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Points are proving to be hard to come by on this homestand for the Canucks

November 15, 2019, 2:47 PM ET [425 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Thursday November 14 - Dallas Stars 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2

The Vancouver Canucks' record on their current homestand dropped to 1-2-0 following a 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday at Rogers Arena.

Here are your highlights:



Though they were playing the second part of a back-to-back series following a win in Calgary on Wednesday, the Stars came as advertised against Vancouver - a defensively committed team that played a heavy, physical game and capitalized quickly on chances off the rush and in transition.

Also, Tyler Seguin feasts on the Canucks. He set up Justin Dowling for the game's opening goal in the first period, scored the eventual winner himself late in the second and was named the game's first star - something that seems to happen nearly every time he comes to Vancouver.

Thursday's game was just the third multi-point effort of the season for Seguin. In his career, he now has 28 points in 24 games against Vancouver. That's 1.167 points per game, tidily above his career average of 0.86.

Looking at his career splits on Hockey Reference, Seguin seems to succeed more against some teams than others, and it's not simply the Central Division opponents that he plays the most. He has done well against Winnipeg, Colorado and Minnesota - and is also above a point a game against Toronto, Philadelphia and Florida. At the other end of the spectrum, he has just eight points in 23 career games against the New York Rangers, and only two in six games against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Early in the first period on Thursday, with the game still scoreless, fans witnessed Jordie Benn's first fight as a Vancouver Canuck when he was challenged by Denis Gurianov after laying a heavy hit on Nick Caamano. That was the first career NHL scrap for Gurianov. It was more of a wrestling match, but Benn handled himself well - perhaps feeling somewhat inspired as he faced his old team and his brother Jamie for the first time in a Vancouver uniform.

After the Canucks went 3-for-3 on the power play against Nashville on Tuesday, all six goals on Thursday were scored at even strength. Vancouver's goals had a distinct local feel as Jake Virtanen and Troy Stecher brought the home team into a 2-2 tie in the second period. But Jake ended up minus-three on the night - on the ice for all four Dallas goals - and Stecher was badly victimized by a streaking Blake Comeau on the Stars' second goal of the game, earlier in the middle frame.

With Jay Beagle and Brandon Sutter already out of the lineup with injuries, there was also some concern for Bo Horvat when he left Thursday's morning skate early.

After the game, he said that was basically a precautionary decision.



Travis Green massaged Horvat's ice time down to a more reasonable 20:44 on Thursday. His busiest player was J.T. Miller, who had a quiet game by his standards despite being on the ice for 24:29.

At the other end of the spectrum, the re-tooled fourth line didn't see much action at all. Tyler Graovac played 5:31, Loui Eriksson logged just 5:58 - including 2:05 on the penalty kill - and Tim Schaller's run of offensive luck against Dallas crashed to a halt with 10:40 of ice time, also including 2:05 on the penalty kill.

Not surprisingly, the guys who have been carrying the biggest loads look like they're getting the day off from practice on Friday.



The Canucks will have a chance to close out their homestand in the win column when they host the banged-up Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Now missing both their regular goalies as well as two-thirds of their top line and key defenseman Nikita Zadorov, the Avs were torched 6-2 in Edmonton on Thursday - with Connor McDavid collecting a point on all six Oilers goals.

With their season now trending in the wrong direction, the Canucks will desperately want those two points against the Avs before they head out on the road for the next two weeks - a six-game trip that will feature return engagements against the Stars and Preds before the team travels east to face Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh before wrapping up in Edmonton.

In Prince Albert on Wednesday, the CIBC Canada Russia series wrapped up on a dramatic note, but the three Canucks' prospects in the game all had quiet nights. Carson Focht, Jett Woo and Vasili Podkolzin were all pointless - and Woo was a minus-two in the game that was won 4-3 by the Russians in a shootout.

That result deadlocked the Canadian and Russian teams over the six-game series, leading to a second shootout to decide the tournament winner.

Podkolzin went twice in that second shootout, scoring once but missing the second time. That set up Nolan Foote to score the tournament winner and capture the trophy for the Canadians on behalf of the WHL, OHL and QMJHL teams.

With a six-game sample size to observe, Podkolzin has been in the spotlight for Canucks fans over the past 10 days. But I'm not sure we have much more clarity about what kind of player he is than we did before the tournament began.



Initial roster announcements for World Junior teams should be coming in early December. Podkolzin will certainly be part of the Russian squad; it'll be interesting to see if Focht and Woo earn selection-camp invites from Team Canada.

Meanwhile, down on the farm, the Utica Comets are back in action. After dropping a 3-1 decision to Syracuse in a Veterans Day matinee on Monday, they'll visit the Crunch on Friday night before returning home to host the Rochester Americans on Saturday.

Just like their parent club, the Comets have slipped down the AHL standings a bit after their hot start to the season. With a 9-5-0 record, they head into the weekend in fourth place in the North Division with 18 points, and sixth in the 16-team Eastern Conference.
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