On Friday night, the Vancouver Canucks came away with a 5-3 loss in Edmonton and a 4-3 overtime loss in Beijing, bringing their preseason record to 2-3-1.
The Canucks have faced some unique challenges with their split-squad situation but even under normal circumstances, preseason results do not correlate with regular-season success.
A look at Fox Sports' 2016-17 preseason standings shows that the top four exhibition teams all ended up missing the playoffs—Detroit (6-1-1), Colorado (6-0-0), Arizona (5-1-2) and Philadelphia (4-2-2).
The Canucks, for the record, were a middle-of-the-pack 3-2-2 in preseason last year.
So, rather than results, I'll focus on the broader news and takeaways from last night's games.
Friday September 22 - Edmonton Oilers 5 - Vancouver Canucks 3
Since the early game against the Oilers wasn't shown on broadcast television, we don't get the usual highlight package. Will you settle for this game summary?
Game at a Glance, presented by @ToyotaBC. The young line-up did what they could, but fell in a Friday night showdown with the Oilers. pic.twitter.com/QYNZ7YcNTC
The Edmonton game was likely the last chance for some Utica-bound players to get into NHL preseason game action, as the Canucks' two squads will be blended sometime next week before the team's next game on Thursday at Rogers Arena.
I'm assuming that Brock Boeser, Olli Juolevi and Thatcher Demko will all stick around a bit longer, which is part of the reason why they were left at home while players like Evan McEneny, Michael Carcone, Alexis D'Aoust and Yan Pavel Laplante drew in.
Carcone had another good offensive game, chipping in a goal and an assist, but failed to record a single hit and finished the night as a minus-two. Jake Virtanen was active with three hits and five shot attempts, but he ended the night at minus-three, which probably doesn't help his cause. Nikolay Goldobin registered one assist and was noticeable at times but again, I don't think he did enough to separate himself from the rest of the group.
On the blue line, McEneny and Jalen Chatfield were the standouts. McEneny led all players with 23:29 of ice time and finished the night with two assists and an even plus-minus, while Chatfield played 20:23 and was also even with two points—though he insists he didn't earn his third-period goal.
Chatfield swears that Chaput tipped his shot. Didn't want to take credit for the goal after the game
Chatfield's five points in two games ranks him right behind Brock Boeser (six points) in the overall NHL preseason scoring race.
Veteran Richard Bachman was outstanding, especially in the early going, keeping the game close and giving the Canucks kids a chance to keep their heads above water.
We can talk about how the Canucks lacked experience compared to the more veteran Oilers squad, but the star of the night was 2017 first-round draft pick Kailer Yamamoto. The diminutive winger—a late birthday who turns 19 next week—was a slam dunk for First Star honours with two pretty goals. He's now 4-1-5 in three games—tied with Chatfield and Pittsburgh's Jake Guentzel for second place in that preseason scoring race—and is making a surprising case against being sent back to junior and actually sticking with Edmonton on opening night.
The Oilers' other scoring came off two goals from Iiro Pakarinen (94 games NHL experience) and one from their big line, with Leon Draisaitl finishing off a powerful rush with Milan Lucic and Drake Caggiula.
Utica/#Canucks coach Trent Cull asked who he liked tonight: 'Rodin, Chaput, Brisebois and Chatfield'
I liked the Canucks' jam in this game. Despite being outplayed in the first two periods, they stuck with it and outshot the Oilers 13-5 in the third. Final shots were 33-27 for Edmonton.
The Utica Comets will open their preseason schedule with back-to-back games next Saturday and Sunday, so at some point next week most of the players we saw in Edmonton will be assigned to the farm. Presumably, they'll need to get a couple of practices in before travelling to Rome, New York, then to Syracuse for those first two games—both against Trent Cull's old team, the Syracuse Crunch.
One other note—after going 2-for-9 in the faceoff circle, Cole Cassels left the game and did not return after taking a hard hit in the second period. On the radio broadcast, Brendan Batchelor painted a grim picture of Cassels' arm hanging limply, which made him think Cassels could have suffered a serious shoulder injury.
Saturday September 23 - Los Angeles Kings 4 - Vancouver Canucks 3 (OT)
An enthusiastic crowd of 12,759 watched the Canucks force a shootout before Johnny Brodzinski's lone goal gave the Los Angeles Kings the win in the second round of the China Games in Beijing.
Here are your highlights:
Another injury note—Bo Horvat didn't play.
Appears Horvat going to be out about a week. Upper body injury sustained on #canucks final PP Thursday. Hit from Doughty after taking shot.
Both teams switched up their lineups to make sure everyone on the trip got a chance to play. For the Canucks, that meant Troy Stecher, Michael Del Zotto and Reid Boucher were also scratched as Patrick Wiercioch, Alex Biega, Joe Labate and Scottie Upshall drew in. Kings scratches included Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick, who took advantage of their free time to get a photo op with Chinese hoops superstar Yao Ming.
It looks odd to see the normally surly Doughty and Quick grinning, doesn't it?
Horvat's absence meant that Travis Green had to do some line juggling. He got good results when he put Thomas Vanek with Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund. Who had that combo on their preseason line charts?
Ed Willes of The Province is on the China trip and liked what he saw. "The trio accounted for the Canucks first goal, scored by Baertschi, produced five shots on net and spent most of their time in the Kings’ end."
"I’ll try different things," Green told him after the game. "They were very good tonight."
Willes' other key takeaways? A much more enjoyable game to watch, with way more five-on-five time compared to the penalty parade in Shanghai. And a failing grade for the new Sedin-Sedin-Gagner line, which didn't generate much offensively and seemed to stumble at times on the defensive side as well. Maybe just as well for them that there are no official stats for these games.
As far as Willes is concerned "That job (on right wing with the Sedins) may still be wide open, not that we’re mentioning any names Brock Boeser."
As well as Baertschi's second goal of preseason, the Canucks' other tallies went to Loui Eriksson, which a tricky bank shot off Alec Martinez...
I know it was the middle of the night and barely anyone saw the game but trust me—Tanev was an offensive force in the third period, jumping up in the play and trying to make things happen. I'm not sure if this new aggressiveness will continue but in this case, it led to a very good result.
All told, it seems like the China experiment was a success in terms of the NHL's goal of introducing their game to a relatively untapped audience.
In a couple of days, the players will all get back together. Then, Travis Green will have just two games over the next two weeks to evaluate his players and put his combinations together before opening night against the Oilers on October 7.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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