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Vancouver Canucks go with same lineup to close road trip vs surging Chicago |
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Thursday February 7 - Vancouver Canucks vs Chicago Blackhawks - 5:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 54 GP, 24-24-6, 54 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Chicago Blackhawks: 54 GP, 21-24-9, 51 pts, seventh in Central Division
After dropping a one-goal decision to the hottest team in the NHL in Philadelphia on Monday, the Vancouver Canucks will try to salvage a .500 record on their current road trip as they finish off against one of the best in the west on Thursday night.
Despite some tumultuous stretches earlier in the season, the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars are both currently streaking, riding Western Conference-best five-game winning streaks.
For the moment, the Blackhawks still sit last in the Central Division, but they've moved within one point of sixth-place Colorado, are two back of fifth-place St. Louis—and are just three points out of that final wild-card playoff spot that's currently occupied by Vancouver.
Though his banged-up team is now riding its first two-game losing streak since the road defeats in Montreal and Toronto in early January, Vancouver Canucks coach Travis Green looks like he'll be sticking with the same player deployment in Chicago on Thursday that he used in the 3-2 loss to Washington on Tuesday. Markus Granlund will skate with Bo Horvat and Josh Leivo, and Chris Tanev will continue to play his off-side on a pairing with Erik Gudbranson.
Part of me would still like to see natural lefty Guillaume Brisebois make his NHL debut—which would also free up Tanev to do his thing in his proper spot. But we've seen this movie many times before, both with Green and with Willie Desjardins before him. For some reason, the example that bubbles up from my memory is Jordan Subban, who spent 10 days with Vancouver in two separate call-ups in January and February of 2017 but didn't get to dress for a game.
Subban was traded to the Los Angeles Kings just over a year ago, then signed as a free agent with Toronto last summer. He turns 24 next month, has 2-9-11 in 27 games with the Marlies this year, and still hasn't played in an NHL game.
It's unclear at this point how long Brisebois will be with up with the Canucks. While it's amazing that Alex Edler didn't suffer any broken bones from his scary fall in Philadelphia on Monday, he has been diagnosed with a concussion. So far, all the Canucks have said is that he'll be out "at least a week," which is standard for concussion protocol and qualifies him for the injured reserve list. But as we well know, concussion recovery is hard to predict. Edler will be back...when he's ready.
Here's the latest update from the team infirmary:
Edler, Baertschi and Demko are now all officially on injured reserve.
The Vancouver players are well aware of the current state of the Western Conference standings.
After a rough start under new coach Jeremy Colliton, the Blackhawks started to find their way when they won 5-of-6 to close out the month of December. Then, they opened 2019 with a 1-4-3 record before embarking on their current streak, which has seen wins against Washington, the Islanders, Buffalo, Minnesota and Edmonton—a game where they erased a 2-1 deficit with a five-goal third period at Rexall Place, sending Oilers fans into yet another apoplectic frenzy.
Patrick Kane is doing Patrick Kane things again. Since New Year's, he leads the NHL with a mind-boggling 28 points in 13 games—seven more than second-place Sebastian Aho has scored in 15 games over the same time frame. Kane is now tied with Connor McDavid for second-place in the league scoring race with 78 points in 53 games, just three back of league leader Nikita Kucherov.
Jonathan Toews is also in the midst of a resurgent season. He's tied with Steven Stamkos and Ryan O'Reilly for seventh overall with 19 points since New Year's and is now up to 53 points in 54 games—one more than he tallied all of last season. If he stays close to a point-a-game pace, he'll end up with the best offensive totals of his career, beating out his 32 goals and 76 points from 2010-11.
But the veteran stars are now also getting some help from the newer faces. Twenty-six year old defenseman Erik Gustafsson is now up to 11 goals and 34 points and is logging 21:59 a game and Dylan Strome has performed well since he was acquired from Arizona in November. He had six points in 20 games with the Coyotes this year but is 10-14-24 in 30 games since joining the Blackhawks.
Drake Caggiula is another new face in the Chicago forward group. Since being acquired from Edmonton, he has five points in 11 games.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Chicago's resurgence is that they've staged their turnaround without Corey Crawford in net. Crawford has just gotten back on the ice after suffering another concussion in mid-December, but is not yet ready to return to game action.
Cam Ward and Coilin Delia have been splitting duties during the current win streak, and Delia gets the start tonight. The 24-year-old, who was signed as a free agent out of Merrimack College in 2017, is 5-2-3 for the season with a 2.99 GAA and .922 save percentage. In his last outing, he made 29 saves in Chicago's 3-2 overtime win over Minnesota last Saturday.
One Canucks player who knows the Blackhawks well is Tyler Motte, who was drafted by Chicago in the fourth round in 2013 and played 33 NHL games with the team before being traded to Columbus as part of the Artemi Panarin deal two summers ago.
Ben Kuzma has a good feature on Motte, who has made a full-time job for himself out of a sliver of opportunity with the Canucks. Remember when had that one game of waiver exemption left at the beginning of the season and was supposed to be sent down to Utica, but the Canucks waived Sam Gagner instead? In hindsight, that has worked out pretty well.
That about covers it. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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