas Jensen, Darren Archibald, Raphael Diaz, Kellan Lain, Mike Zalewski, Jeremy Welsh, Benn Ferriero, Andrew Alberts, Yann Sauve and Pascal Pelletier...and Frank Corrado suited up for his sixth game with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
I think part of the reason why the injury situation got so out of hand in Torts' year was because of the playing style he preached and how hard he leaned on his top players—though it's somewhat understandable when you think about what options were available to him in the supporting cast. The compressed schedule due to the Olympic break in 2014 probably didn't do him any favours, either.
As supporting evidence for my theory that Torts' style is hard on his players, Columbus currently ranks sixth overall in the NHL in
Man Games Lost. The Blue Jackets are at 188 games lost, significantly more than Vancouver, who rank 12th at 161.
Coming into tonight's game, Columbus is without forward David Clarkson, defenseman David Savard and both their regular goaltenders. Sergei Bobrovsky has been bothered by groin issues for most of the season and has appeared in just 27 games. For the moment, the Jackets are leaning primarly on 21-year-old Finnish rookie Joonas Korpisalo, who took the loss in Edmonton, with 23-year-old Anton Forsberg as his backup.
As for the Canucks, they'll have Henrik Sedin back as their first-line centre tonight, which knocks Brandon Sutter down to the fourth-line pivot spot and pushes Jared McCann and Adam Cracknell into the press box.
I'm not too worried about Sutter in a fourth-line role for now. He looked good in his first game back from injury against Nashville before the break, scoring Vancouver's only goal, and he'll get extra ice time on special teams.
Here's who was on the ice at today's morning skate:
Expect to see Daniel Sedin in fine form as he gets back together with his brother:
All things considered, the Canucks survived the layoff reasonably well in terms of their position in the standings. They got passed by Anaheim and fell to fifth in the Pacific Division, but are still just two points out of third place. The gap to the wild-card spot has increased back to five points so right now, it looks like the Ducks, Coyotes and Canucks will be duking it out down to the wire for that third spot in the Pacific.
There's one other wrinkle that could prove to be huge down the stretch: the Canucks and Sharks have yet to meet this season. San Jose had its 10-game regulation-unbeaten streak snapped by the Kings on Tuesday and currently sits five point ahead of the Canucks, but the two teams play each other five times between Feb. 28 and Mar. 31. If Vancouver can get the upper hand in that series, it'd increase the team's playoff chances enormously.
The Canucks also still have two games left against both the Ducks and Coyotes. Their destiny remains very much in their own hands.
As expected, Dan Hamhuis will not play tonight. Brandon Prust was assigned to Utica this morning, though Benning was trying to consummate a last-minute deal right to the very end.
The Canucks also announced more details of their plans for the upcoming Retro Night celebration when the team hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 13.
From the press release, highlights will include "A ceremonial face-off featuring players from 1995.96 including Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean, Jyrki Lumme, Gino Odjick, Dave Babych, and Cliff Ronning."
Gino!
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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