Tuesday April 4 - Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks - 7:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 78 GP, 30-30-9, 69 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
San Jose Sharks: 79 GP, 44-28-7, 95 pts, third in Pacific Division
The spotlight shines back onto Nikolay Goldobin as the Vancouver Canucks kick off a two-game road trip with a visit to the Shark Tank on Tuesday night.
Goldobin, of course, was the prize asset that the Canucks received in exchange for Jannik Hansen at the trade deadline—a skilled 21-year-old who hadn't been able to crack the lineup on a forward-rich San Jose team.
Since joining the Canucks on March 4, Goldobin has a single point in eight games—the game-winning goal in his debut against the Los Angeles Kings, in the game where he saw just 5:51 of ice time.
Of course, the flashy Russian was also sidelined for two weeks with a nasty illness, but
Ben Kuzma of
The Province reported on Monday that "Goldobin is back up to 190 pounds through a regimen of workouts and protein shakes. He looks better. He feels stronger."
Goldobin was scratched from the Canucks' lineup for last Sunday's game against San Jose, but Willie Desjardins was largely complimentary when speaking about the player to Kuzma.
“He’s good with the puck,” said Desjardins. “When he’s got it, he makes very good plays, so guess it’s being more involved away from the puck. It’s trying to get him to play the way we need him to play. With his talent and when he plays hard, he’s a guy who can play."
Frequent linemate Brandon Sutter offers this take on Goldobin's development:
“When he has the puck he makes pretty good plays,” said Sutter. “The challenge for him is the other side of it, what to do without the puck and that takes some time to really learn it. You have to have the want to get the puck to go into the corners and the hard areas.
“To do that, you have to have grit and balls and he has to find that.”
For his part, Goldobin has a Bure-like focus on what it'll take to show the management group from his old team that they made a mistake giving up on him:
“I just want to score a goal so they (Sharks) know that I’m a good player. They have a lot of vets, so it was hard to make that team.”
Sharks beat writer Kevin Kurz has enthusiastically supported the Hansen-for-Goldobin swap for his side since the day it happened. He says Goldobin's treatment in San Jose ran parallel to what has happened in Vancouver so far.
Ryan Miller gave Goldobin a pep talk at practice on Monday before the Canucks hopped on their flight to the Bay Area.
It would be great to see the kid get that confidence-boosting goal he's craving against the Sharks tonight. Willie's going all in, at least to start—giving him a moment in the spotlight and in a top-six role.
Nice to see Richard Bachman getting another start, too!
Luca Sbisa was absent from practice on Monday, but that was called a maintenance day. With Goldobin coming back in and Jayson Megna dropped down to the fourth line, that means Alex Biega could be scratched tonight, rather than returning to the blue line, if Sbisa's able to play.
Vancouver's injured list still includes Loui Eriksson, who was thought to be close to returning last week but seems to have suffered a setback—he isn't on this trip. Brendan Gaunce and Joseph Cramarossa are also still absent, along with the long-term crew: Gudbranson, Dorsett, Rodin, Granlund, Markstrom and Skille. Only nine players: that's pretty good!
On the Sharks' side, it sounds like they'll be without both Joe Thornton and Logan Couture tonight.
As the playoffs are drawing near, Peter DeBoer's being pretty cagey about Thornton's status after he left Sunday's game in Vancouver late in the first period with what looked like a knee injury.
Taking a page from the book of noted doctor Mark Recchi, NBC Sports' Jeremy Roenick has diagnosed Thornton with an MCL sprain following a phone conversation with his old teammate:
Couture will miss his fifth game tonight. He was at the practice rink in San Jose today but has yet to get back on the ice.
Martin Jones is expected to start once again for the Sharks.
To close today, I'll hold my tongue on the NHL's Monday announcement that it won't send its players to the Olympics, mostly because I think the story still might not be over.
Instead, here are the results of the 2016-17 Carol's Canucks Crew hockey pool:
*1 avatar Lefty's Legends. 98-78-24 .550 220 6-1-3 11 50
*2 avatar Scooby_Doo. 99-77-24 .555 222 1-6-3 16 23
*3 avatar SMP8719. 114-66-20 .620 248 8-1-1 15 32
*4 avatar Dariusknight. 94-74-32 .550 220 1-8-1 10 9
*5 avatar WhiteLie. 105-74-21 .578 231 6-3-1 2 9
*6 avatar PetrolSexual. 104-76-20 .570 228 3-6-1 14 23
*7 avatar belcherbd's Team. 107-78-15 .573 229 6-3-1 5 16
*8 avatar CanuckDon. 90-90-20 .500 200 3-6-1 4 3
9 avatar Phyllee. 88-90-22 .495 198 - 12 30
10 avatar kneughter. 82-93-25 .473 189 - 3 5
11 avatar Vantel or Benning. 79-91-30 .470 188 - 9 40
12 avatar Allsports Rad Team. 79-95-26 .460 184 - 6 1
13 avatar Linden_4_Capt. 75-96-29 .448 179 - 7 14
14 avatar Chompsey. 76-105-19 .428 171 - 1 1
15 avatar Retinalz. 62-111-27 .378 151 - 13 10
16 avatar WhatTheNuck. 63-121-16 .355 142 - 8 12
The top eight teams (starred) made the playoffs, where Lefty defeated Scooby for this year's bragging rights.
Thanks to Lefty for sending the standings and congrats to all who played!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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