Tuesday February 4 - Vancouver Canucks vs. San Jose Sharks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 46-23-3, 75 points, second in Pacific Division
San Jose Sharks: 31-25-8, 70 points, fifth in Pacific Division
Gone but not forgotten, Roberto Luongo did an excellent job of summing up the shift in the Vancouver trade deadline experience:
After the emotion of "My contract sucks" in 2013 and the drama of Luo's trade and the unconsummated Kesler trade last year, yesterday's deadline was practically zen by comparison.
After preparing us for a quiet deadline, Jim Benning and his team made two deals. The Canucks aquired 25-year-old forward Cory Conacher from the New York Islanders in exchange for minor-leaguer Dustin Jeffrey and 22-year-old winger Sven Baertschi from the Calgary Flames in exchange for a second-round draft pick in the upcoming 2015 draft.
Both players are being assigned directly to Utica and are not expected to see action in Vancouver this season.
The deals fit my expectations that Benning would be most likely to tweak within the system, and the players are exactly what he said he was looking for, 22 to 26-year-olds with (hopefully) upside.
Both Conacher and Baertschi have had brief snapshots of success at the NHL level, which leaves us to wonder whether they can recapture those moments or if their best hockey days are already behind them.
Baertschi is the more tantalizing prospects. At 5'11" and 190 pounds, the Swiss native was drafted 13th overall by Calgary in 2011. As an emergency injury recall from the Portland Winter Hawks, Baertschi scored three goals in a five-game callup in March of 2012, leading Flames fans and management to believe that they'd drafted the next big thing.
But Baertschi never quite lived up to that early billing. He spent the next three seasons shuffling back and forth between the Flames and the Abbotsford Heat, maxing out at 26 games and 11 points with the Flames last season.
The relationship between Baertschi and the team soured as time passed, and had reached its endpoint when yesterday's deal was made:
If Baertschi lives up to his early potential, he could turn out to be something special. Here's how
The Hockey News describes him in their scouting report:
Possesses amazing puck skills and offensive instincts. Works extremely hard at his game, and he's also not afraid of playing in high-traffic areas. Is equally successful at playmaking and sniping.
As for Cory Conacher, he's undersized at 5'8" and 182 pounds, which probably explains why he went undrafted. After a college career, Conacher worked his way up from the ECHL to the Rochester Americans of the AHL in 2010-11, which earned him a training camp invitation from the Tampa Bay Lighting.
The Lightning signed him to a free-agent contract one year later, and he started his NHL career with a bang coming out of the lockout, putting up 12 points, including two game-winning goals, in his first seven NHL games.
But Conacher hasn't been able to duplicate that production since that strong start. After just over two months in Tampa Bay, he was dealt to the Ottawa Senators at the 2013 trade deadline in exchange for Ben Bishop and since then, has been acquired for free by two other teams.
Buffalo picked him up on waivers at the 2014 trade deadline, then he was signed as an unrestricted free agent by the New York Islanders last summer. He started the season playing with John Tavares, but managed just three points in 15 games on Long Island before being sent down to the minors.
Benning talked yesterday about how he hopes both players will boost the Utica Comets' chances of success in this year's AHL playoffs, and that he wants the young players in the system to develop in a winning environment. That's a pretty exciting shift in the environment of the Canucks organization. Ownership has done a great job of maximizing the benefits they sought when the decided to buy their own minor-league franchise less than two years ago.
As the other teams out west have begun shifting their affiliates into markets a little closer to home, I expect we will eventually see the Comets move to a more convenient market once their current agreement is complete.
What the Canucks didn't do on Monday was move out any of their established players, including their impending free agents. Benning admitted that he took some calls on Zack Kassian, who seems glad to be staying.
Based on this tweet, it doesn't sound like he's going to go back to mailing in his performances now that he knows he's safe:
Even with Ryan Miller's injury, I guess cucumber-cool Eddie Lack was sweating a bit as well:
There's an argument to be made that the rebuilding Canucks could have benefited from shipping out some bodies in exchange for draft picks, especially now that they've dealt both their second (for Baertschi) and third (part of the Kesler deal) in 2015. But the playoffs are on the radar, and I can understand Benning's desire to keep his group together—especially the way they've been performing lately.
So, let's make this today's poll question. New polling software means you can make multiple selections if you choose!
online survey
With that out of the way, a quick look at tonight's game.
The Canucks are holding an optional, but well-attended, practice this morning:
After a complicated day of transactions on Monday, it looks like the change on defense tonight will be Frank Corrado slotting in for Alex Biega.
Alex Edler has taken full practice for the last two days but still isn't quite ready to go. Chris Tanev has missed practice for the last two days after skating on Sunday. And Kevin Bieksa "won't be around for at least another week"
according to Willie today.
One other (BIG) lineup change:
Looking forward to seeing what the big guy can do tonight in his first NHL start of the season.
As for the Sharks, I expected they might make some big moves on Monday as their playoff hopes have slipped away. Silly me—they're the Sharks. They made a bunch of trades, but only shipped out lower-level players like Andrew Desjardins, Tyler Kennedy and James Sheppard, while acquiring fourth-liner Ben Smith from Chicago and some draft picks.
But go figure. Maybe the tension was lifted after the deadline, because the Sharks went ahead and shut out the high-powered Montreal Canadiens 4-0 on Monday night—their first home win in eight games. With Alex Stalock in net.
So, the Sharks are on a back-to-back, but they might have found their mojo again. They certainly looked strong when they rolled into Rogers Arena four weeks ago and laid down a 5-1 licking on the home team.
Not sure we can expect a game with as much pure entertainment value as we saw on Sunday, but who knows what this team will throw at us tonight?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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