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Lazar joins the injured list as winless Canucks prep for a back-to-back set |
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Monday October 24 - Carolina Hurricanes 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Thursday October 27 - Vancouver Canucks at Seattle Kraken - 7 p.m. PT - Sportsnet Pacific
Along with Phil Kessel's ascension to the title of NHL Ironman, the woes of the Vancouver Canucks one of the hottest topics around the NHL this week.
The Canucks, of course, extended their winless streak to seven games on Monday night. They dropped a 3-2 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes, who Bruce Boudreau called the best team the Canucks had faced so far this season. If you're looking for silver linings, J.T. Miller tallied both goals — the first on a power-play tap-in following an unsuccessful coach's challenge by the Hurricanes and the second when the puck took an unexpected bounce off the face of Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Miller said after the game that he did feel more involved in the game after his move to the wing, where he skated on a line with Bo Horvat and Ilya Mikheyev. Bumped up to the third-line centre spot, rangy Nils Aman reminded me at times of a young Trevor Linden when he skated with the puck, but his left-winger Andrey Kuzmenko did a near-complete disappearing act in his new role. In 11:52 of ice time, including 2:02 on the power play, he logged just two shots on goal and one giveaway.
I didn't notice him on the ice once — but it's not like the Canucks generated much, with a season-low 16 shots on goal. Against a team like Carolina, they missed Quinn Hughes' puck-moving abilities so much.
With Aman's promotion, Curtis Lazar moved into the fourth-line center spot, between Dakota Joshua and Tanner Pearson. He finished his last shift with 7:39 left to play in the third period — not long after Miller's tally got the Canucks within a goal. But Lazar's last recorded action on the game's play-by-play sheet was a hit on Brady Skjei at that 7:39 mark. And after the Canucks took Tuesday off, he was added to the injured reserve list on Wednesday.
A quick Twitter search reminds us that the two players have some history, going back to last year's first-round playoff series.
The Canucks did out-hit the Canes 27-11 on Monday, led by five hits from Kyle Burroughs. Lazar was credited with just two hits — and I can't say for sure at this point that this was where he was injured.
Officially, he and Brock Boeser join the injured list on Wednesday, while forwards Sheldon Dries and Will Lockwood are called up from Abbotsford.
Dries casually put up four points in two games after being returned to the Baby Canucks last weekend, while Lockwood has one assist in four games. Now 24, Lockwood has played 15 NHL games in total so far in his career, but is still looking for his first NHL point.
Other farm-related lineup notes:
• Noah Juulsen was also recalled on Monday, after my last blog posted, but did not suit up in Vancouver on Monday night.
• Guillaume Brisebois did get into the lineup, playing the 11th NHL game of his career. He played 15:21 on a pairing with Luke Schenn and also logged some penalty-killing time, and earned praise from Bruce Boudreau after the game for a steady performance, where he logged one shot, one hit and three blocked shots.
• Abbotsford added some veteran depth up front on Tuesday, signing 30-year-old Kyle Rau to a one-year contract. Originally drafted by Florida in the third round in 2011, Rau is a center who put up 25 goals and 53 points in 58 games with the Iowa Wild last season. A Minnesota native, he has spent the last five years in the Wild organization, primarily in the AHL. He has played 61 NHL games in his career, as well as two playoff games, and has two goals and five assists at the top level. But he produces well in the AHL and could play a significant role, especially as the call-ups continue.
After spending the first two weekends on the road, Abbotsford's home opener is this Friday night, as the club opens a weekend set against the San Diego Gulls.
Now — back to the primary matter at hand.
The Canucks are practicing at 11 a.m. on Wednesday ahead of another tough assignment: heading to Seattle to take on the Kraken on Thursday, then returning home to face the Pittsburgh Penguins on the back half of the back-to-back on Friday.
Here's how the roster is rolling out at Rogers Arena. More changes, including Kuzmenko and Conor Garland back in the top six, while Vasily Podkolzin gets bumped down. The defense looks basically the same.
The unexpected part, at this moment: the Kraken are hot, while the Penguins are not.
On Tuesday, Seattle did what none of the Western Canadian teams could do last week, dominating the Buffalo Sabres to pick up a 5-1 win. It was a low-event game, with the final shots just 24-16 in favour of Seattle. Martin Jones picked up the win, making 15 saves, and is Seattle's top-ranked goalie at the moment, with Philipp Grubauer on the injured list. As I mention often, the North Vancouver native tends to spell trouble whenever he faces the Canucks, as he did when Seattle erased a 3-1 Vancouver lead to grab a 4-3 preseason win at Rogers Arena back on Sept. 28. A harbinger, as it turned out, of things to come.
Tuesday's first star in Seattle was forward Daniel Sprong, who finished with a goal and two assists. Some visa issues short-circuited his preseason preparation, so Sprong was playing just his second game of the season on Tuesday night. He could be a player to watch against the Canucks.
And while Seattle was strong defensively against a Sabres team that can be explosive, the back end is still their biggest area of concern. The Kraken currently sit third in the Pacific Division with a record of 3-3-2 for eight points through eight games, but they're giving up 3.5 goals per game, their penalty killing is a grim 69%, and Tuesday's win was their first on home ice this season, where they're now 1-2-1.
But Seattle is scoring this year, up to 3.25 goals per game. One-time Canuck Jared McCann and newcomer Andre Burakovsky are leading the way, with seven points each, and rookie Matty Beniers remains effective with three goals and three assists so far this season.
There is some hand-wringing in the market when it comes to the usage of Shane Wright, who has dressed for five games but has yet to hit double-digits in ice time when he is in the lineup. After playing a season-low 5:51 in Seattle's 5-4 road loss to Chicago on Sunday, Wright was scratched against the Sabres, for the third time this year.
The Kraken are between a rock and a hard place with the 18-year-old, who can't be sent to the AHL because he was drafted out of Major Junior — but probably won't add much to his game at this point if he is returned to the Kingston Frontenacs. My guess is that it'll probably happen after Seattle drags out his nine-game trial for as long as possible. Depending how things go, perhaps he'll earn a recall after the World Junior Championship.
As for the Canucks' numbers: they're 29th in the league with an average of 4.27 goals against per game, last on the penalty kill (again) at 57.1% and 28th in scoring at 2.57 goals per game. Their best stat right now is the power play, which has scored in the last two games. But at 16%, that also ranks outside the top half of the league, in 22nd place.
I'm curious to see how Bruce Boudreau chooses to deploy his goaltenders for this back-to-back. After the Penguins took hard losses this week in Edmonton and Calgary, and after two days off, they'll run another back-to-back this weekend, in Vancouver Friday and in Seattle on Saturday.
It's a murky scenario for Vancouver — with the injury list growing ever longer and still no easy path to getting that first win.
My breezy commentary from last week on the Canucks' potential pursuit of Connor Bedard has quickly turned into a real talking point in the national media, and voices are weighing in on what a potential rebuild could actually look like.
Just to stir the pot: one thing I haven't seen mentioned is that the Canucks chose not to add any trade protection to the last year of J.T. Miller's current contract when they signed him to his extension at the beginning of September. The new deal carries a full no-move clause for the first four seasons and a 15-team no-trade list in the last three years. And while Patrik Allvin declared when the contract was signed that the intent was certainly to keep Miller on the team, his status will be interesting to watch if the Canucks do shift into tear-down mode at some point this season...
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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