The Vancouver Canucks are back on the ice this morning, practicing at Rogers Arena before taking off for their Sunday afternoon game in Chicago.
The team remains shorthanded. In addition to the injured Dan Hamhuis, Derek Dorsett has also been off the ice for the past two days.
Here's why:
The Canucks will play the first of four games in six nights when they hit the ice in Chicago on Sunday. As things stand right now, the roster is stretched thin, with just six defensemen and 11 forwards if Dorsett's unavailable.
If call-ups are going to be made from Utica, it makes sense for those player(s) to fly straight to Chicago instead of coming all the way here to Vancouver. But the available choices are somewhat limited.
My dream of recalling Taylor Fedun to replace Dan Hamhuis was dashed on Friday.
It looks like Andrey Pedan's on his way back to sit in the press box.
Winger Hunter Shinkaruk has also been on the sidelines for a week or so, but is said to be day-to-day.
The Comets dropped a 2-0 decision to the Toronto Marlies, featuring a streaking Jonathan Bernier, on Friday night.
They'll play Toronto again on Sunday afternoon.
Same old story for Jake Virtanen:
Virtanen took a hard hit from the Marlies' Rich Clune during the game, but did return to action.
If Virtanen re-joins the Canucks next week, that'll fill the hole at forward—and might be necessary. But the possibility remains that he'll hook up with Team Canada and head to Finland for World Juniors.
As for Hamhuis, Willie Desjardins said on Friday that he'll be sidelined for at least two months.
Get well soon, Dan!
The Canucks continue to cling to second place in the Pacific Division standings for the moment with 30 points, but that could change today. The Coyotes and Oilers both won last night, so Arizona and San Jose now have 29 points, with games in hand on Vancouver, and Edmonton leapfrogged Anaheim with their fifth straight win in an 80s-throwback 7-5 win over the Rangers on Glen Sather night.
The Oilers are now up to 28 points—and Taylor Hall's four-point night moved him one point ahead of Daniel Sedin into fourth place in the NHL scoring race. Hall has nine points in his last four games and has scored the game-winner for the Oilers in their last three games. Wow. Imagine what this team will do when Connor McDavid comes back!
Tonight, the Sharks and Coyotes will both have a chance to pass the Canucks. San Jose's hosting Minnesota while Arizona hosts a Carolina Hurricanes team that beat Anaheim 5-1 with Eddie Lack in net on Friday night.
Other Canucks-adjacent news: the Pittsburgh Penguins have become the second team this season to fire their head coach. Former Canucks assistant coach Mike Johnston was shown the door after a 3-2 shootout loss on Friday night to a Los Angeles Kings team that has now won six straight games.
Johnston is being replaced by another former Canucks assistant, Mike Sullivan. Sully signed on at the beginning of the season to guide the Penguins' AHL farm team in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. At the time of Sullivan's promotion, his team has the best winning percentage in the AHL thanks to an 18-5-0 record.
Other than his six-game stint with the Canucks while Torts was serving his suspension in January of 2014, Sullivan hasn't been a head coach at the NHL level since he was let go by the Boston Bruins after three seasons at the end of the 2005-06 campaign.
We won't have to wait long to see Sullivan go head-to-head with his old partner in crime. The Penguins host the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 21—their last game before the Christmas break.
Finally today,
click here for the latest numbers from Rogers relating to their Canadian broadcast deal.
Overall, ratings still aren't what they hoped they'd see. Their most positive spin is an increase in the use of the GameCentre Live app.
The biggest drops in ratings are in Toronto—down nine percent—and in Vancouver, which is down 27 percent.
"The Leafs have had a bit of an upswing in the last month," said Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and Rogers NHL operations. "People are starting to see there's some discipline ... and that there's a plan that seems to be playing out. In Vancouver, which is a very fickle market at the best of times, and that team's performance has been concerning."
If I can offer Moore a little advice from here on the left coast, I'd suggest that Canucks fans are less-than-enchanted with your broadcast product. The two biggest complaints I keep hearing are about non-Canuck content during intermissions and the lack of a postgame show—with the most egregious example having been that daytime road game in Buffalo that cut to a Blue Jays season-in-review package seconds after the game was over.
Use your broadcast team to recap the game after it ends, talk about the three stars and do a quick player interview. Don't be so quick to throw back to mission control in Toronto. The Canucks may not be as hot a commodity as they were five years ago, but they're still an entertaining team that's fun to watch most nights. Make the viewers feel valued and you'll get the loyalty you're seeking.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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