Monday December 11 - Vancouver Canucks at Winnipeg Jets - 5 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 30 GP, 14-12-4, 32 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Winnipeg Jets: 30 GP, 17-8-5, 39 pts, third in Central Division
Add another long-term absence to the Vancouver Canucks injury list. Dan Murphy has the word on Sven Baertschi this morning—and he says this is relatively good news.
I imagine Baertschi will be placed on a liquid diet, which is a huge drag during the holiday season. But like Troy Stecher earlier this year, Baertschi has dodged a bullet because he doesn't need surgery.
Sutter and Gudbranson are close:
Once they get back to Vancouver, the Canucks have three more games this week—Nashville on Wednesday, San Jose on Friday and Calgary on Sunday. Sounds like Sutter will return somewhere during that stretch.
Tonight in Winnipeg, Travis Green has said that there will be "one change" among the forwards, but he wouldn't say who's coming in. I'm going to guess that it'll be Nikolay Goldobin in Baertschi's spot, but I'm not sure how that'll affect line deployment.
Looks like Green will also switch up his netminders after Saturday's loss, going back to Jacob Markstrom tonight.
As for the Jets, their hot streak has cooled over the last week thanks to losses against Detroit and Florida, then an overtime loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday. Connor Hellebuyck was excellent as the Jets surged in November but has struggled to stop the puck this month. He has one shutout so far in December—against Ottawa. In his other three starts, he gave up four goals to Vegas and Tampa Bay, and five to Detroit.
The Jets also made a significant injury announcement at their pre-game skate this morning.
Blake Wheeler also didn't skate, but is expected to play tonight.
Tucker Poolman will draw in on the Winnipeg blue line to replace Byfuglien. Defenseman Toby Enstrom is also on injured reserve, while goalie Steve Mason has passed concussion protocol, so he should be available soon. Hellebuyck is expected to play tonight—it's not known yet whether Mason or Eric Comrie will back up.
It's true that the Jets have been struggling, but their recent woes have come on the road. Home at MTS Centre, they're an impressive 11-2-1 this season—and both the outright losses came during the fist two weeks of the season, before they found their groove. Winnipeg is coming into tonight's game riding a six-game home winning streak.
The Jets, of course, neatly dismantled the Canucks with a 4-2 win at Rogers Arena back on October 12. Tonight's the second of three meetings this season, with the third coming back in Winnipeg in January.
Now—on to the latest edition of
Elliotte Friedman's "31 Thoughts" for Sportsnet, which dropped this morning with lots of Canucks content.
Let's start with this:
Whatever it may look like with his ice-time, I left Vancouver last week believing the Canucks have a long-term plan for Jake Virtanen. They see a big, strong, fast guy who can shoot it. Whatever happened before, they don’t want to give up. I do think, however, they will try to find another spot for Alexander Burmistrov.
My impression is the same, on both counts. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that while Jake's ice time has been limited this season, he has at least been getting into games. He has been healthy scratched four times this season, most recently for a three-game stretch that ended on November 16. Since then, he's 2-1-3 in 11 games and has only played less than 10 minutes twice, so his average ice time for the season is now into double digits at 10:16 a game. He's a plus-five—tied with Horvat and Eriksson for the best mark among the team's forwards—and is tied with Ben Hutton for top spot on the team with 17 takeaways.
Virtanen's averaging 1.38 hits a game—not a massive number but still more than any forward other than Dorsett and Gaunce (and Mike Chaput, who got credited with three against Calgary on Saturday). It's taking Virtanen longer than we'd like to reach his full potential but there are small signs of progress and I agree—I think the Canucks remain committed to trying to help him succeed.
As for Alex Burmistrov, Ben Kuzma did a good job last week of charting his path this season.
Nic Dowd didn't exactly make a strong case for stealing Burmistrov's roster spot in his Canucks debut on Saturday night. I wonder if Burmistrov will be able to fight his way back into the bottom six with one more player to compete with for ice time.
Elliotte also lists the general managers around the league who are in the final years of their contracts. In addition to Vancouver's Jim Benning, we have:
• Doug Armstrong (St. Louis)
• Chuck Fletcher (Minnesota)
• Ken Holland (Detroit)
• Lou Lamoriello (Toronto)
...and possibly Brian MacLellan in Washington—the Caps haven't released that contract information.
Funny that so many contracts should be coming up at once, when it's typically unusual for GMs to go into the final years of their deals unless it's expected that their tenures will be ending.
I've said before that I'd rather see the Canucks stick with Benning and try to see what comes of the path they're currently on, especially as we wait for more of this prospect pool to reach the NHL.
Case in point: an impressive stat from Friedman on Brock Boeser, who's holding steady at a point a game.
"Since 2005-06, only three rookies have averaged a point-per-game in at least 70 appearances. They are Alexander Ovechkin (1.31), Sidney Crosby (1.26) and Evgeni Malkin (1.09). Sources say, decent company."
Worth noting: Mathew Barzal of the New York Islanders currently has 28 points in 29 games, so he's also taking a run at joining that elite group.
Bottom line for me: I feel like installing a new GM next season would create too much upheaval as the Canucks try to change course yet again.
What do you think? Is there a name on that list that's appealing to you?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»