Can the Vancouver Canucks dodge the injury demon, steer clear of Covid and get the better of the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, before they slide into a week of rest?
Monday's 4-0 loss to Winnipeg had all the earmarks of one of those 'back from the road' games that have dogged the Canucks for years.
Not only were they freshly back in B.C. after a 4-in-6 road trip that stretched to the other end of Canada, the Canucks also went beyond 60 minutes in all four of those games. In Saturday's game against Montreal, they showed signs that they were faltering — outshot 40-18 in the game and, for the first time all week, unable to conjure up the magic they needed to get the win and that crucial second point.
Then, it was onto the charter, back home on a rainy Sunday to re-acclimate with family, and straight back to business on Monday night.
All things considered, they hung in pretty well until Bo Horvat was injured early in the third period — especially considering they were also missing Brandon Sutter, who was sidelined for the first time this year.
Shots were a fairly respectable 22-15 for the Jets through 40 minutes, and Winnipeg was only up 1-0, off a Blake Wheeler wrister midway through the first.
But after Horvat was forced to scramble back to the Vancouver bench when he was hobbled by an Alex Edler point shot, the team seemed to sag. Barely a minute passed before Adam Lowry beat a surprised Thatcher Demko for the first of his two third-period goals. After that, it was basically curtains.
Tuesday brought reasonably good news.
Sounds like Horvat's shot-blockers did their job, absorbing the impact of Edler's shot.
"Once swelling subsided and imaging did not reveal a fracture, it was because the captain’s shot-blocker absorbed the blow and the impact likely resulted in a bone bruise," wrote
Ben Kuzma of The Province.
Travis Green didn't go into detail about what's ailing Sutter, who did take Monday's morning skate.
Of course, Elias Pettersson is on the shelf until at least the end of the month, and Green also said that Jay Beagle won't be available on Wednesday, despite having skated in a non-contact jersey on Monday morning.
Horvat and Sutter do a lot of heavy lifting. Even under normal circumstances, losing both is a big deal. It'd be even worse if Vancouver went into Wednesday's game missing all four of the centres who started the season with the team.
In situations like these, Travis Green tends to keep his messaging relentlessly positive. He praised his players for their effort after Monday's game, and refuses to panic about the injuries.
"If you don’t have your top four centres playing, it would be a scenario I haven’t seen before, but we don’t have an issue," he said Tuesday.
"Gaudette has played a lot of centre, Miller is obviously fine, Graovac has played his whole life there and Michaelis is a natural centre."
A promising sign: both Horvat and Sutter are in their usual spots at Wednesday's morning skate:
Of course, Travis Boyd can also help down the middle — once he clears quarantine. He flew into Vancouver on Tuesday and was officially added to the NHL's Covid protocol list. He won't be able to hit the ice with his new teammates for seven days, so he won't be able to take advantage of any practice time or systems work that I expect the Canucks will focus on while they're idle.
And speaking of Covid, so far — knock on wood — the Canucks look like they dodged a bullet.
Following their two games at the Bell Centre on Thursday and Saturday, the Canadiens became the first team in the North Division to have games postponed due to virus protocols. Joel Armia and Jesperi Kotkaniemi were added to the NHL's Covid protocol list on Monday. They remained the only two Montreal players on the list on Tuesday, while the only name on Vancouver's list is Boyd.
As of Wednesday morning, all systems are go in Vancouver.
And speaking of Covid ... the Utica Comets didn't get away from their brush with the virus quite so easily.
The Canucks' AHL farm team hasn't played a game since March 10. They were 6-2-1 through their first nine games before their season was paused. On Wednesday, they'll miss their fifth scheduled game.
Details of what's happening and who is affected are scant. In broadstrokes, there were positive cases on the Rochester Americans, who the Comets played twice before they were shut down. There's now at least one positive case on the Comets. But some healthy players have been able to continue practicing.
Here are the details of what's known, from Patrick Johnston:
The next games on Utica's schedule are on the road this weekend: Saturday in Syracuse and Sunday in Rochester. The Americans have also been sidelined since March 10; the Crunch have been playing — except for a postponed game last weekend that would have been against the Comets.
Hopefully they'll get back in action and give us something to talk about while the Canucks are off for the next week.
In the meantime, we do have the KHL playoffs.
After eliminating Dinamo Minsk in first games in the first round, Vasily Podkolzin's SKA St. Petersburg is now in the midst of its conference semifinal against Dynamo Moscow.
Through three games, SKA has a 2-1 lead. Game 4 is in progress on Wednesday morning as I type this. Early in the second period, SKA has just gone up 1-0 on a power-play goal.
In eight playoff games so far, Podkolzin has three goals and one assist. He finished the regular season with five goals and 11 points in 35 KHL games, a small improvement from his eight points in 30 games in 2019-20.
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