It's minus-two degrees celcius in New York City today as the Vancouver Canucks settle in for their last big road trip of the season—five games in eight nights, starting tomorrow, against the Rangers, Devils and Islanders, then Bruins and Sabres.
The team might be missing out on a week of warm temperatures and sunny skies back here on the West Coast, but the trip should play out well. The Canucks are 16-7-1 against Eastern Conference teams this season, and 16-10-2 on the road. In their home games, they also recorded wins against four of the five teams they'll be facing on this trip: Only the Rangers got the better of them, with a 5-1 win back in December.
The speedy Rangers are on a roll at the moment. They're missing starting goaltender Henrik Lundqvist but have played well since he went down, posting a 5-1-1 record that includes a big comeback win against the Islanders last Monday.
Backup Cam Talbot has been carrying the load, and is confirmed to be starting his eighth straight game against Vancouver tomorrow.
For the moment, the Canucks remain in second place in the Pacific Division after the Sharks got shelled by the Nashville Predators on Tuesday. That could change tonight, as Calgary takes on Minnesota. Los Angeles will also look to move within one point of Vancouver with a win over the Colorado Avalanche.
The Canucks are on their way to practice this morning at Chelsea Piers. Is that Radim Vrbata—SMILING—in the foreground???
For the moment, what you see is what you get with the defense:
Nick Bonino is with the team on the trip. Not sure about Frank Corrado or Brad Richardson.
Dan Murphy speculates that we might see Brandon McMillan draw into the lineup up front tomorrow night:
Judging from the lines at practice, he's right. McMillan's No. 21, slotted in with Derek Dorsett and Shawn Matthias.
Prospect Watch
While we have a little time between games, let's take a quick spin through the minor and junior leagues and see how some of our Canucks prospects are doing.
The Utica Comets have cooled off a bit after their hot first half. Since the All-Star break, Utica is 5-3, which gives them an overall record of 29-14-5-1. That's still good for first place in the North Division, but puts them in a tie for third place in the Western Conference, behind Oklahoma City and Milwaukee, and tied with Rockford.
Though Jacob Markstrom has continued his strong play while Joacim Ericsson has struggled a bit, it's Markstrom who has taken two of the team's three losses.
The Comets are succeeding thanks to scoring by committee. While recent Detroit Red Wings call-up Teemu Pulkkinen leads the AHL in scoring with 57 points, the top-scoring Comets are Dustin Jeffrey and Cal O'Reilly, each with 36 points.
Bobby Sanguinetti has recently scored two game-winning goals, bringing his total to 12 on the season. That ranks him among the league's top offensive defensemen.
Brendan Gaunce looks like he's starting to find his stride. He now has 21 points in 48 games, despite playing mostly bottom-six minutes. He's now ahead of Nicklas Jensen (19 points) and Hunter Shinkaruk (15 points) in the team's scoring race.
At the junior level, the big news is Jordan Subban, who is now up to 22 goals on the season—leading the entire CHL in goals by a defenseman.
Tyson Giuriato at Canucks.com also reports that Jared McCann's strong play is continuing, with eight points in his last four games. He's now up to 63 on the season, which puts him just outside the OHL's top 20 scorers.
Cole Cassels is ranked at No. 13 with 67 points, but he's about to miss another two games with his second suspension of the season—this one for being part of a line brawl last weekend.
Jake Virtanen has also gone ice-cold in February. His Calgary Hitmen are winning—they have a 5-1 record this month. But Virtanen has just one point, a goal, in his last six games. He's now 15-23-38 in 35 games since returning from shoulder surgery.
To conclude, a quick peek at the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL. Training camp standout Curtis Valk ranks second in team scoring with 11-19-30 in 31 games, while junior hockey star Dane Fox is fourth with 16-10-26 in 43 games. The Wings are 10th in the ECHL's Eastern Conference, with a record of 21-19-2-3.
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