Thursday February 4 - Columbus Blue Jackets 2 - Vancouver Canucks 1 (S/O)
The Vancouver Canucks picked up a single point but fell further back in their playoff hunt when they dropped a 2-1 shootout decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
The good: Linden Vey scored his second goal of the season—on the power play, no less. On a Canucks team that is sputtering offensively, scoring a single goal in four of its last eight games, Vey is 2-3-5 during that span and is playing with impressive urgency.
Bo Horvat's assist on Vey's goal moves him ahead of Radim Vrbata, into fourth place in team scoring with 9-14-23. Bo needs two more points to match his total output from last season.
Bo was also great in the faceoff circle last night: 13-3 for 81 percent. And Brandon Sutter was a perfect 10-0. But Henrik Sedin got owned in his first game back from injury—going 2-13 in his matchup against Brandon Dubinsky and 4-19 for the night.
I don't think I'm going out on a limb to suggest that Henrik is still not feeling 100 percent despite having been out of action for two and a half weeks. He was out of sync, missing passes, and rendering the first line mostly useless. Daniel managed three shots on goal, while Jannik Hansen had just one and Henrik had none.
The twins were ineffective with the man advantage—especially during their 4-on-3 opportunity in overtime, where they're usually a sure thing. I know Henrik often plays hurt but if he's not able to contribute right now, he shouldn't be playing.
My other gripe—and you've heard me complain about this before—Ryan Miller's inability to close out games. In Miller's last four starts, the Canucks have taken leads into the third period. The end result? 0-2-2 for two points out of a possible eight.
At 11-2-7 when leading after two periods, #Canucks have easily the worst third-period win rate in the NHL.
During the second intermission last night, with the Canucks still leading 1-0, I came up with a solution. If Willie Desjardins is going to remain determined to use Miller as his starter, why not lift him with the lead after 40 minutes and let Jacob Markstrom play the third period? Basically, step in to preserve the win, like a closer does in baseball?
I hoped it wouldn't happen again last night—that maybe the All-Star layoff would deliver a rested Miller who could see the game through to the end. In his defense, he was named third star of the game, but he only faced 28 shots and he got outduelled by a raw rookie in the shootout.
I don't think this "closer" idea has ever been tried in the NHL. Why not now? Give Markstrom advance warning, and let him take the net at the beginning of the third period, so he has plenty of time to prepare both mentally and physically. It can't be worse than what we've been seeing out of Miller for the past two weeks.
That's not to say that this team's issues lie exclusively with goaltending. With 123 goals scored in 51 games, the Canucks are on pace for 198 goals this season, which would be only the third time in franchise history that they've produced less than 200 goals in a non-lockout year. The other two times were in the disastrous 1988-99 season under Mike Keenan, when they finished the year with just 58 points and 192 goals, and the 2013-14 season under John Tortorella, when they finished with 83 points and 196 goals.
Broadly speaking, my biggest concern about Thursday's game is the fact that the Canucks couldn't find a way to exploit the last-place Blue Jackets, the worst defensive team in the league. If this is what a healthy team playing its best hockey looks like, then #TankNation is going to be very pleased with where this team lands in the year-end standings.
Yannick Weber on Waivers
No real surprise here: Yannick Weber was placed on waivers this morning to make room for Dan Hamhuis to come back into the lineup on Saturday.
Apparently this move is enough to create the cap space the Canucks will need to activate Hamhuis:
If Weber clears and #Canucks assign him to AHL, should also provide sufficient room for Hamhuis. They'd be an est. $103,469 under the cap.
If the General Fanager numbers are correct, that helps to explain why the team chose to waive Weber and his $1.5 million salary rather than, say, Adam Cracknell at $575,000.
I would also argue that the decision was made on Weber quite awhile ago, probably around the same time the team decided to re-up a different 27-year-old right-sider, Alex Biega. Weber hasn't played since January 14.
Even though optimism surrounded Weber's signing over the summer after he potted 11 goals last season, he wasn't able to score this year. He picked up just five assists in 35 games, was inefffective on the power play and was often a defensive liability.
Give him credit, though—Weber has bounced back before. He was waived by the Canucks just over a month after he first joined the team in November of 2013 and spent three weeks in Utica before being recalled.
The Canucks are back on the ice at Rogers Arena this morning—without Alex Edler.
It's believed Edler's absence is a maintenance day. A little alarming, coming just one game out of the All-Star break, but Edler did have a busy game last night, leading the team in ice time, with 26:30, and shots on goal, with eight of the team's 38.
The Sharks and Ducks won last night, while the Coyotes lost in overtime, so the road to the playoffs is now just a little steeper for the Canucks. Sports Club Stats showed their odds dipped by just 2.3 percent, though, to a 24 percent chance. Anaheim's now up to 70.8 and starting to look like the team made a conscious choice to coast through the first half of the season in order to try to save its collective energy for when it's needed most.
Let's end on a positive note—just in case you missed this news yesterday:
Daniel Sedin gives his $91,000 All-Star Game winnings to Canucks' trainers. Face it, haters, he and Henrik are modern-day Jean Beliveaus.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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