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Vancouver Canucks: Henrik Out 2 Weeks, Kassian Shines, the Playoff Picture |
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The Vancouver Canucks are riding a rare two-game winning streak as they head out for a quick road swing against two strong conference opponents, the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche.
Any optimism raised by wins against Nashville and Buffalo must be tempered by the news that Henrik Sedin is likely to be sidelined for two weeks—and there are just three weeks left in the regular-season schedule.
TVA's Renaud Lavoie broke the story. How is he getting this information?
Considering that Henrik was able to play through every ailment for a decade, the news of a third significant injury this year is a little difficult to comprehend. In the context of this season, though, it's not quite so surprising.
Still, here's a tweet that might put Vancouver's injury woes in perspective. The team has lost some key guys and some key times, but is not even on the radar when it comes to total man-games lost:
According to Kelly, the Canucks are eighth overall.
In his post-game comments on Sunday, Torts talked about how the injuries kept coming for the team's top guys, and joked that it would have been nice if some guys from the bottom six could have helped to balance things out, but the real issue certainly runs deeper.
It stands to reason that the top guys have been more susceptible due to the big minutes that Torts has heaped on them, for two reasons:
- More minutes per game would lead to a greater likelihood of ending up in a situation that could cause injury
- Physical and mental fatigue leaves the body less capable of absorbing punishment
On Sunday, Torts sure sounded like a guy who's gunning to try to keep his job. He's really working to keep his relationships amicable with the regular media throng and doing his best to show commitment to the players and the team.
There was some talk in yesterday's comments about Torts' remarks about Zack Kassian after Sunday's game. Here's the video if you'd care to watch for yourself—he talks about Kassian right off the top:
"I know everybody's going to focus on the four points that he gets, but for me there were some other things..." That's how he gets into talking about Kassian making better decisions on his dump-ins and his line changes.
It did seem to deflate a conversation that could have been more effusive, but considering how Torts has spoken about Kassian—and that decision-making—all year, I thought it was positive that he spotlighted the real progress he thought Kassian had made in the areas where the coaches wanted him to improve. I have seen him make some boneheaded dump-ins this season, and that's not something that catches my attention very often.
I think this is another situation where Torts is, perhaps, not the most sensitive person in the world when it comes to how his words will be interpreted. I don't think he meant anything negative at all in this case—he was complimenting Kassian in his own unique Torts-speak.
We've talked at length about the contracts that Chris Tanev and Mike Santorelli could deserve at the end of the year, but Kassian's also a restricted free agent—at the end of an entry-level deal that has paid him just $870,000 this season. As he shows signs that he's just about ready to be a true top-six power forward, what kind of contract will his agent be asking for this summer?
Scoreboard Watching
Monday was intriguing with respect to the teams immediately ahead of Vancouver in the Western Conference playoff race.
Phoenix took an early 2-0 lead on the New York Rangers and the Coyotes were up 4-3 late in the third when Mike Smith was forced to leave the game with a lower body injury. Thomas Greiss stepped in to relieve, but the Rangers tied the game then went onto win in the shootout, limiting Phoenix to a single point.
The Coyotes play Pittsburgh tonight, where Greiss had already been scheduled to start. No word yet on Smith's long-term prognosis—he's listed as "day-to-day"—but that could spell trouble for the Coyotes if he's on the shelf for any period of time.
Dallas' starter, Kari Lehtonen, is 2-1-0 since returning to action after missing 10 days with a head injury. The Stars beat Winnipeg 2-1 on Monday and face Chicago today.
With one more day off before they face Minnesota on Wednesday, the Canucks are now four points back of eighth place. This tweet includes an interesting chart analyzing each team's opponents down the stretch.
The Canucks are projected to have the most difficult run of the three teams in that Western Conference race. Their remaining opponents have a .596 winning percentage, while Dallas' opponents are rated .572 and Phoenix's are .561.
SportsClubStats.com dropped the Canucks' playoff odds just slightly after Monday's results. They're now projected to have a 2.3 chance of sneaking in.
I still don't expect it to happen, but this chart also reminds me that the St. Louis Blues are now sitting at the top of the Western Conference standings. The Canucks were perfect against the Blues this year, going 3-0-0. If the Canucks could manage to squeak into eighth place, St. Louis would definitely be the best-possible first round matchup to give Vancouver a chance to play postseason spoiler.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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