Wednesday March 16 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Colorado Avalanche - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 68 GP, 27-29-12, 66 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Colorado Avalanche: 70 GP, 35-31-4, 74 pts, sixth in Central Division
There will be a lot of bodies missing, but what's left of the Vancouver Canucks will look to get back on the winning track and sweep their three-game season series with the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Arena on Wednesday night.
Willie spends the first two minutes of this video talking about Nikita Tryamkin, who will make his NHL debut tonight on the Vancouver blue line. Desjardins cautions not to expect too much from the transplant and says he'll do his best to try to shield the big guy from the other teams' top players.
At about the 2-minute mark, he pulls out a written list of all the team's most recent injuries:
• Luca Sbisa - upper body - week-to-week
• Yannick Weber - upper body - day-to-day - he didn't play Monday night, but was sore before that
• Alex Burrows - available
• Derek Dorsett - upper body - day-to-day
• Jannik Hansen - ribs - probably back Friday or Saturday
• Alex Biega - will be re-evaluated today (Wednesday)
• Mikael Granlund - upper body - will be re-evaluated
As a result of Monday night's carnage, Brendan Gaunce was recalled by the Canucks just one day after he was sent down to Utica. Andrey Pedan is also back in town after playing three games with the Canucks earlier in the season.
Here's how things look at today's morning skate:
To say the lineup will be young on Wednesday would be an understatement:
It actually could be 11—Paterson left out 24-year-old Alexandre Grenier.
Along with those eight young forwards, I expect we'll see the twins, Burrows and Vrbata. The over-24s available on the blue line will be Hamhuis, Bartkowski, Tanev and possibly Biega.
Here's all we know so far about where Tryamkin will fit in.
For the moment, the Canucks remain in 24th place overall. They're one point behind the Arizona Coyotes, who don't play again until tomorrow night. Close behind, Buffalo is one point back and plays Montreal tonight.
Willie pulled an unusual trick out of his hat at practice on Tuesday, subjecting his charges to a spot of discipline for their poor effort on Monday night.
Reports indicated that Tryamkin seemed to struggle the most with the drills, although it sounds like he took it in stride.
After everything Tryamkin has been through over the past week, is it really the best move to fatigue him into his bones before he makes his NHL debut? Especially when the Canucks are heading into a stretch of three games in four nights? He didn't play on Monday—he had nothing to do with the lousy game.
Or is it a team thing? Would it be worse if Tryamkin was singled out for special treatment, rather than getting into the trenches with his teammates?
Jake Virtanen said what should have been said afterwards.
And Alex Burrows demonstrated, once again, that he is now this team's "high-character veteran."
As for tonight's opponent, the Avalanche remain on the playoff bubble despite making some good-sized moves at the trade deadline to shore up their lineup for a postseason push. The team is 3-3-0 since the deadline and currently sits one point behind Minnesota for the last wild-card spot in the West.
Sports Club Stats pegs their current playoff odds at a relatively grim 28 percent.
The Avs haven't played since last Saturday. They're coming off a 3-2 loss in Winnipeg to the Jets. Defenceman Tyson Barrie missed practice on Monday, but he's expected to play, though captain Gabriel Landeskog will be absent as he serves the second game of his three-game suspension for a cross-check last week on Anaheim defenseman Simon Despres. It's Landeskog's second suspension of the season—he missed two games in November for an illegal check to the head of Boston's Brad Marchand.
In net, expect to see Semyon Varlamov line up against Vancouver's Ryan Miller.
Demko Reaches Hobey Baker Finals
Voting will open on Thursday for the 2016 Hobey Baker Award, which is awarded to the top hockey player in the NCAA.
As expected, Canucks' goalie prospect Thatcher Demko is among the nominees.
Click here for the full list, from WEEI.com. I have heard some buzz about Michigan forward Kyle Connor, and Harvard's Jimmy Vesey is nominated for a second straight season after losing out to Jack Eichel in 2015.
A Hobey Baker win is no guarantee of NHL success. Things have worked out well for 2014 recipient Johnny Gaudreau but plenty of other players have fallen through the cracks.
The Canucks alumni does include a couple of successful past winners. Brendan Morrison received the award in 1997 when he played for Michigan, as did Ryan Miller in 2001 with Michigan State. In between, Fernie B.C. native Jason Krog picked up the award in 1999. He played the last four games of his 202-game NHL career with the Canucks in 2008-09.
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