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The Canucks' struggling PK gets a switch-up as the Predators come to town |
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Thursday November 3 - Vancouver Canucks 8 - Anaheim Ducks 5
Saturday November 5 - Nashville Predators at Vancouver Canucks - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet 360
In the end, Kevin Bieksa's retirement night delivered. The personable defenseman made another appearance in his full gear before puck drop on Thursday night — further stoking my wish for him to come back and shore up the right side of a blue line that could certainly use some help.
Once I did the math, I realized that four-and-a-half years is probably too long away from the game, even for someone who's clearly still in great physical shape and who spends time on the ice regularly at his hockey academy in Southern California.
Between the hockey academy and his work on Hockey Night in Canada, Bieksa has made a strong transition to his post-playing days. But it was clear on Thursday that the opportunity to return to the ice at Rogers Arena brought up a sea of emotions and at this point, that he still defines himself as a player.
For one night, anyway, it seemed like his speech to the current Canucks players was impactful on Thursday. Their defensive play still left a lot to be desired but at this point, a win is a win. The team showed some physicality and some resilience, especially in the back-and-forth third period when the result could have slipped away if the script had aligned with those early-season blown-lead games.
Now — let's see if Bieksa's messaging has a longer-term impact. Thursday's win moved the Canucks up to 27th place in the NHL standings, and they'll have a chance to climb further if they can close out this homestand with two points against the struggling Nashville Predators.
After their playoff hopes were undone last summer due to the late-season injury to goaltender Juuse Saros, the Preds reloaded this summer with the belief that they could be a top team in the Central Division.
But after a strong start in Prague with a pair of wins over the San Jose Sharks in the NHL Global Series, they've mostly been spinning their wheels. Before their 4-1 win in Calgary on Thursday night, Nashville had gone 1-6-1 in its eight games since returning to North America. The Preds are tied with Anaheim and Montreal for 26th in scoring (2.73 goals per games) and 21st defensively (3.27 goals against per game). And while their penalty killing is pretty good, their power play is clicking at just 14.3%. And the good news for the Canucks, who struggled mightily against stingy Carolina and New Jersey, is that the Preds are giving up a reasonably generous 32.2 shots per game — just a hair below Vancouver's 32.8.
As has been their habit lately, the Canucks' morning skate was optional. So the best indication of line deployment comes from Friday's practice.
Brock Boeser was back in the practice mix and spoke to the media on Friday, explaining that it's a healing issue from the incision from his recent hand surgery that has been keeping him out of the lineup. It looks like he'll miss his sixth-straight game on Saturday.
Travis Dermott also took the morning skate on Saturday — his first appearance since training camp — but is not yet expected to draw in.
It looks like Nils Hoglander will return after sitting out on Thursday against Anaheim, while Vasily Podkolzin will be scratched for the first time this season. And Hoglander will go straight into the top six, getting an opportunity to play with red-hot Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller.
After the Ducks went 2-for-3 on the power play on Thursday, Boudreau has also elected to make some changes to the penalty kill. The Canucks have still had just one game this year where they haven't given up a power-play goal to their opponent — against Columbus, back on Oct. 18. Now with 14 power-play goals allowed in 11 games this season, Vancouver's kill rate is down to 57.6% — which is not just last in the league, it's also *below* the grim numbers they put up under Travis Green at the beginning of last season: they were at 64.6% when Green and Jim Benning were fired on Dec. 5, 2021.
So, Bruce Boudreau pulled both Miller and Horvat off the penalty-killing units on Friday, and will be going with Elias Pettersson and Ilya Mikheyev as his top unit. The Preds are 3-for-6 with the man advantage so far on this road trip through Edmonton and Calgary, so it'll be interesting to see how they hold up.
Needless to say, Thursday's eight-goal outburst did wonders for the Canucks' offensive stats. With 3.45 goals scored per game, Vancouver has now moved into the NHL's top 10. Bo Horvat's 10 goals have him tied with Erik Karlsson for second place in the Rocket Richard Trophy race, behind only Connor McDavid (12). Elias Pettersson's five-point night gives him 15 points in 11 games, and ties him for 11th overall with six other players: Rasmus Dahlin, Brady Tkachuk, Jason Robertson, Troy Terry, Sebastian Aho and Mikko Rantanen.
And Andrei Kuzmenko is tied with J.T. Miller for third in team scoring after his first career NHL hat trick. Both players have six goals and four assists for 10 points. And if Kuzmenko wasn't too told to qualify as an official NHL rookie this season, he'd be leading the scoring race for first-year players. Matty Beniers is officially first, with nine points, so Kuzmenko has absolutely delivered as advertised — and is a heckuva celebration master, to boot.
The roar from the fans in Rogers Arena as the hats were being collected from the ice surface was the sort that gets inside your body — a vibration that you feel, not just hear.
Hopefully that energy also resonated with the players and will give them something to build off on Saturday night.
There's a full day of hockey action on TV on Saturday. I'm watching Islanders/Red Wings as I type this; the second Avs/Blue Jackets game from Finland is also on. At 1 p.m. PT, the Oilers host the Stars in an intriguing meeting between two of this season's stronger teams in the West. The prime-time games on Hockey Night in Canada have the Leafs facing the red-hot Bruins, Claude Giroux's first game as an Ottawa Senator against John Tortorella's Flyers and Montreal hosting Vegas. Then the Canucks will share the spotlight with the struggling Calgary Flames in the late game, as the surging New Jersey Devils look to sweep their Western road trip.
Enjoy the games!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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