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Life without Boeser begins as Boucher is recalled ahead of Canucks/Coyotes |
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Wednesday March 7 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Arizona Coyotes - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet One, Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 66 GP, 25-32-9, 59 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
Arizona Coyotes: 65 GP, 20-34-11, 51 pts, eighth in Pacific Division
Ten days after the Vancouver Canucks earned a 3-1 win in their first meeting of the year with the Arizona Coyotes, the season series continues on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena. Since that night, the Canucks have gone 1-1-2, earning points in their last three games, while the Coyotes have gone 2-0-1—gaining one point on Vancouver in the Pacific Division standings while holding a game in hand.
With 7-2-1 records in their last 10 games, the Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks have been the hottest teams in the Pacific Division. Even with their decent recent outcomes, the Canucks are 3-4-3 in their last 10 games so the Coyotes have made up six points in the standings during that time. With three head-to-head matchups still to go, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the Canucks could still improve their draft-lottery odds by finishing below Arizona in the overall standings.
Life without Brock begins tonight for Vancouver. Though the Canucks were able to stay focused and win their game on Monday night, Boeser's scary injury had a big impact on his teammates.
I'm picturing the injured Tanev standing in the dressing room in his street clothes as Stecher and Del Zotto came off the ice: "C'mon! Get changed! I'll drive!!"
MDZ didn't take the morning skate on Wednesday. Hope he didn't pick up a bug at the hospital—or hurt himself playing with the kids at Ronald McDonald House!
Reid Boucher has been recalled from Utica to fill in for Boeser, and will be in the lineup tonight. Boucher has continued to produce at the AHL level. Though the Comets have hit a wall and are now mired in a six-game losing streak, Boucher is 3-2-5 in the eight games since he was last sent back to the Comets in mid-February. Though he has played just 45 AHL games so far this season, his 25 goals still have him tied for second overall in the league. He has also set personal career highs for AHL goals and points (46).
The losing streak hasn't jeopardized the Comets' playoff chances...yet. They're still comfortably tucked into fourth place in the AHL's North Division, 16 points ahead of fifth-place Laval with 17 games left on the regular-season schedule.
The Canucks had 12 healthy forwards on their roster before the Boucher recall, which means two things:
• Boucher has now used up his 30-day waiver exemption and would require waivers to be sent back to Utica. That may mean that he's here for the rest of the year.
• The Canucks have now used up three of their four allowable post-deadline roster moves. Presumably, they'll try to save the last one for Adam Gaudette, although we still don't know how much longer he'll be busy with the NCAA playoffs.
Gaudette did win another award this week:
Gaudette led all NCAA players nationwide with 17 points in eight games in February, highlighted by his spectacular MVP performance in the final of the Beanpot Tournament.
Round 1 of Hobey Baker voting for the NCAA's top hockey player has now closed. Gaudette should advance to the next round, which will be whittled down to the Top 10.
Also on the prospect beat—Elias Pettersson was held pointless in Vaxjo's 2-1 loss to Gothenburg over in Sweden on Tuesday. He now has two games left to try to pick up three points to tie Kent Nilsson's U20 Swedish league record of 54 points.
But I digress...
Back to today's game. Here's where Boucher is expected to slot into the lineup:
Looks like we'll see more of Jake Virtanen, Brendan Leipsic and Bo Horvat after their dynamic two periods together on Monday.
Jacob Markstrom draws back in after earning the win on Monday.
As for the Coyotes, they're coming off a 4-3 overtime loss in Edmonton on Monday night. Darcy Kuemper took the loss and is now 0-1-1 since joining the Coyotes. He may draw back in again tonight after facing the Canucks 10 days ago in Glendale.
To wrap up today, Rick Dhaliwal checked in on Nikita Tryamkin with his Automobilist GM in the KHL, Alexei Volkov.
KHL buyouts can be arranged but even though Volkov doesn't sound thrilled with Tryamkin's recent play, it sounds like he's in no rush to let his player go anywhere.
I see Tryamkin liking Tweets and Instagram posts from his Canucks teammates fairly often, and it's interesting that both his Twitter and Instagram accounts are still headed up with photos of him in Canucks colours. I wonder if he'd be interested in buying himself out and coming back to North America next season?
Enjoy tonight's game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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