Sunday February 22: Vancouver Canucks 4 - New York Islanders 0
A shutout win over the second highest-scoring team in the NHL seems like a bit of an afterthought on big-news Monday. Let's take a quick moment to savour the victory with Sunday's highlight package:
It could have been a different game result if Ryan Miller hadn't played so well in the first period. All told, the Canucks' No. 1 stopped 10 shots before leaving at the 1:11 mark of the middle frame. He was crashed into by teammate Jannik Hansen and appeared to catch his right leg on the back of the net.
Good on Miller, too, for staying with the play and making the save on none other than John Tavares before collapsing in pain and eventually being helped off the ice.
Not much is known yet on the severity of Miller's condition:
Ryan Miller will fly back to Vancouver today to get MRI and Canucks will have better idea of his injury after that
Jacob Markstrom has been recalled from Utica and will almost certainly see action this week, while Miller will miss out on his chance to appear before his old fans in Buffalo this Thursday.
For his part, Eddie Lack stepped in on Sunday and finished the job, keeping the Islanders off the scoresheet and allowing the Canucks to grab the two points they needed to hang onto second place in the Pacific Division, and to sweep the season series against one of the NHL's best teams this year.
Playing with the twins again—on the power play!—Zack Kassian netted another goal, which proved to be the game-winner, and Henrik Sedin tallied his fourth straight multi-point game—good enough to be named the NHL's second star of the week.
Miller's injury makes Jim Benning look like a genius for hanging on to all three of his goalies throughout this season. With just one week until the trade deadline it seems unlikely, now, that the team will have a spare netminder to move.
It'll also be interesting to see how Markstrom fares back at the NHL level. It's an understatement to say he has had an outstanding season in Utica with his 1.95 goals-against average and .937 save percentage with the Comets this season.
Markstrom did appear in four games down the stretch after he was acquired by the Canucks last season. His record was 1-2-0 with a 3.00 goals-against and .868 save percentage. We should see a very different goaltender this year.
Jim Benning didn't give a timetable on Miller's injury, but here's the early estimate from Dan Murphy:
#Canucks GM Jim Benning to address media at noon EST. Ryan Miller to undergo MRI in Vancouver later today. Hearing minimum 4-6 weeks.
Benning is traveling with the Canucks on this trip—as are Trevor Linden and Francesco Aquilini—so he held a quick media address this morning in Boston in an attempt to bring us all up to speed on the team's many personnel issues. Click here to listen to the raw audio.
The Canucks also returned Nicklas Jensen to the Comets after Sunday's game. He was shown chatting in the management box with Trevor Linden during the game, so at least he got some face time with the boss as payback for making the trip.
Benning said that he's looking for Nick Bonino to get back into the lineup soon, and Chris Tanev might also re-join the team before the end of the road trip. All is eerily quiet on the Alex Burrows front, though...
Finally, we do know that the Canucks organization has now severed ties with tough guy Tom Sestito. The team announced today that Sestito won't play again with either the Canucks or the Comets, but will continue to be paid by the team and work out on his own while the organization tries to move him.
I was thinking earlier this week about how he had become the forgotten man in the midst of all these injuries, and figured this meant his time with the Canucks had come to a close.
Twenty-seven-year-old Sestito is on a contract that pays him $850,000 this season, then will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Sestito had one goal and 20 penalty minutes in 10 games with the Comets—a conditioning assignment in November and a more permanent assignment on Jan. 3. He hasn't played since Jan. 31, according to the Canadian Press (via CBC).
Okay—have you got all that? With just a week till the trade deadline, the injury situation continues to cloud any impressions we might receive about the Canucks' intentions with respect to their roster for the rest of the season.
And here's a reasonably definitive word on Markstrom's waiver situation:
1) Note on Markstrom (VAN): because he is an emergency call-up, he can stay on roster longer than 30 days without needing waivers if he...
Here's how Pierre LeBrun explains it, over at ESPN:
It’s likely he wouldn’t play in 10 games, given that he’s coming up to back up Eddie Lack. So Utica of the AHL should be able to get its standout goalie back at some point before the end of the season without the threat of waivers.
However, should Miller be out for the long term and Markstrom does indeed play in 10 games, it just means the Canucks would keep Markstrom up for the rest of the season and playoffs.
That would be too bad for Utica, but there's no way the Canucks would ever expose Markstrom again after the wonderful year he’s had.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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