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Canucks look to keep hope alive against Flames; Markstrom's strong season

March 23, 2019, 3:11 PM ET [239 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Saturday March 23 - Calgary Flames at Vancouver Canucks - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650

Vancouver Canucks: 74 GP, 32-32-10, 74 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Calgary Flames: 74 GP, 46-21-7, 99 pts, first in Pacific Division

It appears that Travis Green will stick with his winning lineup as the Vancouver Canucks look to extend their point streak to six games as their homestand continues against the Western Conference-leading Calgary Flames.

With a single point, Vancouver would match its best stretch so far this season, when the team went 4-0-2 between October 29 and November 10—before that late collapse against Buffalo triggered the seven-game losing streak that marked the worst stretch of the year.

A single point on Saturday would also keep the Canucks at .500 and give them 75 points, matching their total from 2015-16. Humble though it is, a win would assure the team of finishing with its best record in four years, after 69 points in 2016-17 and 73 last season.

Here are the lines from Saturday's morning skate. Despite the near-collapse in the third period against Ottawa on Wednesday, it looks like everything is status quo.




Sidelined since just after the all-star break with concussion symptoms, Sven Baertschi spoke to the media after participating in a full practice at UBC on Friday. He said he's hoping to get some game action before the end of the year.




Baertschi is known for having trouble staying healthy, but this year has been particularly brutal. Though he produced at a nice rate of 0.59 points per game when he was in the lineup, he has managed just 22 games so far this season, putting up eight goals and 13 points.

Quinn Hughes also hit the ice for the first time on Saturday, after his latest test confirmed no structural damage beyond a bone bruise in his foot.




With two weeks left until the end of regular season and 10 days until the Canucks' final home game of the year, the clock is now ticking on whether or not we'll see Hughes in Canucks colours before the end of the year. Because Hughes turns 20 before the end of this calendar year, his contract won't slide even if he doesn't play—the first year gets burned this season, regardless.

Ben Hutton also remains sidelined. His parents popped up on his Instagram Stories on Friday, making a visit to spend time with their injured son. Fellow Ottawa-area native Ryan Spooner has been keeping busy with a visit from his girlfriend. Nothing official, but I believe he could also play if called upon.

For the time being, no one is wrestling that 12th forward spot away from Tim Schaller. Nikolay Goldobin also looks like he's headed for his fourth straight healthy scratch.

Though Jacob Markstrom got burned for those four third-period goals on Wednesday and gave up five in 14:17 to Vegas a couple of weeks ago, his overall numbers for this season are terrific. On a team that's currently sitting 23rd overall, Markstrom is tied with Braden Holtby for ninth in the league with 27 wins—and has given up just one more goal than Holtby this year despite having played 240 more minutes.

Markstrom's fourth in minutes played, behind Devan Dubnyk, Marc-Andre Fleury and Carey Price, and also ranks fourth in Hockey Reference's 'Quality Start' metric behind those same three netminders, with 33 quality starts—games when his save percentage is greater than the league's average save percentage for the year.

His .913 save percentage is three ticks above this year's league average to date of .910 and his 2.73 goals-against average is also below this year's league average of 2.82.

In a year where goaltending got harder league-wide, Markstrom's numbers are consistent with last season, when he finished at .912 and 2.71. And if you take out that awful stretch in November when he was forced to carry the load while Anders Nilsson was injured, his numbers get even better. Since December 1, Markstrom is 19-11-6 with a .923 save percentage and 2.41 GAA—both in the top 10.

There are two big differences from last season. This year, Markstrom has cut down on the poor games, bumping his 'Quality Start Percentage' from .509 to .589, where .600 is considered to be very good. And the Canucks have managed to pump up their scoring a bit in front of him, averaging 2.73 goals per game this year compared to 2.66 last year. That doesn't seem like much, but Vancouver's scoring increase of 2.63 percent this season is actually a little better than the league's overall uptick of 1.68 percent.

All told, it means Markstrom has won seven more games than he has lost this season after losing three more than he won last year.

This is my long-winded way of saying that yes, at 29 years old, Markstrom has evolved into a true No. 1 goaltender—and is a bargain with one more year left on the contract that pays him $3.67 million a year. During a time when injuries to goalies have been on the upswing, Markstrom has also been incredibly durable. Since he missed the last month and a half of the 2016-17 season after he was injured at the Canucks' SuperSkills competition, Markstrom has missed just one game over the last two years due to injury—and has played through some stuff along the way.

In his 31 Thoughts column this week, Elliotte Friedman mentioned that he thinks the Canucks should be looking at signing Markstrom to a contract extension when he becomes eligible on July 1. I'm fine with this—and I don't think it causes any issues as far as Thatcher Demko's development.

Counting both AHL and NHL action, Demko has played just 21 games this season thanks to his early-season concussion and more recent knee injury. Now 23, he needs at least one full year as an NHL understudy before graduating to starter status—and with all those aforementioned goalie injuries around the league, I think we're starting to see a shift back to where teams do try to carry two good goalies.

Worst-case scenario? If Markstrom and Demko form a strong tandem, one of them can eventually be used as trade bait—or offered up as a very desirable commodity that ultimately protects the rest of the roster in the Seattle expansion draft.

A couple of other quick notes to close out today.

Tyler Madden picked up another goal as Northeastern advanced to the Hockey East Final on Friday with a 2-1 overtime win over Boston University.




The Huskies will play a desperate Boston College club for the title on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT. On Friday, B.C. shut out the second-ranked team in the nation, Cale Makar's U.Mass. Northeastern is pretty much assured of a spot in the Frozen Four, but Boston College needs to win today in order to earn a berth in the national tournament.

As for Jack Rathbone, Harvard's NCAA tournament fate is also up in the air after the Crimson dropped a 5-2 ECAC semifinal decision to Clarkson on Friday. Rathbone had a strong game with a goal and five shots, and finished with a plus-two. It'd be great experience for the freshman if he could see some Frozen Four action.

Over in Utica, the Comets finally snapped their eight-game losing streak with a 2-1 shootout win at home over Laval on Friday night.




Now four points out of the last playoff spot in the AHL's North Division, the Comets visit Syracuse on Saturday.

And, finally:




Busy day on the NHL schedule on Saturday, so I'll dig into some scoreboard watching tomorrow.

Enjoy the game!
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