One more day till the Canucks get back to work! I'm looking forward to posting a proper preview of Vancouver's game against Calgary for you on Sunday morning.
The Canucks practice at Rogers Arena at 11:00 am this morning before flying to Calgary. If anything noteworthy emerges from practice, I'll make sure to update my Twitter:
On Friday, Torts talked about the strong play of both his goalies this season and his faith in Eddie Lack while Roberto Luongo is sidelined. He admits that he knows nothing about Joacim Ericsson—even though he appeared in the Young Stars tournament and a couple of preseason games this year before being assigned to Utica. Sometimes Torts keeps his cards pretty close to the chest!
Torts tells the reporters that because he "doesn't believe in the spirit of Christmas," they get "squat" as far as injury updates on Burrows and Edler. That sounds a bit like the old Torts, even though he says it with a smile.
Though Torts doesn't commit to Luongo being anything more than day-to-day, Tony Gallagher of
The Province sets the prognosis at 7-10 days. I get the impression that his intel comes from Ericsson, so it's hard to know how reliable that estimate might be.
We've become accustomed to trying to read between the lines when it comes to Canuck goaltending drama. I'm going to take this at face value for now—see where we're at in a week.
The Canucks' schedule is pretty well spaced-out for the first two weeks of January, but the opposition gets pretty intense as soon as this back-to-back against Calgary and Philadelphia is complete. Vancouver plays Tampa Bay on New Year's Day, then heads to California for back-to-backs against the Kings and Ducks next weekend, then plays Pittsburgh and St. Louis at home before another Pacific Division trip south, featuring three-in-four against the Kings, Ducks and Coyotes.
Lack should be able to handle the load in the short term but I hope Luongo's not sidelined for too long.
Ericsson's record this season in Utica is 8-10-1-2, with a 2.77 GAA and a .907 save percentage. The team has improved after an awful start, winning three straight before the Christmas break before dropping a 4-3 decision to Binghamton on Friday night.
World Juniors Update:
I have been holding off posting till we see how this wild game between Canada and the Czechs turns out. Though the Canadians never led, they also never gave up, coming back to tie each time they fell behind. Disappointing that Connor McDavid couldn't deliver in the shootout, as Canada fell by a score of 5-4.
Bo Horvat made a nice dish to Sam Reinhart on the 1-1 goal and had some other offensive chances, but this is not a game where a medal-contender should even have been challenged. The Czechs lost 5-1 to Team USA in their opening game.
The Canadians were the better of the two teams in the first period, and the game was certainly entertaining as Team Canada kept fighting back.
I had to fast-foward through most of the third period to catch the live conclusion to the game. They mentioned that McDavid hadn't seen the ice for about an hour. Did the Horvat line suffer defensively as a whole, or was McDavid especially weak?
There's a good look at Horvat in Friday's
Globe and Mail.
Click here to read.
For a more general look at the World Junior Championship, I did a story yesterday for Bleacher Report looking at some of the top offensive stars from all around the tournament.
Click here to check it out.
Quick Hit:
- Here's one player the Canucks were making room for when they terminated those two minor-league contracts over the past couple of weeks. Canucks Army
is reporting that Vancouver has just signed overage OHLer Dane Fox to an entry-level deal.
Fox is an undrafted 20-year-old who currently sits second in OHL scoring and leads the league in goals with 41-26-67 in 35 games. He has been playing on a line with phenom Connor McDavid and Leafs prospect Connor Brown for the Erie Otters, so he's definitely a product of quality linemates.
The centre is on the small side at six feet and 185 pounds, but is he worth a shot? I'd say so.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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