The Vancouver Canucks won't play a game again until at least Dec. 27.
But unlike a number of clubs around the league, the Canucks haven't been shut down. Players who are not in Covid protocol are practicing on Monday at Rogers Arena.
Already riding high with a 6-0-0 record since taking over as Canucks head coach, Bruce Boudreau now receives a unique opportunity to spend more time with his new players and coaching staff — working through systems and getting to know each other more on a personal level.
The holiday roster freeze came into effect on Sunday night, but the official holiday break does not begin until Friday, Dec. 24. The team cannot conduct any activities between Dec. 24 and 26.
As things stand now, they'll return to action on Monday, Dec. 27, hosting the Seattle Kraken. But obviously, a lot could still change between now and then.
With cross-border travel and the possibility of changing border restrictions a concern, the NHL announced on Sunday that it was suspending all games between Canadian and U.S. teams until after the holiday break, on both sides of the border.
For the Canucks, that saves them from making another trip to San Jose for Tuesday's scheduled game — and potentially running the risk of having to leave a player behind if he tests positive for Covid-19 while he's in the U.S.
The decision also scrubs Thursday's home game against the Anaheim Ducks, which was scheduled to be played at 50% capacity.
On Sunday, I put together a piece for Forbes which covered the details surrounding the situation, along with how postponements are preferable to playing in half-full or empty buildings from a revenue perspective, and how this probably extinguishes any hope of having NHL players at the Olympics.
Since there were no games scheduled between Canadian teams over this four-day period, Sunday's announcement effectively put all the Canadian squads into holiday mode. But the Calgary Flames and, as of Monday, the Montreal Canadiens are fully shut down — no team activities. The Canucks, Oilers, Jets, Maple Leafs and Senators can continue to meet and practice through Thursday.
South of the border, the Detroit Red Wings were also shut down on Sunday, and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. Tuesday's game between New Jersey and Pittsburgh was also postponed on Monday morning.
So as things stand on Monday, here are the games that remain on the schedule:
• Monday December 20: Minnesota @ Dallas; 4 games postponed
• Tuesday December 21: 3 games on tap; 7 games postponed
• Wednesday December 22: all 4 games postponed
• Thursday December 23: 5 games on tap; 10 games postponed
Thomas Drance is attending Monday's practice.
On his
Twitter feed, he's reporting that Luke Schenn is back with the team, after having been the first player on the team to test positive. Matthew Highmore was also spotted on the ice before the main practice. He was injured back on Oct. 28, so he's coming up on two months on the sidelines.
Here are the rest of the roll call notes:
We know that Motte, Myers, Lammikko, Hunt and Poolman have all been in Covid protocol, and Guillaume Brisebois was injured against the Sharks last Thursday. Drance is reporting that Noah Juulsen has been re-assigned to Abbotsford.
Before Saturday's game was postponed, the Canucks signed Ashton Sautner to an NHL contract and, as required, put him on waivers. He cleared, but was then also re-assigned to Abbotsford on Sunday, before the holiday roster freeze.
So Juulsen and Sautner's salaries won't count against the cap over the holidays. And presumably, the Canucks will have more of their regular defensemen back by the time they do start playing games again.
Here's how Monday's forward lines and defense pairs rolled out. Not surprisingly, everything's looking pretty familiar up front.
After the weekend game postponements were announced on Saturday, Jim Rutherford did a Zoom with media members that afternoon — his third availability of his first week on the job.
With everything that was going on, I asked whether he'd had much opportunity to dig into his quest to round out his front-office staff.
"I've been working on it," he said. "I've been making a lot of calls. Calls to get permission to talk to (people) that are under contract in other organizations, calls to people that aren't under contract, another potential assistant general manager, and then try to narrow my list on general managers. So at some point in time in January, start to meet with them in person."
I also asked about new assistant general manager Derek Clancey, whose hiring was announced on Wednesday.
"He was in Pittsburgh before I got there," Rutherford said. "He was with the team when they won the cup in '09, so he is a three-time Stanley Cup winner. Like everybody that works in hockey ops, they all contributed in some ways.
"I like Derek a lot. He's a good hockey guy. He he can evaluate talent and I relied on him heavily in Pittsburgh. So to have him here and join in with the guys that we already have here — Stan Smyl and the Sedins and Ryan Johnson will obviously have their input, their ideas of what's gone on here and their ideas going forward. And then we'll have some new ideas of new people we bring in. And the first person I brought was Derek Clancey, a guy that that I think is a really good hockey guy."
And one final note to wrap up today: the Abbotsford Canucks are also getting an extended holiday break, as their home games scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday have been postponed.
Over the weekend, the Baby Canucks split a pair of games in Vegas against the Henderson Silver Knights, winning 3-1 on Saturday before losing 3-2 on Sunday.
Similar to the NHL, it looks like all cross-border games between Canadian and U.S. AHL teams have now been postponed through the holiday break. U.S.-only games will run through Dec. 23.
After Christmas, the AHL schedule resumes on Dec. 26. Abbotsford's next scheduled games are in Canada on Dec. 30 and 31, when they're set to meet the Manitoba Moose.
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