The Vancouver Canucks are back in town and practicing at Rogers Arena at 11 a.m. today ahead of their annual Saturday matinee against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The big news of the morning—as expected, both Brandon Sutter and Alex Edler will miss significant time after their injuries in the game against Colorado on Tuesday.
Toronto games in this town really are like no other, since we have so many Ontario transplants living in this city who like to use the opportunity to break out the blue and white.
When my family had our Row 1 season tickets back at the Coliseum, a young woman showed up in the seats next to us—not just in her jersey but with her Doug Gilmour bobblehead in hand, which she proudly placed on the ledge of the boards for everyone to see.
By the time the team moved to Rogers Arena, the vibe had gotten uglier. Rival fans were not just trying to out-chant and out-heckle each other, but fights were breaking out in the stands on a regular basis. I became steadily less enchanted with Leafs games from that point forward, as I felt they really brought out the worst in everybody.
With that in mind, I think the Canucks have made a great decision to run their Retro Night promotion tomorrow. In addition to getting the national TV coverage on the higher-rated early game on Hockey Night in Canada, hopefully the festivities will help to tilt the ratio of Canucks-to-Leafs fans at Rogers Arena in Vancouver's favour, creating an atmosphere that's buzzy but not contentious.
The Canucks just issued a press release, asking fans to be in their seats by 3:50 p.m. in order to take in the full pregame presentation—and to wear their favourite skate-logo apparel. That should help to balance out the Leafs jerseys in the crowd.
Click here for all the details of the events planned for Saturday night.
There ceremonial faceoff will include "Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean, Jyrki Lumme, Gino Odjick, Dave Babych, and Cliff Ronning." Gino's getting special attention—and has been retweeting this campaign:
It's nice to know that the big guy is doing well. Sounds like he'd be most appreciative of a spot in the Ring of Honour!
I like the fact that they're bringing in the old Roxy house band Dr. Strangelove to provide the musical entertainment, too. That'll be a blast from the past for that mid-90s Canucks crew!
I hope that the game presentation department has had time this week to make sure that the projection screens that drop at the ends of the rink at the beginning of each period are working properly. One of them, if I remember correctly, got stuck at the beginning of the third period against Columbus last week, then all four stayed down at the beginning of Saturday's game against Calgary, leading to chants of "Move the screen" and cheers from each corner of the arena as their screen was raised and their view of the ice restored.
The mishap caused more crowd noise than we normally hear at the beginning of games, but I think the team would be much better off to make sure that everyone can see the pregame ceremony—and the game.
The Canucks, of course, will be trying to win their third consecutive game for the first time all season on Saturday, and to stay close to a playoff spot. Colorado won last night while both Anaheim and San Jose lost in overtime, so the closest target right now is the Nashville Predators—who are two points ahead of Vancouver but play in Tampa Bay tonight and in Florida tomorrow.
I expect we'll see Ryan Miller get the start tomorrow after his strong performance against Arizona on Wednesday—and all the buildup surrounding his retro goalie gear.
The Leafs are coming off a 5-2 loss in Edmonton last night, with Jonathan Bernier in net. I imagine James Reimer will get the start here in Vancouver on Saturday. Reimer has been good when healthy this season, but recorded losses in his last two games and was pulled last Saturday after giving up three goals on seven shots in 7:38 against Ottawa.
Tradewinds
As I mentioned yesterday, I don't expect any roster moves from the Canucks until after Jim Benning meets with his pro scouting staff next weekend, on Februay 20 and 21.
For now, there seems to be a strong move afoot to temper fans' expectations that big returns are coming our way in exchange for future free agents Dan Hamhuis and/or Radim Vrbata.
Trevor Linden joined in a common chorus when he spoke to
Thomas Drance of Sportsnet, suggesting that the going rate for rental players might not be as high this year as we've seen in the past.
“I do think there is a premium on young players and draft picks,” Canucks president Trevor Linden told Sportsnet on Wednesday, noting that inflationary pressures from Group 2 restricted free agents and the low relative value of the Canadian market have served to increase the value of young talent.
“It will be interesting to see how things play out leading up to (February) 29th.”
Jim Benning suggested that he wouldn't sell unless he got an offer that blew him away, and even talked about the possibility of adding players at the trade deadline when he appeared on TSN 1040 on Thursday.
With a playoff spot much more squarely in his sights last season, Benning elected to hang onto his marketable impending free agent Shawn Matthias. Brad Richardson wasn't really trade bait since he was out of the lineup at the trade deadline with an ankle injury, though he did return for two regular-season games in March and played in five playoff games.
Benning also added two players via trade. Cory Conacher was acquired for minor-leaguer Dustin Jeffrey and had a nice run in Utica—16 points in 20 regular-season games and eight points in 23 playoff games—before taking off for Switzerland this season.
The Sven Baertschi deal has been a definite win. Instead having an 18-year-old second-rounder from the 2015 draft in the system, Benning was able to parlay the pick into a player who is helping the team right now. After a slow start, Baertschi's up to 10 goals and 19 points and has been unexpectedly impressive in his two-way game. More than just a pure scorer, Baertschi has been willing to go into the corners and shown some bite in his playing style.
Overall, the odds of success with reclamation projects are somewhat limited. There's no guarantee that Benning will be able to turn the trick again this year. But as long as he sticks to his wishlist and doesn't end up being the guy who gives up picks and prospects for short-term rentals, I think we'll be OK.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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