Saturday December 23 - St. Louis Blues 3 - Vancouver Canucks 1
The Vancouver Canucks played well defensively and Brock Boeser scored his 20th of the the year, but Jacob Markstrom gave up two bad goals against to send the team into the Christmas break on a losing note, dropping a 3-1 decision to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
Here are your highlights:
On balance, Markstrom was pretty good. He stopped six shots from Vladimir Tarasenko and made some other big saves along the way, including a couple on a determined Alex Steen. Two goals against should give his team a chance to win, but he looked bad on Patrik Berglund's fluttering backhand midway through the first and on Kyle Brodziak's bad-angle short-side goal that proved to be the game winner, late in the second.
It was a perfect outcome for #TankNation—the Canucks got the loss but played pretty well, and Brock Boeser picked up his 20th of the year off a tremendous pass by Thomas Vanek early in the second period.
What a ride it's been!
This is incredible company.
Mat Barzal got a hat trick against the Winnipeg Jets earlier on Saturday, so he goes into the Christmas break leading the rookie scoring race with 35 points—one more than Boeser, but Brock has eight more goals and has played two fewer games. He's still on his point-a-game pace and is currently tracking for 46 goals this season. If he maintains this pace he'll easily break Pavel Bure's team records for most goals (34) and points (60) by a rookie.
He'd also tie Todd Bertuzzi for sixth all-time on the Canucks' single-season goal scoring list—behind Bure (60,60, 51), Alex Mogilny (55) and Markus Naslund (48). He'll also be the first Canuck to crack the 40-goal plateau since Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler each tallied 41 in the 2010-11 season.
Ryan Biech has been tracking Boeser's bonus situation for The Athletic.
He examines the CBA's bonus structure in further detail in
this article, behind the paywall.
Long story short—if he stays healthy, Boeser should have a good shot of maxing out his team bonuses for a total of $850,000. He'll also take a run at a league-paid bonus (which does not count against the salary cap) for a top-three finish in Calder Trophy voting and, potentially, a top-five finish in the Rocket Richard standings. He's currently fifth overall in goals—four back of league leader Nikita Kucherov.
Very heady stuff—especially considering it was only a week ago that we were panicking over his foot injury. As you were, Canucks Nation.
Elsewhere, Travis Green elected to dress seven defensemen on Saturday, sitting out Alex Burmistrov and Reid Boucher.
Ben Hutton returned and played 16:33, including 1:44 on the penalty kill that went 2-for-2. Better! He was on the ice for both of St. Louis' non-empty-net goals, as well as for Vancouver's goal.
Travis Green had talked before the game about potentially using Alex Biega as a 12th forward, but it looks like assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner was able to rotate all seven through the mix—including flipping Derrick Pouliot back and forth between the left and right sides. Troy Stecher was the low man at 12:57, Biega played 17:49 and Alex Edler led the way with 22:04 of ice time.
It's also looking like Nic Dowd is finding his spot on this team. He played 15:24, did well on the penalty kill, stayed out of the penalty box, and made some impressive offensive forays while skating on an energetic line with Jake Virtanen and Brendan Gaunce—one that was often successfully matched up against the Blues' top line of Tarasenko, Schenn and Berglund.
Which leads me to Virtanen, who played a season high 16:27 on Saturday, including 5:57 in the third period. Though he didn't pick up any points, the change in his confidence level is palpable since he picked up Brock Boeser's stick before Thursday's game in San Jose. If he can keep this up, he has the potential to be another tremendous feel-good story for the second half of the year.
But first, the reality check:
With the loss and a win for the Edmonton Oilers last night, the Canucks have now dropped to 14th place in the Western Conference, only ahead of the Arizona Coyotes. They're 27th overall in the now-31-team league, so a bottom-five finish is once again very much within reach.
Vancouver's 2-7-1 record in its last 10 games is tied with Arizona for the worst in the league over that stretch. The Canucks head into the Christmas break ranked 29th in goals per game (2.65), 27th in goals against (3.22), 26th on the penalty kill (77.3 percent)—and ninth (!) on the power play (21.9 percent).
It has also been announced that Alex Burmistrov has played his last game as a Vancouver Canuck. Officially, he's retiring from the NHL.
Burmistrov's Canucks tenure ends with two goals and four assists in 24 games. He was a minus-five, averaging 11:59 of ice time, and was healthy-scratched for the 13th time this season on Saturday.
By leaving the NHL now, the 26-year-old might be putting himself in position to be an "Olympic Athlete From Russia" in PyeongChang in February. He has never played on a Russian Olympic team.
This is Burmistrov's second departure from the NHL. Originally drafted eighth overall by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010, he left the Winnipeg Jets after the 2012-13 season and spent two years in the KHL before returning for the 2015-16 season.
Burmistrov didn't find a home in Travis Green's system and could have been destined for the waiver wire if the team's forward group ever starts getting healthier, so it's not hard to understand the timing of his decision.
I wasn't expecting big personnel news today but with that, I think we're caught up on all the status of the Canucks at Christmas.
I am going to duck out for a little R&R over the next couple of days, but will be back soon to check in on World Juniors and set up the last three games of the holiday homestand, which continues with a visit from the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.
Thanks for reading, commenting and hanging out for another year. I'm so appreciative of all the comments and feedback—on topic or otherwise.
However you celebrate, have an excellent holiday. Hope Santa is good to you!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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