Monday January 31 - Vancouver Canucks at Chicago Blackhawks - 4:30 p.m. PT
Tuesday February 1 - Vancouver Canucks at Nashville Predators - 5 p.m. PT
The Vancouver Canucks will head into All-Star Weekend with a pair of back-to-back road games on Monday and Tuesday. Then, they'll get a week off while Thatcher Demko heads to Vegas, and return to action for a three-game set at Rogers Arena — rescheduled games against the Coyotes, Islanders and the big Saturday showdown against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This week's games in Chicago and Nashville are important, as the Canucks lost a little bit of ground in the standings over the weekend. They did pick up a point for their overtime loss in Calgary — a frustrating game that will be remembered for Tyler Myers' first-period match penalty and J.T. Miller's non-existent backchecking on what proved to be Johnny Gaudreau's winning goal.
If you want to look at the glass-half-full point of view, it's kind of impressive that they got a point — and didn't give up a goal in regulation — while playing most of the game with only Luke Schenn and Noah Juulsen holding down the right side of the defense. And since Myers did not receive any supplemental discipline for his hit on Trevor Lewis, he should be well rested for the back-to-back set, where he'll be needed.
Monday's opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks, has been playing better of late, and currently sits just five points behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings. Results-wise, though, they've cooled off after a four-game winning streak in early January. They're just 1-3-2 in their last six games, and dropped a 6-4 decision to Colorado on Saturday night.
Marc-Andre Fleury started 2022 on the Covid protocol list. Since getting back into action, he has played 11 of Chicago's last 12 games, and is expected to start against Vancouver. Backup Kevin Lankinen is currently sidelined with a hand injury, but Fleury's heavy workload has led to some diminishing returns. He has allowed four goals or more in three of his last four starts.
Among their skaters, the Blackhawks are also dealing with a handful of other injuries — most notably, a concussion which has sidelined captain Jonathan Toews.
The Canucks and Blackhawks have already met twice this season. Vancouver skated out of the United Center with an easy 4-1 win in mid-October, then Fleury earned a 40-save shutout in a 1-0 win for Chicago at Rogers Arena in late November.
With the back-to-back set for Vancouver, Bruce Boudreau says he's tapping Jaroslav Halak to start against Chicago, marking his first game action since Dec. 30. That'll be game No. 9 for the 36-year-old, who will see a $1.25 million bonus kick in if he gets into 10 games this season. And while Halak's record for the year is a disappointing 1-4-2, his personal numbers are solid — a 2.59 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and 3.7 goals saved above expected,
according to MoneyPuck.
The Canucks also did a swap of their third goaltenders this weekend, returning Spencer Martin to Abbotsford while recalling Michael DiPietro to the taxi squad. And a reminder: the taxi squad is scheduled to be eliminated again when play resumes after All-Star Weekend, as it's assumed that the majority of the impact of this latest Covid surge will have passed by then.
After shooting blanks against the Flames on Saturday, hopefully the Canucks can deliver some run support for Halak in Chicago.
As for the Predators on Tuesday, this time the Canucks won't have the same schedule advantage as they did when they rolled into Music City two weeks ago, and skated out with a 3-1 win. That game, on Jan. 18, was actually the most recent loss for the Predators, who have gone 3-0-1 since. With Nashville's light schedule, backup goalie David Rittich has been stapled to the bench since taking the loss against Vancouver, and is expected to remain there. Juuse Saros, who's now up to a 23-11-3 record for the year, with a .927 save percentage and 19.1 goals saved above expected, should start for the Predators in their last game before the All-Star Break.
Colorado has now opened up a big lead at the top of the Central Division — and the Western Conference — with 67 points. Nashville is duking it out in the next tier. They're second in the Central as of Monday, with 58 points, but just one point ahead of Minnesota and St. Louis, both with 57. And the Wild hold five games in hand.
And to wrap up today — the big trade gossip from Saturday night.
New GM Patrik Allvin is officially with the team as of Monday, ready to get to work with his smartphone in hand.
During Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night, Elliotte Friedman led his '32 Thoughts' segment with talk about the Canucks' plans for player movement. He mentioned all the chatter surrounding J.T. Miller, said he believed the club has no interest in looking at moving Bo Horvat or Elias Pettersson, and then threw Conor Garland's name into the spotlight.
My first thought was that, seemingly for the first time in years, the Canucks organization is taking control of its narrative. That seemed like a report that came directly from the front office — whether it was Allvin or Jim Rutherford — and is designed to aim attention in certain directions.
They're not squelching the chatter around Miller's name. If anything, they may be leaving him in the mix, to see what kind of offers he might be able to draw from a playoff contender. And while I'm not sure this is anything more than connect-the-dots, it would be intriguing if the New York Rangers were interested in bringing back a player they drafted — although current GM Chris Drury was barely retired when Miller was selected in 2011, and still five years removed from starting his time in New York's front office.
I'm wondering...would new assistant GM Emilie Castonguay make a push to try to bring her old star client, Alexis Lafreniere, to Vancouver? And could the Rangers go for it? In my mind, it would be like the old-school Joe Nieuwendyk for Jarome Iginla trade between Dallas and Calgary back in 1995, where teams in different stages of their winning cycles swap players at different points in their careers. And it's win-win.
It's hard to believe that was nearly 30 years ago, and is still the first deal of that sort that comes to mind. Can you think of more recent trades that fit a similar pattern, or have salary-cap considerations all-but-done-away with these types of deals?
As for Garland — I like him, but the idea makes sense. Still just 25, his 24 points in 39 games have him tied with Elias Pettersson for third in Canucks scoring. And with four more years on a contract that carries a cap hit of $4.95 million and has no trade protection, he's a player who is reasonably paid for what he brings to the table, but isn't part of the Canucks' core — and could be blocking the progression of a fellow right-winger like Vasily Podkolzin, or those unnamed (and inexpensive) European and NCAA free agents that Allvin and his crew are intending to unearth at season's end.
As far as making a move to create cap space without putting a major dent in the roster, I think the idea of moving Garland makes some sense.
Now that the word is out, let's see what kind of interest he attracts. I'd bet there are some Eastern Conference teams who will be very interested.
Enjoy the games!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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