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Nilsson gets the nod in Nashville, Colton Saucerman is a sensation in Utica |
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Thursday December 13 - Vancouver Canucks at Nashville Predators - 5 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 33 GP, 14-16-3, 33 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Nashville Predators: 31 GP, 20-10-1, 41 pts, first in Central Division
One week after the Vancouver Canucks kickstarted a three-game winning streak with a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators, the two teams are getting set for a rematch on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.
Since the two clubs saw each other last, Vancouver has gone on to trounce St. Louis 6-1, then come from behind to beat Columbus 3-2. Nashville finished out its two-game Western road trip with a 5-2 loss to the red-hot Calgary Flames before returning home with a 3-1 win over Ottawa.
With their long list of injuries catching up to them, the Preds have slipped behind the Flames, into second place in the Western Conference standings. Their record of 5-5-0 in their last 10 games is just one point better than the Canucks' current mark of 4-5-1.
Even though the Canucks have been on a roll, they aren't making any real progress up the Pacific Division standings. Despite being widely labelled as the worst division in the league at the beginning of the season, Vancouver has actually lost ground on all the teams above them over the last 10 games: Anaheim and Vegas lead the way with 8-2-0 records, Calgary and Edmonton are both 7-2-1 and San Jose is 5-4-1.
The Canucks also aren't putting any space between themselves and the teams behind them. Though they've won three straight and the Coyotes have lost three in a row, both teams have the same 4-5-1 record over the last 10, as do the Los Angeles Kings.
Is this a best-case scenario for the #LoseForHughes crowd? The Canucks are playing entertaining, winning hockey and have moved up to 22nd overall in the league standings but when you factor in their games in hand, they're still a relatively humble 26th—five points below a wild-card spot and seven points above 31st.
Since his team is having success, Travis Green is keeping his lineup intact on Thursday in Nashville, even though Adam Gaudette is now back skating.
Brendan Batchelor adds that Sven Baertschi is still wearing a non-contact jersey.
We do have one change, though. For the first time in four games, Anders Nilsson will return to the net. Nilsson was solid in one-goal home losses to Dallas and Minnesota last week but hasn't won a game in nearly two months—since Vancouver's 3-2 overtime win in Pittsburgh back on October 16. He's now 3-6-0 for the season with a 2.80 goals-against average and .904 save percentage, which are getting to be not-bad numbers.
This year's holiday trade freeze is now less than a week away, and the Philadelphia Flyers are not the only team that could be in the market for a goalie upgrade. With Chuck Fletcher newly installed in the general manager's chair, they headline my list of teams that are most likely to make a deal in my latest piece for Forbes:
Pierre LeBrun says the Flyers are also looking for a top-nine forward and a veteran defenseman. In a recent podcast appearance after Hextall was dismissed, former Flyer Keith Jones—who's pretty dialled in to the team—namechecked Antoine Roussel as the type of gritty forward that the team needed to raise its compete level. That certainly caught my attention.
I like Roussel a lot—and I think he has helped the Canucks raise their compete level and weather the storm through their recent losing streak. Roussel also has a 15-team no-trade list as part of his deal with Vancouver. But the Flyers are ready to make a splash, which would certainly have me taking Fletcher's calls if I was Jim Benning. As an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, Nilsson ought to be a trade chip at some point between now and the February 25 deadline, especially if he can continue to sharpen up his game.
Of course, the Flyers will be the Canucks' first opponents when they open their pre-Christmas five-game homestand at Rogers Arena on Saturday, so Fletcher and Benning won't even need to call each other. They can simply walk down the hall in the press box!
As for the Preds, they will get Kyle Turris back in their lineup on Thursday after he missed the last eight games due to an upper-body injury. That has freed up the team to send rookie Eeli Tolvanen back to the AHL for now. At 19, Tolvanen is eligible to play for Finland at World Juniors—and would be a welcome addition to a squad that's a little low on star power and experience this year.
Injured players still on the sidelines for Nashville include Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson and P.K. Subban, while Austin Watson is listed as questionable with a foot injury. After he was chased by the Canucks in Vancouver last week, Pekka Rinne is once again expected to get the start.
Even with 2018 World Championship gold medallists Fosberg and Arvidsson out of the lineup last week in Vancouver, seeing the Preds' players together on this side of the ocean reminded me of just how many of them signed on with their national teams last spring after their seven-game, second-round loss to the Winnipeg Jets—despite a short summer one year earlier, when they went to the Stanley Cup Final.
The arrival of the Preds players may well have changed the direction of the tournament, especially on the podium.
Eight Nashville players in total came to Denmark—and six won medals. Mattias Ekholm picked up gold along with Forsberg and Arvidsson for Sweden, Kevin Fiala and Roman Josi were a huge part of Switzerland's silver medal-winning squad and Nick Bonino earned a second career bronze with Team USA. The two players not to pick up hardware were Kyle Turris, with fourth-place Canada, and Tolvanen with the Finns.
To wrap up today, a couple of quick notes from Utica:
The Comets picked up another win on Wednesday when they beat the Providence Bruins 5-2. Thatcher Demko was named the game's first star with 33 saves, Reid Boucher earned second-star honours with two goals and an assist and the third star of the game was the delightfully named Colton Saucerman, a 26-year-old journeyman defenseman who scored his first-ever AHL goal in his first game in a Utica uniform after being inked to a PTO out of the ECHL.
A former teammate of Adam Gaudette's at Northeastern in 2015-16, Saucerman is enjoying every minute of his time as Utica's new cult hero.
The Comets are running with it, too!
Listed at 5'9" and 191 pounds, with a total of just 17 AHL games with four different teams on his resume since he turned pro in 2016, Saucerman may not have a whole lot of upside. But as I type this early Thursday afternoon, he's the most-searched name on HockeyDB.com today. Nice to see a guy who has been riding the buses getting some recognition.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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