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Vancouver Canucks place Brendan Leipsic on waivers after 2-1 loss to Dallas |
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Saturday December 1 - Dallas Stars 2 - Vancouver Canucks 1
Earlier in the season, the Vancouver Canucks squeezed out more than one win in games that could have gone the other way: the shootout in Vegas and the home win over Colorado are the two that immediately come to mind for me.
Those days now appear to be over. A solid outing was undone by a goalie interference call that went against the Canucks, who fell 2-1 to the Dallas Stars in a matinee affair on Saturday at Rogers Arena.
Here are your highlights:
For the second straight game, the Canucks scored first, but still got dinged with the regulation loss. This time, the offensive highlight of the game came off the stick of Bo Horvat, who was sprung free shortly after Antoine Roussel emerged from the penalty box after slashing his old teammate Tyler Seguin.
The goal was Bo's 12th of the year, but his first in five games and just his second of the season scored at Rogers Arena. He continues to lead the league in faceoffs taken — now with 734 while maintaining a winning percentage of 54.7. Second-place Aleksander Barkov has 602 and 53.8.
Looking at ice time since Brandon Sutter was injured on October 29, Horvat is fourth among forwards, averaging 22:15 a game. The only forwards ahead of him are Barkov (23:03), Mark Scheifele (22:34) and Patrick Kane (22:18), with Nathan MacKinnon, Dylan Larkin, Connor McDavid and Anze Kopitar right behind.
There's no doubt that Bo's playing like a big gun, and he's doing it well. I've seen some talk that he should be awarded the captaincy sooner rather than later, but I don't think there's any need to rush that. The important thing is that he has taken on the responsibilities of team leader. He doesn't need any more pressure—especially when the wins aren't coming.
Anders Nilsson got his second start since returning from injury on Saturday—and just his second start of the year at Rogers Arena. He played well, stopping 25 of 27 shots, and didn't have much chance on Dallas' first goal by Jamie Benn, which didn't come until midway through the third period.
I was watching big Benn impose his will when the goal was scored, but the mayhem in front of Nilsson absolutely included his stick being knocked out of his hands as Tyler Seguin crossed in front of him. I thought Travis Green had a pretty good case for his Coach's Challenge, but the goal was allowed to stand.
Six minutes later, Alexander Radulov's roof job proved to be the game winner.
The Canucks did their best to find an equalizer in the dying minutes but Ben Bishop stopped all three shots that made it through to him in that final 3:37—off the sticks of Alex Biega, Elias Pettersson and Markus Granlund.
It was another productive game for Brock Boeser, who didn't get on the score sheet but logged nine more shot attempts. Sam Gagner was right behind with eight, including a team-high five shots on goal. The right-shot Gagner had plenty of opportunity to work in the slot on PP1, but the Canucks were 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
With Roussel returning to the lineup on Saturday after a one-game absence, Brendan Leipsic got his 12th healthy scratch of the season, then was placed on waivers on Sunday as the Canucks make space on their roster for Jay Beagle's return.
In 17 games, Leipsic had two goals, five points and is a minus-10—worst of all Vancouver forwards. It's oversimplifying to suggest that he ended up on waivers over one bad game or one bad play, but a minus-3 night in his last outing against Vegas on Thursday certainly didn't help his cause, especially not when he was one of the culprits on the Golden Knights' shorthanded game-winning goal.
We have seen some waiver claims around the league this week: goalie Calvin Pickard was plucked by the Arizona Coyotes, center Jean-Sebastien Dea went back to Pittsburgh after the Penguins lost him to New Jersey on waivers earlier this year, Edmonton picked up Valentin Zykov from Carolina and on Sunday, Montreal's 2014 first-rounder Nikita Scherbak was claimed by Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, a bunch of other players have cleared, including Nikita Soshnikov, Ben Street, Karl Alzner and Scott Darling.
The Canucks slid Darren Archibald through the system and back to Utica last week. I imagine Leipsic will also clear. I've said this before: he showed great promise with his speed and his nose for the net when he picked up nine points in 14 games after being acquired at last year's trade deadline, but Leipsic hasn't been nearly as effective this season. Originally drafted by Nashville in 2012, he has played just 81 total NHL games which ranks him well back of the Canucks' first-rounder from that year, Brendan Gaunce (117 games), who's already back in Utica. In NHL games played by forwards in his draft class, Leipsic ranks just behind Detroit's Martin Frk (83 games), who has been in and out of the Red Wings' lineup this year, and just ahead of Seth Griffith (79 games), who has spent the season so far with the Manitoba Moose.
Somewhat remarkably, even with just three points to show for their last 11 games, the Canucks have not yet slid definitively out of playoff contention. They're now down to seventh in the Pacific and 12th in the Western Conference, and have still played more games than any other team in the league, but they're just four points out of third place in the Pacific. If the Hockey Gods decide to spread some holiday cheer this month as the team gets healthier, it's not unfathomable that they could be back in the thick of the race by New Year's.
The mood should be light at the rink on Sunday, as the annual SuperSkills competition is taking place:
Hopefully everybody gets out the other side in one piece!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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