Saturday September 22 - Calgary Flames 5 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Elias Pettersson picked up two points but beyond that, there wasn't a lot to love in the Vancouver Canucks' 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames at the Saddledome on Saturday.
Here are your highlights:
My biggest takeaway from the night is that the Canucks had better hope that Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi stay healthy this season. We saw how badly the team struggled during their injury absences last year. They were also missed last night in Calgary, especially at 5-on-5.
Thankfully, the team has had plenty of opportunity to generate offense with the man advantage during preseason. Vancouver was 2-for-8 on Saturday, with Pettersson's first career NHL preseason goal coming as the puck banked in off the skate of Calgary defenseman Dalton Prout in the first period.
In the third, Pettersson set up Brandon Sutter with a pinpoint pass.
Not every shift ends in a goal, but the kid has brought the dangles in every game so far:
And yes, he's also showing the defensive responsibility that's so important to his coach:
In his second preseason game, Brock Boeser started to look a little more dialed in, tying Sam Gagner with a game-high four shots on net and 12 total attempts. I think he'll get there—he can afford to take his time finding his groove as he comes back from his back injury.
In net, Thatcher Demko played the entire game and once again, he didn't strengthen his case for stealing the Canucks' backup job from Anders Nilsson. The Flames kind of shut it down once they got out to a 4-1 lead by the midpoint of the second period. They had just three shots in the third, one of which turned into an empty-net goal. All told, Demko gave up four goals on 21 shots—three to Austin Czarnik and a shorty to Mikael Backlund after Demko second-guessed his decision to come out and play the puck.
"This pre-season I’ve done some good things mechanically," he said to
Patrick Johnston of The Province after the game. "I think I’m just missing the big save aspect to my game right now. It’s a lot different, grade-A chances in the American league versus the National league."
With the door to the NHL finally cracked open, Demko's undoubtedly feeling some pressure, too. If he finds his groove again with the Comets, that could help him gain confidence for a potential call-up later in the season.
After Saturday's morning skate in Vancouver, it sounded like Olli Juolevi would play his second preseason game in Calgary. He took the pregame skate, but Ashton Sautner drew into the lineup instead, setting some conspiracy theorists a-buzzing.
For now, I'll take Travis Green at his word, although now we're one week in, and still no closer to understanding where Juolevi fits with the team this year.
Derrick Pouliot deserves a mention for a much steadier game on Saturday. After a bumpy ride in his preseason debut against Calgary last Wednesday, Pouliot was moved back to the left side on a pair with Chris Tanev. He ended up second in ice time behind Alex Edler with 24:30, and he and Tanev were among the small handful of Canucks who managed an even plus-minus for the night. If Pouliot and Ben Hutton are duking it out to see who wins the permanent spot on Tanev's left side, I'd say the winner is yet to be decided.
Tyler Motte had another energetic game. Nothing special on the stat line, but he's using his hustle to make himself noticed every time he plays. As I've mentioned before, his waiver status works against him: he's exempt now, but will become waiver eligible as soon as he plays one more NHL game. But Travis Green has given him plenty of opportunity to show that he can be a useful bottom-six forward. He even got rewarded with some power-play time on Saturday.
I wouldn't put Motte above Markus Granlund on the depth chart at this point, but I would put him above Brendan Gaunce.
The full team is back in Vancouver on Sunday, and will hit the ice for practice at Rogers Arena at 1 p.m.
UPDATE: Four more waiver-exempt players have been cut on Sunday: forwards Jonathan Dahlen and Petrus Palmu and defensemen Jalen Chatfield and Guillaume Brisebois. Loui Eriksson is also back at practice.
If Eriksson's healthy, that give the Canucks 30 remaining players on their preseason roster: 18 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies.
Five forwards will still need to be cut. Juolevi's the last defenseman standing outside of last year's core group of eight, and Demko sticks around in net.
With back-to-back road games on Monday in Salt Lake City against the Kings and Tuesday in Edmonton, I imagine the bubble players will all get at least one more look, then the roster will be whittle down further leading up to the final exhibition game against Arizona next Saturday in Kelowna.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»