Monday December 28 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 37 GP, 14-14-9, 37 points, third in Pacific Division
Los Angeles Kings: 34 GP, 21-11-2, 44 points, first in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks will look to extend their home winning streak to four games when they host the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks are coming off an emotional overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday—which overshadowed the fact that most of that game was far from thrilling. Still, an undermanned team that was missing eight regulars (including Jake Virtanen) managed to get the job done.
Iain MacIntyre has a pretty thorough rundown of the Canucks' current injury list, and called out Willie Desjardins' tendency to list players as day-to-day, even when it turns out they're sidelined for awhile (see Brandon Sutter, Luca Sbisa and, most recently, Ryan Miller).
Right now, eyebrows are being raised over the announcement that Chris Tanev is the latest day-to-day player after he hurt his foot blocking a Steven Stamkos shot last Tuesday in Tampa. From MacIntyre:
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?” Desjardins smiled after Sunday’s practice when asked about projections for Tanev. “When I say that, that’s what I believe it is at that time. Once he can get (his foot) in a skate ... then he can play. We’re just waiting for that to happen.”
Desjardins insisted there are no fractures in Tanev’s foot or ankle.
Tanev's absence leaves the Canucks with just six healthy defensemen. That swollen foot is expected to keep him sidelined long enough that the team recalled defenseman Ashton Sautner from the Utica Comets on Sunday.
Sautner is a 21-year-old who was signed by the Canucks as a free agent last March. He had a good run in junior, including winning a Memorial Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2014. He was a bit of a late bloomer, though, which probably explains why he went undrafted.
In his first 19 games in the AHL with Utica this year, Sautner is 3-5-8. I assume he'll be with the Canucks primarily as an insurance policy in case anybody else on the back end gets hurt—the team is already running with three rookies in Ben Hutton, Alex Biega and Andrey Pedan.
The news is better at forward, where veterans Chris Higgins and Alex Burrows will draw back in, and Henrik Sedin has confirmed that he'll play.
The Canucks are holding an optional skate this morning.
Henrik missed practice on Sunday and quite a fuss was made about him standing up while he was on the bench during Saturday's game.
Again, here's Willie from the Iain MacIntyre column:
"They asked me once before: Why is he able to play so much? I think it’s how he trains and that, but I think it’s because of his pain threshold as well. He can take a lot of pain and play. For him, it wasn’t so much pain as a matter of staying loose. But that’s not a good sign when you see a guy standing, that’s not something that you want to see.
“He knows the situation, too. He knows that’s a big game for us. He understands where we’re at, he understands we have to try to get some momentum. That’s why he keeps himself in the games and keeps going.”
The only problem for Desjardins was trying to see the ice.
“I was going to have to ask him to sit down,” the coach joked.
Whatever is bothering Henrik, it's affecting his ability to take faceoffs. He's averaging 48.2 percent for the season but hasn't been over 40 percent since the New York Rangers game back on December 9.
He took just 11 draws on Saturday—well below his usual number. Bo Horvat picked up a good deal of the slack, going 16-7 in the circle, and Linden Vey was also strong with a 6-3 performance. A number of wingers also stepped in to help. Jannik Hansen, who seems to be able to do everything these days, went 2-2, but the faceoff dot is one place where Henrik and Daniel are very different players: Daniel went 0-for-7 on Saturday and got some tutoring from Horvat and Vey on Sunday.
“Get lower, deeper,” Sedin said of the advice he received, according to
David Ebner of
The Globe and Mail.
We'll see how that goes tonight. The Los Angeles Kings are only ranked 23rd on the dot themselves, and they'll be missing one of their top centres, Jeff Carter. He played just two shifts on Saturday against the Arizona Coyotes before leaving with what's being called an upper-body injury, which may have been sustained on the opening draw of that game.
Other injured Kings who won't be playing tonight include Kyle Clifford, Dwight King and Matt Greene. One L.A. player who will be in the lineup is Milan Lucic, who will make his first appearance at Rogers Arena since being traded to the Kings last summer. The Vancouver native is fourth in Kings scoring with 21 points in 34 games, though he has been pointless in his last three games and was a nasty minus-four in L.A.'s 5-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs just before Christmas.
Though the Kings thoroughly outclassed the Canucks when they beat Vancouver 2-1 in overtime back in early December, the season series is tied at 1-1 so far and L.A. had lost three out of four games heading into the Christmas break before rebounding with a 4-3 win over the Coyotes on Boxing Day.
As long as you don't factor in the 2012 playoffs, the Canucks actually have a pretty decent home record against Los Angeles in recent years.
A couple of other quick notes before I sign off for today:
• I never woulda thunk it, but the Edmonton Oilers really did acquire Zack Kassian from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for goaltender Ben Scrivens. Scrivens was shuffled down to the AHL this year, where he has gone 2-6-0 in 10 appearances with the Bakersfield Condors, with a 3.47 goals-against average and .893 save percentage, though apparently these numbers may be deceiving:
The Canadiens have re-assigned Dustin Tokarski to their minor-league affiliate, so Scrivens will stay with the big club as the Habs try to find a way out of their six-game losing skid.
Kassian, on the other hand, has been assigned to Bakersfield. That'll be his first regular-season action of the year after the October accident in Montreal that broke his foot and nose and landed him in the NHL's substance-abuse program.
If he does make it back to the NHL, it'll be interesting to see what kind of reception Kassian gets in Edmonton, where he was a high-profile enemy thanks primarily to the errant stick that broke Sam Gagner's jaw back in September of 2013.
This is one more chance than I thought Kassian would get after he crashed and burned so dramatically in Montreal. We certainly saw him tease his talent during his time here in Vancouver and, considering he was often looked at as a player whose career was expected to mirror Milan Lucic's, I guess it's no surprise that Peter Chiarelli was the GM who was willing to see if the big guy really now has his priorities in order. Kassian's still just 24 years old.
• Over in Finland, Brock Boeser and Team USA ran into a hot goaltender as they were shut out 1-0 by Sweden earlier today. After being moved up to the top line for much of the Americans' first game against Canada, Boeser was elevated again today after Alex DeBrincat left the game with a first-period injury.
Meanwhile, Team Canada has a solid 5-1 lead over Denmark through 40 minutes and has outshot the Danes 40-11 through two periods. After a less-than-stellar effort against the Americans, Jake Virtanen has not figured in the scoring so far today.
Enjoy tonight's game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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