After cruising to a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, the Vancouver Canucks will finally close out the 56-game Covid season that should hold a very unique place in the history books with one more game in Calgary on Wednesday.
Puck drop is at 12:30. And if these matinee games didn't already feel like afterthoughts, all the conversations that have been swirling around the club over the past few days have certainly overshadowed the on-ice action.
On top of his playoff duties, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet devoted a good amount of airtime to the Canucks on Tuesday — reporting that ownership and management met on Monday and, in the end, decided to continue on with general manager Jim Benning.
Benning has just completed the first season of a
three-year contract extension that was signed ahead of the 2019-20 season — in normal times.
Given everything we've heard about Canucks ownership striving to run a tight financial ship these days, it makes sense that they'd want to stick with someone that's already under contract if at all possible.
I think we've also seen that Benning and Francesco Aquilini are generally in alignment. When faced with two differing visions in the summer of 2018, Aquilini backed Benning and axed Trevor Linden — even though Benning's promise of a quick climb back to respectability for the Canucks has turned out to be more complicated than what was hoped.
A vocal portion of the fanbase has been calling for Benning's head for years. They got even louder this season. I think that's the main reason why Friedman has been referring to a 'crisis of consumer confidence' surrounding the team — and why these conversations about Benning's future have been held.
But it sounds like, after a good think, ownership has decided to try to stay the course.
If you're a fan of Travis Green — and, potentially, of Ian Clark — this could be good news. I'm not sure Benning had the authority to get his coaches back under contract while his own future was in doubt. Perhaps that has started to shift in the last 24 hours.
There have been rumours for months that Clark's lack of a contract almost certainly means that he'll be moving on. And given his track record, he should certainly have some suitors. But I'm still hoping for a last-minute Hail Mary — and so is Thatcher Demko.
Tuesday's postgame press conference was, presumably, Demko's last of the year: I doubt he'll play both halves of this final back-to-back. He used his time to make an impassioned plea for Clark's return.
Given that Demko sees Clark on a daily basis, I'm encouraged by the fact that he's still holding out some hope — not treating the situation as a fait accompli that Clark is gone.
As we wait to see how the coaching situation shakes out, was anyone else unsurprised to hear the Sedins' names come into the mix on Tuesday?
Unlike when Trevor Linden rode in on his white stallion in 2014, it's being made clear that if Daniel and Henrik come on board, it will be in a role where they can learn about hockey operations, rather than being immediately taking on major responsibilities.
The development paths that keep getting mentioned are Chris Drury, who's now finally a GM after six seasons with the New York Rangers organization, and Steve Yzerman, who spent four years as vice president of hockey operations under Ken Holland in Detroit before taking the GM job with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Other examples of former players who have followed similar paths? Bill Guerin is a recent success story. Rob Blake is doing well in L.A. Joe Sakic's now arguably one of the best in the business in Colorado.
But it doesn't always work out. Jason Botterill, for example, was a rising star in the Pittsburgh organization for years, but couldn't make things work in Buffalo.
In addition to the P.R. boost that Daniel and Henrik could provide to the Canucks, the best part about them is — that they're the Sedins.
My question is whether they'd be willing to give up their retirement lifestyle to jump back into the fire. But there are two of them; if they share duties, perhaps the weight of their responsibilities wouldn't feel quite so heavy.
So even though the games will conclude on Wednesday, it looks like the drama is set to continue for awhile yet.
As for the game — on Tuesday, the Canucks were able to take advantage of their ice-cold former teammate Louis Domingue, playing his first NHL game in more than a year. The Flames woke up in the third, peppering Thatcher Demko with 22 shots in the final frame alone (the final shots were 40-24 for Calgary). Andrew Mangiapane and Matthew Tkachuk scored to get the Flames within one before Brock Boeser finished things off with an empty-netter for his 23rd of the season.
My favourite part of the game was getting a chance to watch Will Lockwood in his NHL debut. He's not the biggest guy, but he delivered as advertised — a strong skater with buckets of confidence who's not afraid to get involved in the play.
In just 12:44 of ice time, Lockwood finished with a team-high three hits — in a game where the Canucks had just eight hits in total. The others came from Marc Michaelis (2), Jack Rathbone (2) and J.T. Miller (1). Take out Miller, and I'm sensing a bit of a pattern here?
Lockwood also had three shot attempts (two on goal), a block, a giveaway and a minor penalty for tripping. He made the most of his audition and I'm interested to see more — he could be a nice addition to the bottom six next season.
I'll leave it there for now. Don't forget, Wednesday's puck drop is at 12:30 p.m. PT from Calgary. Enjoy!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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