|
Markus Granlund shut down for wrist surgery as Canucks head east to Chicago |
|
|
|
|
|
The Vancouver Canucks flew home after their shutout loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night, allowing the players an extra day to spend with their families on Sunday and giving the organization a bit more time to sort through the current state of the roster. The team heads out to play four road games against Central Division teams this week.
The group convened at Rogers Arena on Monday morning before flying out, where it was announced that Markus Granlund has been shut down for the rest of the year. He'll undergo wrist surgery immediately.
The Canucks are still not quite mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but for all practical purposes, they certainly are—they're now 16 points out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference, with 11 games left on the schedule.
Granlund has done a great job of playing through his issue this year. In his first full NHL season, the 23-year-old scored a career-high 19 goals, second-best on this year's Canucks, and saw his shooting percentage rise from 10.7 percent with Calgary and Vancouver in 2015-16 to 15.3 percent this year.
Granlund has gotten better as the year has gone on. Since January 1, he has scored 12 of the Canucks' 67 goals—that's 18 percent of the team's offense and tops on the team, and he missed two games along the way, one with the mumps and one with food poisoning. His shooting percentage in 2017 has been 20.7 percent.
Though he didn't score in Edmonton on Saturday, Granlund finishes out his year on a relatively high note, delivering seven shots on goal while playing on a line with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi.
Granlund's absence will open up some ice time for other players as the Canucks continue their audition season to close out the year.
Don't pencil Nikolay Goldobin into the top six just yet...
Sounds like Jack Skille will be first in line to get back into the lineup.
Here's more on how the roster is being deployed today.
Abbott also mentions that Willie is trying out Nikita Tryamkin as a net-front presence on the power play. Can't wait to see that!
Here's the latest on the rest of the missing players.
More food poisoning. Seriously??
The Canucks will start their road trip on Tuesday against a Chicago Blackhawks team that is rounding into postseason form. The Hawks are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games and are currently riding a five-game winning streak, which has taken them past the slumping Minnesota Wild and into top spot in the Western Conference.
Patrick Kane, in particular, has caught fire in those past 10 games, with eight goals and 14 points. Last year's Art Ross Trophy winner is now right back in the mix, tied for third place with Brad Marchand and just one point back of current co-leaders Crosby and McDavid.
Tuesday will mark the final meeting of the year between the Canucks and Blackhawks. Chicago came back from a 3-0 deficit to earn a 4-3 overtime win at Rogers Arena back in November, then Jonathan Toews put together a four-point night when the Blackhawks beat the Canucks 4-2 at United Center in January.
Chicago may be without Marian Hossa and Artem Anisimov on Tuesday. Both are currently listed as day-to-day with recent lower-body injuries.
A couple of other notes to wrap up today.
First, here's a look at the tough assignment that Brock Boeser's North Dakota Fighting Hawks face in their first NCAA tournament game on Friday.
Also, the OHL regular season has now drawn to a close. Olli Juolevi finished out his year with 10 goals and 42 points in 58 games; last year he had nine goals and 42 points in 57 games. Consistent!
Juolevi's London Knights finished fourth in the OHL's Western Conference with a record of 46-15-3-4, so they'll have home-ice advantage when their first-round playoff series begins on Friday against the Mikhail Sergachev and the Windsor Spitfires.
Finally, a programming note. I'm going to be away from the computer on Tuesday, so this blog will have to serve as your scene-set for the Blackhawks game. I'll be back Wednesday to recap, but that blog might be up a little later in the day than usual.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»