Thursday November 9 - Anaheim Ducks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 1
The Vancouver Canucks got Alex Edler back after a 12-game absence but lost Chris Tanev to an injured thumb before dropping a 4-1 decision to the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday in Southern California.
Here are your highlights:
Word of Tanev's injury came out after Thursday's optional morning skate, when we were told that he had been sent back to Vancouver with an upper-body injury and would not play for at least the rest of this road trip.
This morning, we got a little more clarification:
Appears Chris Tanev will NOT require surgery on thumb. Should be out 2-3 weeks. Good news for #Canucks.
Though injuries have still been a talking point, it seems like the scenarios are turning out to be a little more favourable this season. Last year, injuries with 4-6 week timelines turned into season-ending surgeries. This year, Tanev follows Troy Stecher onto the list of "not as bad as originally feared." That's good news.
The Canucks sure could have used Tanev on the penalty kill last night, though. After Vancouver opened the scoring on a flukey goal by Sven Baertschi, the Ducks went 3-for-6 with the man advantage, breaking the game open at the 30 second mark of the third period before Jacob Silfverberg wrapped up the scoring at even strength with his second of the night at 1:05 of the final frame.
By the way—Anaheim's power play game into the game ranked 30th in the NHL at 10.4 percent. Last night's performance bumped them all the way up to 26th, at 15.1 percent.
That's one spot behind Vancouver, which is now 25th at 15.2 percent after going 0-for-6 on Thursday and scoring just two power-play goals in their last five games—both against Calgary last Tuesday.
The D-pair that was on the ice for all three power-play goals against? Alex Edler and Erik Gudbranson—although it is worth noting that the first goal came four seconds after the end of a 5-on-3.
It's also worth noting that the poor PK performance isn't all about missing Tanev. Last night's game was the fourth in which the Canucks had given up at least one power-play goal. They'd killed off only six of their previous 10 penalties in the three prior games against Calgary, Detroit and Pittsburgh—games in which they were also outshot and, at times outplayed.
After starting so well, the Canucks penalty kill dropped to 25th in the league after Thursday's game, with a kill rate of just 76.7 percent.
With Tanev out, here's how the D pairings were deployed at even strength.
Del Zotto - Pouliot
Hutton - Gudbranson
Edler - Biega
Derrick Pouliot moved over to the right side in Tanev's absence.
Up front, Markus Granlund re-joined the lineup after his one game absence. I wasn't surprised to see Brendan Gaunce get another game with Dorsett and Sutter but he didn't make much of an impact in his 11:15 of ice time—all at even strength.
Travis Green elected to sit Alex Burmistrov and insert Granlund in the middle between Sam Gagner and Thomas Vanek. Granlund and Gagner shared duties on draws and the line generated seven of Vancouver's 20 shots, so they did their bit on a night when not many of the Canucks' horses were going.
With the game out of reach in the third period, Derek Dorsett took Josh Manson to task for an attempted hit on Bo Horvat.
Given that the fight happened with the Canucks on the power play—where Dorsett has played a grand total of 1:07 all season—I think it's safe to say that Travis Green gave him the green light to make this statement. He came on to replace Brock Boeser and went straight after Manson.
Just 16 games into the season, that's already Dorsett's second instigator of the year—and he's back at the top of the NHL's penalty standings with a total of 65 minutes.
The Canucks could lose their leading goal scorer at some point down the road if Dorsett continues his aggressive ways.
"At the end of the day, we deserved what came to us tonight," Gudbranson said to Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet after the game. "We got absolutely worked for 60 minutes in all areas of the game. If that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is."
The test now will be to see if Travis Green can turn his group around in time to get back on track for a crucial stretch of upcoming games. He did it after the dud in Boston. Can he do it again?
“We weren’t a good hockey team tonight and I haven’t said that many times this year.” – Coach Green pic.twitter.com/OqM0lWCoPc
Despite all their injury issues, the Ducks' win moves them just one point behind the Canucks in the Pacific Division standings. Their next opponent, the San Jose Sharks, are just two points back with two games in hand—and the Calgary Flames are once again tied with Vancouver after a solid 6-3 drubbing of the Red Wings on Thursday.
Now with a 2-3-1 record in their last six games, the Canucks are leaving points on the table. They won't be in the playoff mix much longer if this keeps up—and the toughest part of their schedule is still to come, including games over the next 10 days against the division-leading Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues before a big six-game Eastern road trip.
To finish off today—baby watch is in the books. Congrats to the Nilssons!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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