Sunday February 27 - Vancouver Canucks at New York Rangers - 4:30 p.m. PT
Armed with the knowledge that they can beat anyone after their 7-1 beatdown of the Calgary Flames on Thursday night, the Vancouver Canucks have hit the road for four games over the next week.
The trip kicks off at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, where the New York Rangers will be finishing off a three-in-four set. On Thursday, they easily bested Washington by a 4-1 score. Saturday, they're playing in Pittsburgh at noon PT.
One important detail: Vezina frontrunner Igor Shesterkin is expected to start against the Penguins, and Rangers coach Gerard Gallant has said that he'll split his goalie duties this weekend. That means the Canucks *should* draw Alexandar Georgiev, who basically hasn't played in a month.
Georgiev saw 41 seconds of action on Feb. 15, when Shesterkin was briefly pulled into concussion protocol. Before that, he'd lost his previous three starts — giving up two goals to the Los Angeles Kings, six to the Carolina Hurricanes and four to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Canucks got the better of Shesterkin when they came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Rangers 3-2 in overtime at Rogers Arena on Nov. 2. J.T. Miller was a huge part of that comeback, scoring Vancouver's first goal early in the third period and adding the overtime winner.
I wonder if that was the night that the Blueshirts' braintrust started thinking about whether Miller could be re-acquired?
As much as Miller's name is still headlining a lot of the chatter leading up to the trade deadline, it's interesting that more people have been suggesting that maybe he is a piece that this new Canucks regime should try to build around, going forward.
Now at 20 goals and 57 points in 51 games, Miller sits 10th in the NHL scoring race. And only one player above him has a lower cap hit — Nazem Kadri, who's on a tear himself this year with 66 points, in the final year of a deal that carries a cap hit of $4.5 million.
Jonathan Huberdeau is providing phenomenally good value, too. With his Florida Panthers currently battling the Edmonton Oilers as I type this, Huberdeau was leading the scoring race coming into Saturday's games, with a one-point lead over Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at 74 points. Huberdeau is 28, drafted 12 spots ahead of Miller in 2011, and also has one year left on his deal, which carries a cap hit of $5.9 million.
There has been lots of talk about how much Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser have improved since Bruce Boudreau arrived in early December. That's true, especially compared to how they'd been doing under Travis Green. But no skater has been better than Miller. In 26 games since Boudreau arrived, Miller has 12 goals, including four game winners, and 36 points, for 1.31 points per game.
Jim Benning gave up a first, a third and depth goalie Marek Mazanec when he acquired Miller at the 2019 draft. Do you think Patrik Allvin could command an equivalent package if he did decide to let go of Miller? And would that be enough to justify a trade?
A couple of other quick notes on Thursday's game:
• Full credit to Bruce Boudreau for pushing the right buttons while preparing his group to play against the hottest team in the league. I think his strategy of putting the club through a physical practice on Wednesday, to get the juices flowing, worked brilliantly.
Eight hits for Luke Schenn is just a regular night at the office. It's the third time he has hit that number this season — his high was 12, against Chicago on Jan. 31.
But five hits for Bo Horvat jumped out at me. And checking the
NHL stats, that is indeed a season high for the captain.
Did that physicality help cause the Flames to come unglued? The penalty list is pretty amazing — just one minor against the Canucks, compared to nine penalties for 34 total minutes against Calgary. And Vancouver made them pay, going 3-for-7 on the power play and killing off that third-period holding call against Travis Hamonic, with the score already 6-0.
• In addition to the strong special-teams play, I really liked seeing the Canucks' stars lead the charge against the Flames. Four points for Miller, three for Pettersson, a pair of goals for Horvat, two assists each for Boeser and Hughes — and Demko with an outstanding performance in net, including that crazy windmill save in the first period, after he lost his stick, with the game still scoreless.
• The Canucks did lose Jason Dickinson to injury on Thursday night, after he crashed hard into the end boards. He was placed on the injured list on Friday, and Phil Di Giuseppe was recalled from Abbotsford. It's the second call-up of the year for the 28-year-old former Ranger, who did not get into any games during his six-game stint with the Canucks through December and January.
Di Giuseppe has been producing at nearly a point-a-game pace in Abbotsford this season, fourth in team scoring with 11 goals and 32 points in 35 games.
On Saturday, the Canucks also moved Kyle Burroughs onto injured reserve. He was injured early in that loss to Anaheim last week, and is now considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury. And Tucker Poolman has been moved to long-term injured reserve. He has been out since Jan. 27 with what's listed as migraine headaches — always a worrisome diagnosis.
As I wish Poolman all the best in his recovery, his status does provide the Canucks with a little bit of additional salary-cap relief.
Micheal Ferland, Brandon Sutter and Brady Keeper are also on LTIR.
Thursday's win moved the Canucks within three points of the second wild-card spot in the West — although the Oilers just defeated the Panthers to move five up, with 61 points, in sole possession of the second wild-card spot.
Going into Saturday's games, the Oilers were tied in points with ninth-place Dallas and 10th place Anaheim — three teams that are shuffling daily based on tiebreaker rules.
All three play Sunday. Edmonton's in Carolina while Dallas hosts Buffalo and Anaheim is at home to the Islanders.
Also worth noting — with their fourth-straight win on Friday night, Los Angeles has moved ahead of Vegas, into second place in the West. And the Golden Knights are now only one point clear of the Oilers.
With Robin Lehner and Mark Stone injured, Vegas has gone 1-3-1 in its last five games. That group is talking about winning Stanley Cups: they're at risk of getting bumped out of the playoffs...
There's tons of volatility in the standings, which I love. And don't let the weather fool you — we're not as close to the end of the season as you might think.
The Canucks' regular-season schedule doesn't wrap up until April 29. Two full months to go!
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