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Vancouver Canucks try to hang on to playoff spot, fend off Ducks in Anaheim |
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Wednesday November 21 - Vancouver Canucks at Anaheim Ducks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 23 GP, 10-11-2, 22 pts, third in Pacific Division
Anaheim Ducks: 22 GP, 8-9-5, 21 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
It's a battle for a playoff spot, heading into the Thanksgiving break, as the Vancouver Canucks kick off their first trip of the year to California by visiting the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.
You think the Canucks have had it bad, injury-wise? The Ducks have been in a class of their own early this season:
The Ducks have been without Corey Perry and Korbinian Holzer since the beginning of the season and have also seen the Ryans Getzlaf and Kesler miss time along with Jakob Silfverberg and Ondrej Kase. After missing all of last season with that nervous system disorder, Patrick Eaves finally returned to action on November 1 but went pointless in five games before being sidelined for the last four games with back spasms, Cam Fowler took a puck to the face last week and is out indefinitely with facial fractures and Hampus Lindholm is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury. John Gibson, who has been holding the team together with some stellar goaltending, even missed the Ducks' last game with the flu.
Through all that, the Ducks have been able to gain ground on the Canucks. While Vancouver has gone 0-5-1 since November 10, Anaheim is 1-1-2 over the same stretch. With a win tonight, they'll move into a playoff spot, and stories of the "Surprising Vancouver Canucks" will be laid to rest for another season.
As the NHL standings get tighter and tighter, the conventional wisdom that a playoff spot at U.S. Thanksgiving bodes well for the end of the year is starting to take a hit.
On the surface, this looks pretty good:
But the trend is changing. Last year, five of the teams that were in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving, including the Canucks, ended up falling out, which means just 68.75 percent of the playoff teams punched their respective tickets.
And last year, teams like Arizona and Edmonton were already clearly out of the playoff mix by Thanksgiving. This year, no team is more than seven points out of a wild-card spot, so the race is still wide open. Great for making every regular-season game matter. Not-so-good for job security if you're a coach.
I believe this parity is what has fuelled the four coaching changes that we've already seen in the Western Conference this season. I wrote about that today for Forbes:
The fact that the Kings, Blackhawks, Blues and Oilers aren't giving up will ultimately make it even tougher for the Canucks to try to challenge for a postseason berth as the season wears on. Maybe not the worst thing in the world if you're starry-eyed for Jack Hughes but certainly a sign that, probably healthy or not, and even with Elias Pettersson, the Canucks still have a way to go before they return to respectability.
As the road team, the Canucks are second on the ice for Wednesday's morning skate:
Hopefully that means Anders Nilsson is close to being ready to return to action and spell off Jacob Markstrom for a stretch. Markstrom was 3-2-0 with a .914 save percentage and 2.93 GAA up to the point where Nilsson played his last game on October 25. Since then, he has gone 4-5-2 with an .890 save percentage and 3.59 GAA. For him, a break can't come soon enough, especially with three-in-four to close out the week, but he is expected to square off against Gibson tonight.
Here's how the skaters shake out:
Skating with Bo Horvat, Sam Gagner looked just fine in his first game back with the Canucks on Monday. He played 16:47, had five shot attempts, and even won all three faceoffs that he took.
Coming out of preseason, the Canucks may have felt that the younger, cheaper Brendan Leipsic would have been more likely than Gagner to be claimed if he was placed on waivers, but Leipsic hasn't done much since then to make himself indispensable.
Leipsic has just two goals and five points and is a minus-seven in 13 games. He'll be healthy-scratched for the 11th time this season in Anaheim tonight. He hasn't exactly followed through on the promise that he showed when he had nine points in 14 games after being acquired from Vegas at the 2018 trade deadline.
The Ducks are celebrating their 25th anniversary this season—I can hardly believe it has already been that long! As part of the festivities, they'll have one of the NHL's all-time most entertaining legends on hand tonight:
The Ducks announced on Tuesday that they've renewed their partnership with the City of Anaheim for another 25 years.
One other note to close out today: the Canucks officially assigned Thatcher Demko to Utica on Tuesday, which means he's getting close to a return to action. If there's one silver lining to the nearly two months he has spent recovering from his preseason concussion, it's the fact that he has been receiving NHL money while he has been on Vancouver's injured list.
Demko would have received his usual signing bonus of $92,500 on July 1 but for the last 48 days, he has been getting paid based on his $832,500 NHL salary instead of the $70,000 that he makes in the minors. Not bad.
That brings you up to date. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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