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Canucks make lineup changes: Eriksson & Bailey draw in Saturday vs. Leafs |
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Can fresh legs lead to a better outcome for the Vancouver Canucks in Toronto on Saturday night?
It can't get much worse. In the first matchup of their three-game series on Thursday, Vancouver watched things get totally out of hand before the game was half over, as 37-year-old Jason Spezza recorded the eighth hat trick of his career to fuel a 7-3 win.
And it wasn't even because of the power play! Toronto was just 1-for-5 with the man advantage; the other six goals all came at even strength.
It wasn't easy to watch. Shots in the game were 37-19 for Toronto and the Leafs won 56 percent of the draws; Bo Horvat got crushed at 9-for-23 and Jay Beagle was 5-for-13, both under 40 percent.
Travis Green mixed up his top six on Thursday, with Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat swapping lines. They each finished at minus one — on the ice for two goals against, but with a point of their own. For Horvat, his goal was the first of his career in Toronto; according to John Shorthouse, Bo has now scored in every NHL rink.
Tyler Motte was one player who was hit hard defensively on Thursday. He finished at minus-three despite delivering a team-high six hits in the game, including one in the first period that knocked defenseman Travis Dermott out of action, forcing the Leafs to go with five D for most of the contest.
Jordie Benn was another — also minus three, and with nothing else on his stat line but the major penalty that he was assessed for fighting Wayne Simmonds in response to a hit on Quinn Hughes — a fight that even landed on TMZ because Benn ate so many punches. When it's bad, it's bad.
With rest at as much of a premium as practice time, the Canucks held an optional practice on Friday. After Saturday's morning skate, Travis Green said he'd be making some lineup changes.
Here's what we've got. Looks like Loui Eriksson and Justin Bailey will make their season debuts, while Jake Virtanen, Adam Gaudette and Zack MacEwen are all parked.
Also — no surprise — Green is going back to Braden Holtby in net.
Just an optional skate for the Leafs. Mikko Lehtonen will draw in on the blue line to replace the injured Dermott — the fifth career NHL game for the 27-year-old.
Lehtonen was signed by the Leafs as a free agent in May of 2020 — a year after he was part of the Finnish team that beat Canada for gold at the 2019 World Championship, with practically no NHLers. At the time, the best-known player on that Finnish team was Kaapo Kakko, who was still a month away from being drafted by the New York Rangers. But in addition to Lehtonen, we've now seen a few other players from that team cross over to North America, including Dallas Stars playoff hero Joel Kiviranta and, this season, goaltender Kevin Lankinen of the Chicago Blackhawks. In his first eight NHL games, 25-year-old Lankinen is 4-1-3 with a .928 save percentage and 2.32 goals-against average. Overall, the Blackhawks are 4-4-4, so I think they've found their new No. 1 guy.
Elsewhere in the Scotia North Division on Saturday, Montreal and Ottawa are tied 1-1 after two periods of their matinee as I type this. The Sens were being outshot 26-12 at the midpoint of the period but got to 26-21 by the end of the frame. Two days ago, they snapped their nine-game losing streak (including one OTL) with a 3-2 win over the Habs.
In the late game, we've got Round 1 of the Battle of Alberta — a one-off in Calgary.
On a more cheerful note, the AHL season got rolling on Friday, mostly. There were some Covid-related postponements around the league, but the new-look Utica Comets got off to a good start with a 3-2 road win over the Rochester Americans.
Here's how the lines rolled out:
Kole Lind continued to tease his improved play with a pair of goals for Utica, and Jonah Gadjovich also scored. Here are the goals:
And here's a quick-n-dirty postgame rundown.
The Comets move on to Syracuse to face the Crunch on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT. If the Canucks game gets too depressing, you can always flip over — AHL TV is on a free preview until Feb. 8.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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