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It's 90s night as Canucks host Rangers; Podkolzin on to WJC gold-medal game |
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Saturday January 4 - Vancouver Canucks vs. New York Rangers - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 41 GP, 22-15-4, 48 pts, third in Pacific Division
New York Rangers: 40 GP, 19-17-4, 42 pts, seventh in Metropolitan Division
Saturday is '90s night at Rogers Arena as the Vancouver Canucks host their foes from the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, the New York Rangers.
The black skate jersey will make another appearance, and a number of 90s alumni will be on hand to take part in the celebrations. Not Trevor Linden, though...
'90s legends Kirk McLean and Greg Adams are scheduled to join Scott Oake on After Hours, along with new Rangers president John Davidson — the former goaltender who was working as the team's colour commentator during the '94 Cup run, before becoming a league exec.
Not surprisingly, the streaking Canucks are keeping their lineup the same on Saturday night.
One other Canucks note — though Vegas coach Gerard Gallant narrowly beat out Travis Green for the right to coach the Pacific Division in the All-Star Game, 35-year-old Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who carries a very heavy workload, has decided to take a pass on playing in the game in St. Louis.
That's great news for Vancouver fans. Jacob Markstrom has been selected as Fleury's replacement.
With the Canucks' schedule a little lighter in January, hopefully an All-Star appearance won't be too taxing for Markstrom, who has been carrying a pretty heavy load himself. Don't forget, the skills competition and the 3-on-3 tournament format can be pretty intense for netminders. But with the Canucks' bye week tacked on ahead of the All-Star Break, Markstrom will get five full days off between January 19-23 before he suits up for the Skills Competition on Friday, January 24 and the game itself on the 25th.
With the Seattle expansion draft on the horizon, there has been lots of talk about how the Canucks shouldn't have both Markstrom and Thatcher Demko on their roster in June of 2021. I'm not so sure.
More and more, it's becoming clear that Markstrom is the backbone of this edition of the Canucks. He's a massive part of the team's current rise, and there's no doubt that his teammates play hard for him — and that he's a leader in the locker room.
That's no slight against Thatcher Demko, who is developing nicely but doesn't look like he's imminently ready to take on a starter's role.
As far as the expansion draft goes — like every other team (except Vegas), Vancouver is going to lose one player. But there's certainly no guarantee that it'd be a goalie, even if Markstrom is re-signed. With more and more teams utilizing a more balanced approach in net, there will probably be plenty of 1A/1B options for Seattle to choose from — and they're probably not going to want more than two netminders with NHL experience.
Pairings could change by the end of next season, but if the draft was held today I'm sure that in addition to Markstrom and Demko, Seattle would take a long look at whichever netminder is available out of Jake Allen or Jordan Binnington in St. Louis, Ben Bishop or Anton Khudobin in Dallas, Tuukka Rask or Jaroslav Halak in Boston, Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry in Pittsburgh or Darcy Kuemper or Antti Raanta in Arizona, just to name a few other options.
Jim Benning has repeatedly stated that he wants to re-sign Markstrom, who can test unrestricted free agency this summer. If the Canucks can make the money work, I expect we'll see Markstrom and Demko back with the team again next season.
As for the Rangers, they started off their Canadian road trip with a 5-4 overtime win over the Leafs in Toronto before taking two losses in Alberta. In Edmonton on New Year's Eve, they came thisclose to pulling off the comeback of the century, spotting the Oilers a 6-0 lead before fighting all the way back to 6-5 — then giving up an empty-netter to fall just short.
On Thursday in Calgary, they only fell behind 2-0 before battling back to tie. In the second period, Kaapo Kakko picked up his seventh goal of the year to even the game at 3-3 before Sean Monahan tallied what proved to be the game winner about three minutes later.
The Rangers' identity is a bit hard to pin down this season. They've got plenty of youngsters in the mix with their rebuild in full swing, but they also acquired the league's hottest UFA in Artemi Panarin last summer and he has delivered as advertised — currently tied for sixth in league scoring with 22 goals and 55 points in 40 games and on pace to easily pass his previous career high of 87 points, set last season in Columbus.
Like Patrick Kane, he's another smaller forward who's remarkably durable. In his four and a half NHL seasons, he has missed just six games.
Ryan Strome has also been terrific for the Blueshirts ever since he was acquired from Edmonton in exchange for Ryan Spooner last November. Strome had just two points in 18 games in Edmonton before he was traded last season. He finished the year with 33 points in 63 games with the Rangers and has improved on that with 37 points in 40 games so far this season — on a 70-point pace that would easily beat his previous high of 50 points when he was with the Islanders in 2014-15.
Averaging 3.30 goals per game, the Rangers sit 11th overall in the NHL, just behind the Canucks who sit ninth at 3.32. New York gets a ton of scoring from its back end. Tony DeAngelo, Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba all have more than 20 points, and Brady Skjei is not far behind with 17.
After Quinn Hughes (29 points) and Alex Edler (20 points), the Canucks' third-most productive defenseman is Tyler Myers, at 13 points.
However, with all that offense comes some pretty loose defense. The Rangers are tied with Florida for third worst in goals against, at 3.35 per game. While 37-year-old Henrik Lundqvist is sharing more of the workload than usual with strong up-and-comer Alexandar Georgiev, an undrafted 23-year-old out of Bulgaria, Lundqvist's .910 save percentage is still respectable and a little better than last season, but his 3.10 GAA continues a trend in the wrong direction that began all the way back in 2015-16.
Only Chicago gives up more shots per game than the Rangers this season. I wonder if there's another high-scoring barn burner in the cards on Saturday night?
(And by the way, even though Robin Lehner toughed it out till the end of the game against the Canucks on Thursday, he is now officially sidelined with a knee injury. I wonder how much that impacted him in the late stages against Vancouver?)
Finally...World Juniors...
I woke up in time to discover that our boy Nils Hoglander had been ejected from Sweden's semi-final against Russia early in the first period after taking a five-minute major for a check to the head of Russian captain Grigori Denisenko.
Though Denisenko didn't leave the bench and did get back onto the ice during the ensuing five-minute Russian power play, there isn't much doubt that Hoglander caught him up high.
Disappointing for Canucks fans — and for Team Sweden, which lost its most consistent offensive threat. Before he was ejected, Hoglander went to the net and may have provided a bit of a screen on Russian netminder Yaroslav Askarov when a Rasmus Sandin point shot gave the Swedes a 1-0 lead just 16 seconds into the first period.
The score was already 1-1 when Hoglander was ejected, after Vasily Podkolzin made a nice feed from behind the net to set up Ivan Morozov.
After Russia built a 3-1 lead, the Swedes were able to regroup and come all the way back to take a 4-3 lead thanks to a four-point game from Sandin. But the Russians tied the game midway through the third — and Podkolzin and Morozov combined again in overtime, capitalizing on a slow Swedish change during 3-on-3 play to advance to the gold-medal game.
It looks like Russia will be facing a Canadian team that showed zero interest in letting the Finns establish their usual stifling style and stay close enough to steal a win. After beating the Czechs 7-2 and eliminating Slovakia by a 6-1 score in the quarterfinal, the Canadians came out strong against the Finns, scoring three goals in the first 3:55 on their way to establishing a 5-0 lead after two periods in Ostrava as I type this.
Kudos to Dale Hunter and the Canadians for finding a way to overcome early adversity in the tournament — and to get an early leg up on the Finns. Nice response after Finland stunned Canada on home ice in the quarterfinal of last year's tournament.
Even as the World Junior games continue, a busy NHL schedule is already underway. Of interest to Canucks fans — the Oilers and Bruins are tied 1-1 in the second period, on Sportsnet. At 1 p.m. PT, Vegas takes on St. Louis — also on Sportsnet — and the Coyotes host the Flyers at 5 p.m. PT before the Canucks wrap up the day's schedule.
Enjoy the games!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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