Thursday November 20 - Anaheim Ducks 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3 (S/O)
There's plenty to discuss from the Vancouver Canucks' shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night. Let's start with the highlights:
The buildup to the game was all about Ryan Kesler, but Bo Horvat stole the show in what could be seen as a passing of the torch. In his seventh NHL game, Horvat scored his first NHL goal, made some great defensive plays, and won nine of 14 faceoffs for a 64 percent success rate—all in just 9:50 of ice time.
It was the first really impressive effort we've seen from the rookie, who was scheduled to be scratched until Alex Burrows was pulled from the lineup with an upper body injury.
Horvat made the most of his opportunity on day where the Canucks acquired centre Will Acton from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for big minor-leaguer Kellen Lain. Acton's an undrafted 27-year-old who has good size at 6'3" and 202 pounds and has shown some skill in the faceoff circle. He's a bubble player who has played just three games with the Oilers this season so he's most likely bound for Utica, but could step in as a rugged fourth-line centre if Horvat is returned to the OHL.
Was Horvat's good game inspired by the threat of someone new coming in to take his roster spot? Was he one of the fresher Canucks on Thursday night as the team finished up its back-to-back games? Or is the 19-year-old simply taking the next step in his development as an NHLer?
Within a week, we'll know whether or not the Canucks are going to keep Bo around for the full season. Even if they do decide to burn that first year of his entry-level contract, he could still be lent to Team Canada for the World Junior Championships over Christmas if the Canucks feel they can spare him.
What do you think?
Hamhuis Hurt
Thursday's game got off to a very rough start for Vancouver. Luca Sbisa made an inauspicious return to the lineup by blowing his coverage off the opening draw, leading to a goal by Andrew Cogliano on the first shot of the game, just 37 seconds in.
Just 50 seconds later, the action was halted when Dan Hamhuis blew a tire and skidded awkwardly towards the boards in the offensive zone.
It was a strange play. Hamhuis went down like a ton of bricks after his skate seemingly grazed the back of Daniel Sedin's foot.
From the level of his discomfort as he made his way off the ice, my best guess is that Hamhuis' injury is to his knee. It looked like it could be serious, so maybe this is reasonably good news—a limp's not as bad as putting no weight on it at all.
That being said, Hamhuis is certainly going to miss some action. Frank Corrado was recalled from Utica again on Friday.
As for Burrows, he was unexpectedly scratched from the lineup before warmups with an upper-body injury, but it's not believed to be serious.
Willie seems to be taking a lot more care in making sure that the Canucks' older core players get the time they need to rest and heal over the course of the season, rather than letting little injuries build up. It's a good strategy if the roster allows for it—which it did last night.
Kevin Bieksa came thisclose to putting the D in a real tight spot when he got into it with Corey Perry at the end of the first period. On a back-to-back, and already missing Hamhuis, the blue line would have been stretched close to the breaking point if the Gunslinger had taken a fighting major and missed five minutes of action.
As it was, Alex Edler picked up a good deal of the slack, playing a season-high 32:24 in a game that ran 65 minutes plus a shootout. Bieksa was second with 28:16 of ice time and was a plus-two on the night, while Yannick Weber was the low man on the back end at 16:22 and a minus-two.
All things considered, it was a glass-half-full night of hockey. The Canucks weren't able to grab the two points and seize top spot in the Western Conference, but their play was generally solid throughout the game, the three-goal bounce-back in the second period was genuinely impressive, and they were able to keep skating with the Ducks for the full 65 minutes, despite being undermanned and playing the tougher schedule this week.
Oh yeah—Eddie Lack was very good, too. Especially in the third period. And the first line was dancing for a good part of the night, including Radim Vrbata's go-ahead goal.
In the end, RK17 was a bit of a footnote in the game. He got a mixed reception when the Canucks played a brief video tribute before the opening puck drop: I could see people clapping I'd say the mix of boos and cheers at that point was about 50/50. But he did get booed throughout the night when he touched the puck:
Kesler seems to be comfortable overlooking the very limited list of trade partners that he offered to the Canucks. The deal looks like it has turned out pretty well at this point, but I think fans are more angry that he put the team in such a tough spot than anything else.
I think even Roberto Luongo will be treated more sympathetically when he comes back to Rogers Arena as a Florida Panther on January 8.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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