Wednesday January 6 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Carolina Hurricanes - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 40 GP, 15-16-9, 39 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Carolina Hurricanes: 40 GP, 16-17-7, 39 pts, seventh in Atlantic Division
It doesn't exactly scream "marquee matchup," but two evenly-matched teams will hit the ice at Rogers Arena tonight when the Vancouver Canucks take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
Both teams have played an equal number of games and boast an equal number of points, but Carolina has been a bit better of late. The Hurricanes are 4-3-3 in their last 10 games, while the Canucks are 4-5-1.
We talked yesterday about Eddie Lack making his return to Vancouver at the high point of his season to date in Carolina.
Iain MacIntyre of the
Vancouver Sun puts a bit of a new spin on Lack's departure in his latest column.
Lack’s best friend on the Canucks was the team’s online writer and social media coordinator. A bunch of guys who feel like they’re Lack’s best friend are in the mainstream media.
And all this amounted to only a tiny part of why he was traded in June when Canuck general manager Jim Benning looked at his three goalies and chose to move Lack for a third-round draft pick.
In the final year of his contract and with unrestricted free agency looming, Lack wanted to be paid, and agent Kurt Overhardt’s asking price of $4-million-US-plus per season for a goalie who had been in the league for two seasons made Benning cringe.
MacIntyre also mentions that, even though he fetched only a third-round draft choice, Lack's trade value was higher than Jacob Markstrom's—which is not unfathomable when you think that Lack had been in the NHL for the past two seasons while Markstrom had toiled in the minors, and that Markstrom cleared waivers when he was assigned to Utica at the beginning of the 2014-15 season.
Also—Markstrom's current two-year contract comes in at $1.55 million a season. Lack did sign a two-year extension in Carolina that pays him $2.75 million per season after this year. Considering that Overhardt is also Ryan Kesler's agent and played hardball with Benning when he first took over as the Canucks' GM, I wonder how much Benning was concerned that the team wouldn't be able to re-sign Lack and would see him walk away as an unrestricted free agent during the summer of 2016?
We know that trading Ryan Miller wasn't an option for Benning, so here we are. Lack and Markstrom will face each other tonight. I think it's safe to say that both goalies will be highly motivated.
Brandon Prust and Sven Baertschi will both be back in the lineup for the Canucks tonight, so Alex Grenier and Ronalds Kenins have been re-assigned to Utica.
Alex Edler didn't practice on Tuesday due to the flu but is expected to play tonight.
Jake Virtanen is back in town after his trip to Finland, but won't be rushed back into the lineup.
The Carolina player I'll be trying to watch most closely tonight is defenseman Justin Faulk. The 23-year-old leads the Hurricanes in scoring with 30 points, including a league-leading 12 power-play goals. Chosen 37th overall in 2010 out of the U.S. National Development Team, the Minnesota native is also a minus-13 this season.
Faulk was named as Carolina's representative for the All-Star Game today. I suspect he'd be generating a ton of ink if he played in a higher-profile market—he's a defenseman that's tracking for 28 goals this season! One-trick pony or future superstar? I'm curious to see.
Speaking of All-Stars—congratulations to Daniel Sedin for his selection to the Pacific Division roster today. Well-deserved, given the excellent season he's having.
You can see the full All-Star rosters for each division
here, courtesy of NHL.com. Yes, every team has at least one representative on their division roster. Now, the reality is sinking in that each team includes just six forwards and for the Pacific, John Scott is one of them. Yikes.
I'm thinking the Skills Competition will be a lot more fun than the 3-on-3 tournament for Canucks fans this year. Maybe Daniel will come home with some new ideas about how to approach the format?
On a day when all the talk is about past and present goaltenders in Vancouver, it seems somehow fitting to note that both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider have been selected to appear as All-Stars for their respective teams.
A Calgary victory on Tuesday has pushed Vancouver down to fifth place in the Pacific heading into tonight's game, but a win tonight could bump the Canucks up as high as third by the end of the night.
Vancouver's currently tied with the Anaheim Ducks, who are also in action tonight—hosting Toronto.
If you're looking for a summary of Jim Benning's appearance on TSN1040 on Tuesday, you can find that
here, courtesy of Luke Fox from Sportsnet.
Nothing too surprising. Benning has inquired about Ryan Johansen and Jonathan Drouin, but the asking prices are high and it sounds like teams are looking for prospects in return.
Also, it might be worth reiterating that Johansen's agent is Kurt Overhardt...who also represents the now-departed Kevin Bieksa, as well as Lack and, of course, Ryan Kesler.
Here's what Jason Botchford reported in the aftermath of the Kesler deal during the summer of 2014.
I'm not sure Benning's going to have much enthusiasm over the prospect of getting back into bed with Overhardt. His player Johansen will have arbitration rights when his current contract runs out after the 2016-17 season, which could set him up on a one-year deal that makes him an unrestricted free agent by 2017-18. Risky business.
Tuesday's World Junior gold medal game got even me thinking about tank mode. The gold medal-winners from Finland placed THREE draft-eligible players on the tournament All-Star team: those towering wingers Jesse Puljajarvi and Patrik Laine and defenseman Olli Juolevi, who plays for the OHL's London Knights.
All three players are still just 17 years old, which makes their outstanding play in a pressure-packed situation in front of their home fans that much more impressive.
Certainly, World Junior success does not necessarily translate to a successful NHL career: see Hodgson, Cody, who was named to the 2009 All-Star team but was beaten out as MVP by some guy named John Tavares.
(Side note: I see Jacob Markstrom was named best goalie by the IIHF at that same 2009 tournament, though the All-Star nod for best goaltender selected by the media went to Jaroslav Janus of Slovakia, who's currently playing for Norfolk in the AHL.)
Typically, World Juniors is a tournament where the already-drafted 19-year-olds show their stuff. This year, we got to see that the 2016 draft will be more than just the Auston Matthews show.
Undeterred, Jim Benning continues to insist that there will be no tanking by the Canucks this season:
"That’s just not an option for us. We’re going to go out and compete hard every night and try to win games. I’m confident in the job that we’re going to do scouting that wherever we pick, we’re going to get a good player in the first round,” the GM said.
“I understand the thinking in that, but we have too much pride in this organization. I know how bad our fans want to win."
Enjoy tonight's game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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