In addition to injured Jay Beagle, the Vancouver Canucks are also missing a couple of key defensemen as they hit the ice for practice at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.
Two emergency recalls were made on Tuesday morning — a lefty and a righty who could seemingly slot in for Quinn Hughes and Tyler Myers.
Because teams are only allowed four regular recalls between the trade deadline and the end of the regular season, those need to be hoarded. Here's the official explanation of how "emergency recalls" work:
Even though Justin Bailey was an emergency recall before Sunday's game against Columbus, he didn't end up playing. Zack MacEwen, who had been the team's 13th forward, subbed in for injured Jay Beagle, so Bailey's recall suggested that another forward is also banged up.
Jordie Benn, a left-handed shot, has been the team's healthy scratch for the last five games — I'd assume for now that he could draw back into the lineup on Wednesday.
Guillaume Brisebois is more of a stay-at-home guy, but the 22-year-old has continued to improve. Now in his third pro season, he has 15 points in 47 games this year, but his plus-21 leads the Comets and puts him in a tie for sixth-best in the entire AHL.
Chatfield, 23, has just four assists in 46 games, but is also solid defensively, at a plus-10.
With these recalls, it is a little disappointing that we still don't get to see the elusive Brogan Rafferty, the rookie righty who's now up to 42 points for the year and set a franchise record with the Utica Comets last week.
My guess is that this move is intended to (a) make sure no defensemen get hurt during some innocuous practice drill and (b) possibly obscure any other issues with the blueliners who are still skating?
While the Canucks were in Toronto last week, Travis Green made the national media rounds. I caught him on Sportsnet Central with Caroline Cameron one afternoon, and his name popped up a couple of times in my podcast folder on Monday morning — a chat with Rob Simpson for
The Hockey News and one with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek for
31 Thoughts.
Travis doesn't talk much about his history as a poker player these days, but when Friedman and Marek brought it up, he admitted that he'd bet on himself if he sat down at a table with the NHL's other well-known card sharks — Rick Tocchet, Phil Kessel and Paul Kariya.
There used to be a mention of his poker winnings on his Wikipedia page. It disappeared awhile ago, but
PokerDB lists his winnings at $385,000 — while Kessel's at $17,000 and Tocchet's at $14,000.
Travis also earned an endorsement from Canadian poker pro — and Vegas Golden Knights fan — Daniel Negreanu.
Knowledge is power in poker, and deception/misdirection are key parts of the game.
I often look at Green's actions through this lens, and it sure looks like he's going to be cagier than ever as he coaches the most important games of his NHL career to date.
Beagle — we pretty much know that he's out after blocking a shot in Toronto on Saturday. Myers played 22:19 on Sunday in Columbus — a little above his season average, actually. He played 8:31 in the third, including the second-last shift of the game. But the last time his name appears on Sunday's play-by-play sheet is a block of a Lucas Stenlund shot with 4:38 left to play in the third — shortly after the Blue Jackets tied the game.
As for Hughes — he finished the game, but did miss seven minutes in the third period, so I wonder if something happened during that stretch?
I will take solace from this tweet — even if Hughes didn't end up skating after all. Hopefully it's nothing serious.
The Canucks open a four-game homestand with a crucial four-point game against Tocchet, Kessel and the rest of the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday. After their meltdown in Columbus on Sunday and Edmonton's blowout win over Nashville on Monday, Vancouver is sitting in the first wild-card spot on Tuesday morning with 74 points — four behind the Oilers, three back of Calgary and just two ahead of three teams: the Preds, the Jets and the Yotes.
Also — three points ahead of Minnesota. That's particularly relevant because the Wild are hosting Nashville on Tuesday night. No good outcome here for Canucks fans, except to root for a regulation win.
The other key gams to watch on the out-of-town scoreboard on Tuesday:
• Buffalo at Winnipeg
• Edmonton at Dallas
• New Jersey at Vegas
It seems like way more than a week since we learned that Jacob Markstrom was sidelined, doesn't it?
In the midst of all these injury woes, the good news is that the schedule is on the Canucks' side the rest of the way. They'll be busy, with 17 games left to play in the next five weeks, but that means there are still 34 possible points available.
The differences in games-in-hand have tightened up a bit among the Canucks' rivals, but Vegas, Calgary, Winnipeg and Minnesota have the fewest opportunities to pick up more points, each with just 15 games to go.
Vancouver has also been very good on home ice this season, with a record of 20-7-4, and will play 10 of their last 17 at Rogers Arena. Less travel and more support from the home fans should help the playoff push. Will it be enough, as other teams also raise their games?
Different analysts use different metrics to gauge teams' playoff chances. In the past, I've often quoted
SportsClubStats, which currently has Vancouver at 83.2 percent odds.
Dom Luszczyszyn's season-long playoff projections at
The Athletic also tend to garner a lot of attention. He's less optimistic — projecting the Canucks for 92 points and a 65 percent chance of getting to the dance.
What do you think? In the end, will they be in or out?
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