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Jake Virtanen assigned to AHL as Vancouver Canucks end road trip in Detroit
November 10, 2016, 2:28 PM ET [360 Comments]
Carol Schram
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Thursday November 10 - Vancouver Canucks at Detroit Red Wings - 4:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Vancouver

Vancouver Canucks: 14 GP, 5-8-1, 11 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Detroit Red Wings: 14 GP, 7-6-1, 15 pts, fourth in Atlantic Division

The Vancouver Canucks wrap up their longest road trip of the year on Thursday with their last-ever regular-season visit to Joe Louis Arena to take on the Detroit Red Wings.




Construction on the new downtown Little Caeasars Arena is well underway.




The Joe, which first opened in 1979, will be mothballed next season.

As crazy as it sounds, the Canucks' home is now one of the older arenas in the league. What was then GM Place and is now Rogers Arena opened in 1995, the same year as TD Garden in Boston. Once the Joe closes, Madison Square Garden and the Saddledome in Calgary will be the only arenas in the league built before 1990. The others that predate the Canucks' home are the Honda Center in Anaheim and SAP Center in San Jose (1993) and the United Center in Chicago and Scottrade Center in St. Louis (1994).

To put that another way: Jaromir Jagr has been around the NHL longer than 27 of the league's 30 buildings!

The Canucks are expected to stick with the winning lineup that earned them two points against the New York Rangers on Tuesday‚ with the exception of Ryan Miller, who will get the start as usual back in his home state of Michigan.




Jimmy Howard may now technically be the Red Wings' backup, but he has been stellar in the early going this season. Howard has allowed just seven goals in his six appearances so far this season, so he's tops in the league among goalies with at least four games with a 1.26 goals-against average. He also leads the NHL with a .958 save percentage—a few ticks above Carey Price's .953.

Howard's record is part of the reason why the Red Wings are off to a stronger-than-expected start, but it's not just him. Henrik Zetterberg is back in good health, Mike Green is off to a strong start on the blue line, and Thomas Vanek was looking great in a Detroit uniform, with eight points in seven games before he suffered a muscle strain in his hip. He is skating but is on long-term injured reserve and won't get back into action until late November at the earliest.

The good news for the Canucks is that their players have had some success at the Joe over the years.




No problems with divided loyalties for Ryan Miller's parents tonight. His brother Drew is scratched from the Red Wings' lineup for the second straight game.




Like the Canucks, the Wings are coming off an emotional win on Tuesday night. Their 3-2 shootout victory over Philadelphia marked the first time that Detroit has won a game at the Wells Fargo Center since the second game of the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs.

The big news in Canuck-land over the past 24 hours was Wednesday's announcement that Jake Virtanen has been assigned to the Utica Comets after being a healthy scratch for two games.

The original word was that Virtanen was expected to play the Comets' weekend games against Lehigh Valley and Hartford—the beginning of a six-game homestand. Today, Trevor Linden is leaving the door open for a longer stay.




It's Virtanen's third career appearance in a Comets uniform. He appeared in 10 playoff games during the Comets' run to the Calder Cup Final after his junior season ended in 2014-15, then logged a two-game conditioning stint last December as he recovered from an upper-body injury and prepared to join Team Canada at the World Junior Championship.

Virtanen is saying all the right things about his demotion.




Let's see if he can back it up on the ice tomorrow.




From the Comets' point of view, they'll be hoping Virtanen can replace some of the offense they lost when the Canucks recalled Michael Chaput. He has yet to get on the scoresheet with Vancouver, but was Utica's leading scorer with 13 points in 10 games.

Chaput's expected to stay with Vancouver for awhile. The news on Jannik Hansen's injury is not good.




Nothing new at this point on Chris Tanev, who has also been back in Vancouver rehabbing this week.

Don't forget, you'll find tonight's game on the Sportsnet Vancouver specialty channel. Enjoy!
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