For the second straight day, the Vancouver Canucks will be off the ice. They'll make their annual visit to B.C. Children's Hospital this afternoon, then practice on Friday morning at 11 a.m. at Rogers Arena, ahead of their Saturday night contest with Alain Vigneault and the New York Rangers.
Plenty of time to set up that tilt over the next two days. And we'll have time to do some analysis and try to break down this team's strengths and weaknesses so far this season over the next couple of weeks.
To start today, let's get your grade of this year's Canucks so far:
Through 29 games—11 at home and 18 on the road—the Canucks are 18-9-2 for 38 points, good for second place in the Pacific Division. At this juncture last year the Canucks had just won their fifth straight game to climb to 18-10-5—but were still fifth in the Pacific.
The Anaheim Ducks continue to roll along—Ryan Kesler had the game-winner last night, his 10th of the season, as the Ducks beat Edmonton 2-1 to increase their lead at the top of the league standings. But the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Arizona Coyotes have all taken a bit of a step backwards in the early going this season.
Though the offense sputtered towards the end of the road trip, the Canucks remain eighth in the league in goals per game, now at 2.97. However, they've now dropped to 20th with 2.76 goals against per game. Is that the price we pay for a more wide-open, entertaining style of play, or is it a sign that the defense and goaltending aren't as good as they need to be?
Last season, the lowest-ranked defensive team to make the playoffs was the Philadelphia Flyers—who finished 20th with 2.77 goals-against per game. That's not a real encouraging comparison. For the record, last season Vancouver finished 14th at 2.63 goals against but was ranked 28th offensively.
No complaints about the penalty kill, which is ranked sixth overall at 86.1 percent. That's good stuff.
The Canucks' power play is still hanging in the middle of the pack—ranked 16th at 18.3 percent—but has dried right up in recent weeks. In the last 15 games (yes, more than half the season so far), the Canucks have scored power-play goals in just three of them: two against Edmonton on November 19, one in the loss to Detroit on November 30 and three in the win over Washington on December 2.
All told, the Canucks are 6-for-44 through that stretch. They're averaging about three opportunities a game, which seems reasonable, but now converting at a rate of just 13.6 percent. That's actually lower than last season, when they finished at 15.2 percent efficiency.
So—time to change things up!
The only Canucks who are making it work with the man advantage are the top line. The twins have 11 points each and Radim Vrbata has 10. After that, Linden Vey and Alex Edler are our next best power-play guy with four points each, then there are a smattering of guys with a single point (mostly defensemen): Burrows, Tanev, Weber, Hamhuis and Bieksa. That's it.
When he's healthy enough to get back into the lineup, I wouldn't mind seeing big Shawn Matthias moved into Vey's spot as that extra forward on the first unit. He has done a terrific job of driving the net in recent weeks and seems like he could be a good option to put up that big screen in front of the goaltender.
As for the second group—something's gotta give.
Looking at the NHL's
time on ice chart, beyond the second line group of Bonino, Burrows and Higgins, the other forwards who have seen time with the man advantage have been Zack Kassian and Jannik Hansen, who also haven't produced at all.
Could one or two heart-and-soul guys like Horvat, Dorsett or Richardson work with the second-liners to amp up the hunger factor? Does Burrows get the nod to stay on the unit because he has one point compared to Higgins' and Bonino's goose eggs?
If I was the coach, I'd be experimenting with some new looks during my practice time over the next week.
Bad Luck Ballard
As much as anything, a string of injuries and bad luck plagued Keith Ballard's three seasons here with the Vancouver Canucks. It's hard to believe he'd played all 82 games in four of his five years before coming to Vancouver: the most he ever managed with the Canucks was 65 games in 2010-11, and his injury woes have continued since he joined the Minnesota Wild after his compliance buyout.
Last season, Ballard played 45 games. This year, he had one of the early cases of the mumps.
Then, he was hospitalized on Tuesday night after taking a scary hit along the boards from the New York Islanders' Matt Martin. It's pretty gruesome, so I won't link to it here, but I'm sure you can find the video with a simple Google search.
Ballard was eventually able to leave the ice under his own power and was released from hospital on Wednesday. He has been diagnosed with facial cuts and a concussion and is now out of action indefinitely.
The guy can't catch a break. Here's wishing Ballard a speedy recovery.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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