Tuesday October 9 - Vancouver Canucks at Carolina Hurricanes - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Vancouver - Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 2 GP, 1-1-0, 2 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Carolina Hurricanes: 3 GP, 2-0-1, 5 pts, first in Metropolitan Division
Early-season injuries are piling up around the National Hockey League. For now, knock on wood, the Vancouver Canucks remain relatively healthy. After a loss on Saturday in Calgary, Travis Green is tweaking his lineup as the mammoth road trip continues on Tuesday in Raleigh:
Michael Del Zotto was one of just two members of the Canucks to skate in all 82 games last season. Now in the last season of his two-year free-agent contract, he'll sit as a healthy scratch for the first time in a Vancouver uniform—a situation that was not uncommon for him in his prior stop with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Del Zotto averaged 20:59 of ice time in his first two games this seaso, and had an even plus-minus. As usual, his six hits tied him with Jake Virtanen for top spot on the team and he had three blocked shots—but no shots on goal.
Offense from the defense remains elusive: no goals so far. Alex Edler has two power-play assists while Chris Tanev and Erik Gudbranson each have single even-strength assists. After going pointless in preseason despite an abundance of power-play time, Ben Hutton could do a lot to improve his case for a regular spot in the lineup if he can get his name on the scoresheet tonight.
“I like that he’s come into camp in better shape than he was last year and I thought Hutty had an alright preseason,” Green told
Jeff Paterson of TSN after practice on Monday in Raleigh.
“I don’t think we’ve got a d-corps that has really separated themselves from each other where this is our top four and this is our five-six-seven. I don’t look at our d-corps like that. For us, it’s on a nightly basis. We don’t have easy decisions to make on who plays and who doesn’t.”
Hutton is expected to slot onto the second pairing tonight, playing with Troy Stecher.
Up front, Tim Schaller gets his first regular-season spin in a Canucks uniform.
With Antoine Roussel close to returning, the pressure could be on Schaller to prove that he can bring more than Tyler Motte or possibly Markus Granlund in a bottom-six role. At 6'2" and 204 pounds, Schaller has the 5'10" Motte beat in the size department, but definitely got outhustled by the smaller player on the forecheck and the penalty kill during preseason. It was Granlund and Jay Beagle that got burned on all three power-play goals by the Flames on Saturday night as Vancouver's penalty-killers went just 3-for-6 after a perfect 7-for-7 performance in the season opener.
As for the Hurricanes—new owner Tom Dundon is living up to his promises to do things differently with his team. He made huge headlines for his decision to pay tribute to the team's heritage by bringing back the old Hartford Whalers jerseys for a couple of games this season, and while it was largely believed that he was trying to save money by promoting assistant coach Rod Brind'Amour to replace the departed Bill Peters behind the Carolina bench, Rod The Bod is undefeated in regulation in his first three games as a head coach at any level.
I watched parts of Carolina's wild 8-5 win over the New York Rangers on Sunday, where the team showed tremendous resilience in bouncing back after falling behind 2-0, then 3-2, then 4-3, then 5-4. They finished out the game with four straight goals, then introduced a new celebration for the victory, led by newly appointed captain Justin Williams:
Williams tells a pretty inspiring story of how his team is looking for ways to change its losing culture this season:
Williams is skating on Carolina's top line with Jordan Staal and 22-year-old rookie Warren Foegele, who caught the coach's eye early and has three points in three games so far this season. New arrival Micheal Ferland has fit in nicely on the team's second line and has four points so far, skating with Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho.
Also, keep an eye out for second-overall pick Andrei Svechnikov, who became the first player born in the 2000s to score in the NHL when he picked up his first career goal on Sunday.
After sitting out the first three games of the year, 22-year-old defenseman Haydn Fleury will suit up for the first time this season on the blue line. In goal, expect to see waiver pickup Curtis McElhinney, who was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs after Scott Darling was injured in preseason. He gave up just one goal on 32 shots faced when the Hurricanes beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 on the road last Friday.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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