The Vancouver Canucks took their weekly day off on Monday. With their next game on Thursday against Washington, they'll reconvene for practice on Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. out at UBC, as We Day takes over Rogers Arena on Wednesday.
When they hit the ice, we'll start to see whether Willie's going to continue tinkering with his lineup or if he'll stick with the combos that he used on Sunday against Edmonton.
I fall in the camp that believes he'll keep experimenting until Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann have completed their nine-game trials.
I don't know if the kids have made definitive statements that they should stay for the whole year, but one thing that works in their favour is the fact that the team does have room on their roster to keep them around.
The Canucks are currently carrying just 22 players, one below the roster limit. Chris Higgins has now been out for four weeks with his broken foot. You can see he was still wearing his walking boot last week when he made an appearance on Breakfast Television on October 14 on behalf of Special Olympics.
I'd guess that Higgins is probably still at least a couple of weeks away from getting back into the lineup.
Six games into the Canucks' season, McCann has used up four games of his trial period and Virtanen has used three. McCann has two goals, Virtanen is pointless, but both are on the positive side of the plus-minus ledger.
Another issue to consider—if they're sent back to junior, who will replace them? Cap space is tight, so Jim Benning wouldn't have much room to swing a deal to bring in a more expensive veteran. On the farm, it's not like anybody on the Utica Comets is making a case for themselves as "must-see" players in the early going. The Comets are 0-2 so far in their season; Nicklas Jensen has the team's only goal.
Since I'm in the camp that wants to see winning hockey and hopes the Canucks can make the playoffs again, my focus is more on today's on-ice product than speculating about what would be best for the players' development. To me, that's so hard to predict. We don't know if injuries might happen in one place or another; there are so many variables that are impossible to control for, and we've seen good and bad results in the past for players that stay up and players that are sent back.
So, "Would the Canucks be better off today with two other players on their roster instead of Virtanen and McCann?" For me, the answer to that question is "No." I think they can learn and grow without playing in every game, and I don't think Vancouver has anybody better in the system that is pressuring for those spots.
Do you agree?
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As we ponder the futures of this year's youngsters, we can also look ahead to the eventual arrival of 2015 first-rounder Brock Boeser into the Canucks organization.
In his first four college games, Boeser's North Dakota team has two wins and two ties. Boeser picked up his first NCAA goal early on Saturday night, then went on to score a hat trick with a power-play marker in the third period and an empty netter. That's the first hat trick by a North Dakota freshman since T.J. Oshie turned the trick 10 years ago, back in 2005.
Click here and scroll down to "Highlights 10/17/15" if you'd like to take a look at Boeser's goals.
The freshman told
Brad Ziemer of the
Vancouver Sun that he's adjusting well in the next stage of his development.
“It was an unreal experience,” Boeser said in a telephone interview Monday. “It was sold out, almost 12,000 fans there. The place was rocking, to say the least. The game went as planned and we played really well as a team.”
Boeser said it was North Dakota’s rich college hockey tradition that helped convince him to commit to the school.
“The tradition here is unreal,” he said. “It’s one of the top in the country and the facilities are great. They just redid some of the facilities last year and just having that workout room and locker-room, lounge area, just having all that is definitely a nice benefit on top of everything else.”
“There were a few hats out there on the ice,” he said. “It was definitely a great experience.”
Ziemer also mentions that attendance has been pretty decent at the first three home games of the year, but the team has yet to reach a sellout. Due to some re-configuring of the arena to accommodate the new sports bar, capacity is now set at 18,630—it was 18,910 last season.
So far, the home opener against Calgary was the best-attended game, with 18,570 fans. I'm surprised to see that Sunday's game against Connor McDavid and Edmonton drew less than Friday's game against St. Louis. Attendance for the Blues was 18,362, while it was 18,261 for the Oilers.
The next three teams to visit Rogers Arena are all popular attractions: Alex Ovechkin's Washington Capitals and the Original Six Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens.
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