Wednesday November 21 - Anaheim Ducks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3
Which is worse? Getting blown out by the Jets or losing a squeaker to the Ducks?
These are the questions we're left to ponder after the Vancouver Canucks couldn't convert with their net empty to at least earn a point against the Anaheim Ducks.
Here are your highlights:
It was a particularly rough night for Derrick Pouliot, who scored his second goal of the year but was on the ice for all three of Anaheim's even-strength goals. Most notably, Pouliot threw the puck up the gut so that Ryan Getzlaf could open the scoring midway through the first period.
Pouliot was on the ice with Troy Stecher for this goal, but Travis Green has pretty much stuck with him as Chris Tanev's partner since Tanev returned from his injury nine games ago—and the Canucks are 1-6-2 through that stretch. Pouliot's ice time has been on a pretty steady decline since he first lined up with Tanev and played 26:01 in Detroit on November 6. He played just 17:29 on Wednesday and has been under 18 minutes in three of the last four games. After an early-season stint in the press box, Michael Del Zotto has seen his responsibilities increase. He broke the 20-minute plateau for the first time since opening night on Wednesday, playing 20:45.
Let's hope Alex Edler is ready to go soon. When he is, it seems like it'll be Pouliot, not MDZ, who is the left-sider that will step aside to make room for him.
Though Jacob Markstrom has made his fair share of mistakes during the losing streak, I have cut him some slack because he has been under a ton of pressure as he has carried the load while Anders Nilsson and Thatcher Demko have been on the injured list.
Nilsson was activated on Wednesday, and served as Markstrom's backup, which may have been part of the impetus for the first postgame blowup of the year from Markstrom.
Markstrom does point the finger at himself, as well as his teammates.
What else? Special teams were officially a wash on Wednesday, with Bo Horvat's third-period power-play goal washing out Ondrej Kase's earlier marker for Anaheim. But that's a bit deceptive. The Ducks went up 3-1 in the third when Adam Henrique scored just seven seconds after Pouliot was released from an unnecessary penalty where he was dinged with closing his hand on the puck. The Ducks' pressure was definitely a carryover from the power-play situation.
A big night for Nikolay Goldobin, who hit a season high with 20:47 of ice time and posted his second-straight two-point night. With five points in his last three games, Goldy has hit an NHL career high with 15 points on the season in 24 games. Last season, it took him 38 games to get 14 points.
On Tuesday, I wrote about how Brendan Leipsic had failed to take advantage of the opportunity he was given when he was selected over Sam Gagner for the Canucks' opening-night roster. Goldy has done just the opposite, sticking with Elias Pettersson and now starting to be rewarded for working through his rough patches.
Speaking of opportunities squandered, Brendan Gaunce was re-assigned to Utica on Thursday, while Reid Boucher was recalled. In the 22 days since his latest call-up, Gaunce was a healthy scratch in eight of 11 games despite having collected three points in his first two games. As far as bottom-six players go, it's pretty clear at this point that Green gives preference to Adam Gaudette, Darren Archibald and Tim Schaller—although all three were used very sparingly on Wednesday.
I expect Boucher will get another look in a scoring role. Since returning to the Comets after his latest injury, he has one goal and three assists in four games and is now up to 10-6-16 in 12 games for the year.
The Comets snapped their own four-game losing streak on Wednesday, when Thatcher Demko was named first star in his first game of the year as Utica beat Laval 3-2.
But new injuries continue to crop up in Utica: top-pairing defensemen Olli Juolevi and Jalen Chatfield were both sidelined.
I'll wrap up today with a quick note on news of changes in the Canucks' front office that broke on Wednesday night.
My read is that this is the first wave of fallout after Trevor Linden's offseason departure—as Elliotte Friedman alludes here:
As
Patrick Johnston of The Province points out, Carling was with the Canucks' media relations department for a long time—from 1999 to September of 2013. He returned to the Canucks in May of 2014, in an executive role, after Trevor Linden was hired, so it's not surprising to see him leave again now that Linden is gone.
I'm not as clear what to make of the change in the COO role.
Stipec became COO in June of 2016, after the departure of Victor de Bonis (who was hired as COO with the Seattle hockey organization earlier this month, by the way). Stipec initially came from Intrawest Resorts to join the Canucks as their vice president of hospitality and event operations before moving up the food chain. In my experience, his background in hospitality really showed.
He always had a smile on his face when I saw him around the rink, and in my one-on-one dealings with him he was receptive and helpful.
He has been praised for delivering high season-ticket renewal rates despite the Canucks' less-than-ideal on-ice product over the last couple of years, and for working hard to improve the in-game experience for fans.
Dan Murphy interviewed Stipec on camera during the last Eastern road trip, where he said he was visiting other arenas looking at improvement ideas for the now-aging Rogers Arena and meeting with the Buffalo Sabres to go over ideas for the joint 50th-anniversary celebrations next year and get tips on hosting World Juniors next month. So, just a couple of weeks ago, it didn't seem like he was going anywhere.
Johnston is reporting that Stipec is staying on for the next month or so to ease the transition for new COO Trent Carroll, who has been with the organization since 2011 and moves up from his position as executive vice president of revenue.
That leads me to believe that Stipec's decision to move on is his own, and that there's no bad blood with the organization.
Connecting the dots, my best guess right now would be that he'll surface in Seattle beside Victor de Bonis. Carling too? Maybe even Linden?? We shall see...
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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