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Canucks lose Alex Edler and injuries mount as road trip continues vs. Caps |
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Monday February 4 - Philadelphia Flyers 2 - Vancouver Canucks 1
The Carter Hart show was in full effect as the Philadelphia Flyers extended their league-high winning streak to eight games with a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night.
Here are your highlights:
The Flyers have definitely re-engaged compared to the lackluster team we saw in Vancouver back in December—skating hard and laying the body every chance they got.
But the Canucks' attack was strong. They outshot Philadelphia 42-30, just their fourth game of the season where they broke the 40-shot mark. So, full value to Hart for the two points for the Flyers.
Hart did make a misplay on Vancouver's only goal, giving the puck away to Brock Boeser for an easy empty-netter.
The biggest news of the game, of course, was the injuries. Elias Pettersson escaped serious harm after crashing into the end boards with Alex Edler early in the first period.
Petey said he felt he had to go hard on the play, which had come off his own power-play turnover. He went to the dressing room after picking himself up, but was back on the bench shortly afterward. No harm done.
Unfortunately, we can't say the same for Alex Edler, who took a scary fall in the third after his stick blade got tangled up with Jakub Voracek's skate.
Between the sight of Edler lying motionless beside the net and all the blood, I'm not going to embed any images of the incident or its aftermath here. You can find it easily if you'd like to see it.
It is good news that Edler was sitting up on the stretcher as he was taken off the ice, and that he was seen walking around the dressing room area after the game.
Here's the latest update:
Obviously shaken after the injury, which came midway through the third period, the Canucks players deserve credit for getting their heads back in the game and keeping the pressure on. They outshot Philadelphia 18-4 in the final frame, and the Flyers got some help from a quick whistle on a Jake Virtanen stuff attempt that did cross the goal line with 4:31 left on the clock. But the tying goal was not in the offing on Monday.
I spent the evening flipping back and forth between the Canucks and the two Beanpot games and wow—was the difference ever apparent. Vancouver and Philadelphia came out of the gate absolutely flying—and those college kids still have some trouble maintaining their positioning, just like we often see at World Juniors.
Harvard's 2-1 loss to Boston College in the early game was a bit of a snoozer. But the energy was better in Northeastern's 2-1 overtime win over Boston University—and our boy Tyler Madden continues to follow in the footsteps of last year's tournament MVP, Adam Gaudette.
Madden scored the game winner in overtime—and continued to channel his inner Carolina Hurricane with another fun, creative goal celebration.
I still find it so odd to see writers from other markets acknowledge the Canucks' suddenly deep and impressive prospect pool—in this case, Eric Engels from Montreal:
Not all the prospects will hit their ceilings, but a good-size collection certainly improves the odds of finding more NHL players going forward.
Tuesday February 5 - Vancouver Canucks at Washington Capitals - 4:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet One, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 53 GP, 23-24-6, 54 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Washington Capitals: 52 GP, 28-18-6, 62 pts, third in Metropolitan Division
With not-much-time between the back-to-back games, we won't get more updates on the status of the Canucks' injured players until closer to game time. All of a sudden, that's a significant area of interest once again after a couple of weeks of good health for the roster.
No word of a recall on defense yet to replace Edler in the lineup, so it's expected that righty Alex Biega will draw in against Washington on Tuesday. That'll leave only Ben Hutton and Derrick Pouliot as natural left-handers with Chris Tanev, Troy Stecher, Erik Gudbranson and Biega on the right side—so expect Hutton to log a ton of minutes after finishing with 25:02 on Monday in Philly.
Also, word came down out of Ottawa during Monday's game that Michael DiPietro had been recalled by Vancouver on an emergency basis.
It was expected that Thatcher Demko would get his second start of the year in Washington, but apparently he was injured during warmups on Monday.
Because the Canucks don't have a goalie on an NHL contract playing in Utica with Richard Bachman out for the rest of the season, DiPietro serves as an emergency recall option—and once again, Markstrom will likely have to carry the load for the foreseeable future.
Hopefully Demko's situation isn't serious, although I guess it was clear pretty quickly that he wouldn't be able to play, given how quickly the team sprung into action to call up DiPietro.
As for the Caps—they easily crushed the Canucks by a score of 5-2 at Rogers Arena back on October 22, with Anders Nilsson in net. But the Stanley Cup champs are in a full-blown mid-season slump, with a record of 1-6-1 in their last eight games. They managed just 24 shots in their 1-0 home loss to Boston in their last outing on Sunday. Ironically, their lone win of late was their 4-3 victory over Calgary last Friday—in the game Alex Ovechkin missed due to suspension after choosing to skip the All-Star Game.
Ovechkin comes into Tuesday's contest one point away from becoming the highest-scoring Russian player of all time in the NHL, so we could see a big night from him. It's also Jay Beagle's homecoming night.
I'll leave it there with that little bit of levity on a somewhat dark day in Canuck-ville.
Be nice to each other, and enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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