Thursday night marked the end of the playoff road for the Utica Comets after a 6-3 loss to the Albany Devils.
With Joe Cannata back in net, the Comets fell behind 3-0 by the 11:02 mark of the first period, but they kept fighting.
Richard Bachman took over for Cannata after a shorthanded goal for the Devils with 30 seconds to play in the second period made it 5-1, then the Comets narrowed the lead to 5-3 by the midpoint of the third on goals from Alex Friesen and T.J. Hensick, but that's as close as they would get.
They couldn't capitalize on a late power play, and Blake Pietila finished off the scoring for Albany with his second of the night, this one into an empty net.
After last season's run all the way to the Calder Cup Final, a first-round elimination is disappointing. But the Comets were a different team this year. They dealt with injury issues of their own and had to deal with roster holes thanks to the Canucks' endless string of call-ups.
Don't forget—Alex Biega started the year as the Comets' captain. It took just three weeks for him to earn his first recall by the Canucks on October 28, then he went back and forth a couple more times before sticking with Vancouver for the rest of the year starting on December 1. Biega played just 14 games with Utica, along with his 51 for the Canucks.
I think the biggest offseason question that the Comets will face is the coaching future of Travis Green.
Should we be worried that Green's season ended a matter of hours before the Anaheim Ducks decided to cut ties with Bruce Boudreau after yet another Game 7 loss?
Since the Ducks are a high-caliber team with a very specific Achilles' heel, my expectation is that they'll go with a head coach who already has significant NHL experience. Paul MacLean was a very visible assistant to Boudreau on the bench this year and is a former Jack Adams winner. It wouldn't surprise me to see him get promoted if management liked he job that he did in his role this year. They've already had a chance to se how he operates.
If Anaheim was to elect to promote its own AHL coach like Detroit did with Jeff Blashill and Tampa Bay did with Jon Cooper, that'd be entertaining. Dallas Eakins is the bench boss for the San Diego Gulls, who finished the season in second place in the AHL's new Pacific Division and avoided elimination last night in their first-round series with a 6-1 win over the Texas Stars.
In my perfect dream scenario, Green sticks with the Comets—perhaps with some sort of suggestion from ownership that if things don't go well with Willie Desjardins at the beginning of next season, he'd get a chance to move up to the Canucks' top job.
Is everybody patient enough to let that happen? We'll probably have to wait a couple of months to find out.
Speaking of the draft, in just one more day, the Canucks will have some clarity on where they're picking in the first round.
Trevor Linden is headed to Toronto for Saturday's televised proceedings—and is trying to carry as much good luck as he can on the trip.
Ed Willes has the story in the
Vancouver Sun—Linden will have Pat Quinn's hockey card from his 1970-71 season with the Vancouver Canucks in his pocket when the ping-pong balls are released on Saturday.
“I thought I’d call on the luck of the Irish, but I’m not Irish,” Linden cracks. “I’m just hoping to steal a bit of it.”
After all the Quinn did for the franchise, it is touching to think that he will be a part of Saturday's proceedings. As Willes puts it:
There’s also something irresistible about the idea of Quinn, who passed away in November 2014, reaching down and helping the Canucks one more time. But whether the Canucks draft first or sixth, this story is about something different. It’s about the connective tissue which runs from Quinn to Linden. It’s about the man who shaped the franchise and the man who’s been entrusted with its future. It’s also about their shared history and their shared beliefs.
I've heard of a number of people who are hosting draft lottery parties tomorrow. The Canucks are also holding an official event at the Boston Pizza on the plaza at BC Place.
If you're planning on attending, you're advised to get there early, as seating will be limited.
Tomorrow's lottery show is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. but there will likely be a significant preamble. It's expected that the drawing will take place close to 5 p.m., not long before the beginning of Game 2 between Pittsburgh and Washington (Game 1 was excellent last night, by the way. And yes, Nick Bonino was pretty fierce with his goal and assist for the Penguins).
I don't want to miss a thing, so I'll be tuning in for the whole show...
Of course, we have already seen that the Canucks aren't going to wait around till June to add players to their lineup. They've already inked college stars Thatcher Demko and Troy Stecher to contracts for next season and this week, they're making their pitch for Stecher's (and Brock Boeser's) North Dakota teammate Drake Caggiula.
From last night:
Bluewater Cafe is one of the restaurants in the Toptable Group that's owned by the Aquilini family, so this sighting seems legit.
I quite like the fact that Caggiula is taking his time and enjoying the red-carpet treatment from a number of NHL organizations before he makes his decision on where to sign. As an undersized, undrafted player who suited up for the Stouffville Spirit of the OJHL before signing on at North Dakota four years ago and eventually winning a national championship, he's the poster child for maximizing the value of a stint in NCAA hockey.
Expansion Draft Update
One final note before I sign off for today. We still don't know for sure whether or not the NHL will announce plans for expansion for the 2017-18 season, but apparently the league is one step closer to working out the logistics.
Word is, teams will be required to include players with no-move clauses on their protected lists, while players with no-trade clauses can be exposed for selection by the expansion team(s).
As the Canucks' roster currently stands, that would mean that Daniel and Henrik Sedin would take up two slots on the protected list with their no-move clauses, while players with no-trades like Jannik Hansen, Alex Edler, Brandon Sutter and Chris Tanev could be left exposed for selection.
This is significant, because protected lists will be very short. In the TSN article, Gary Lawless says that teams will be allowed to protect only seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender or eight skaters and one goaltender. I believe there's also an exemption expected for young players with limited NHL experience.
Bottom line—the new team(s) won't be starting from the bottom. If expansion goes ahead, there will be plenty of quality talent available for selection from all around the league—and teams won't necessarily be able to use expansion as a tool to wiggle out from onerous long-term contracts.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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