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Vancouver Canucks lose Sven Baertschi to injury, collapse against Flames |
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Saturday December 9 - Calgary Flames 4 - Vancouver Canucks 2
Was this the game when the Canucks kissed their hope of a playoff spot goodbye?
A third-period defensive collapse pushed the Vancouver Canucks to 0-2-0 in the no-Bo era after a 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
Here are your highlights:
The Canucks have now dropped to ninth place in the Western Conference. The Minnesota Wild, Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks all just one point back. It's not inconceivable to imagine the Canucks in 12th place by the time they get back to Vancouver to take on the Nashville Predators next Wednesday.
One bright spot in the game was Jake Virtanen. Back in the rink where he played his junior hockey with the Calgary Hitmen, Virtanen skated on the new-look energy line with Brendan Gaunce and Michael Chaput. He parked himself in front of the net on his first shift and converted a Michael Del Zotto point shot for his fourth goal of the year, giving the Canucks an early lead. He finished the night as a plus-one with five shot attempts and one hit in 12:42 of ice time, including eight shifts in the third period. Virtanen earned second-star honours from Hockey Night in Canada.
Travis Green was especially pleased with Chaput, who he singled out for praise after the game.
New guy Nic Dowd didn't have quite as auspicious of a debut. Starting the night with Thomas Vanek and Sven Baertschi, he played just 8:12, all at evens, went 0-for-4 in the faceoff circle and was a minus-one with one penalty.
Green had moved Baertschi with Boeser and Gagner and put Dowd with Granlund and Vanek even before Baertschi exited the game after taking a puck to the face on the first shift of the second period. He did not return and has been sent back to Vancouver for further medical evaluation.
After Brock Boeser scored his 15th of the year on the power play to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead late in the second period, it was the Vanek-Granlund-Dowd combo that failed to contain pesky Matthew Tkachuk midway through the third on the tying goal.
Sam Bennett's game-winner with 1:10 to go came after a long sequence kicked off by an Anders Nilsson giveaway and finished with some weak defensive work from Vanek, Granlund and Gagner.
Tkachuk iced it on an empty-netter and Vanek took a minus-three in the third period.
There's not much more to say. Fifty minutes of a pretty-good road game isn't enough to get two points on most nights in the NHL. The scramble that led to the winning goal speaks to a team that's already getting stretched pretty thin, just 30 games into the season, and the injuries are starting to pile up once again.
The positives? Though Brandon Sutter is not with the team on this road trip, there's talk that he could get back into the lineup next week. That'd help enormously on a team that ran Henrik, Gagner, Dowd and Chaput down the middle on Saturday night.
Also, the schedule is pretty reasonable for the rest of the month. After Monday's game in Winnipeg, the Canucks head home to play eight of their next nine at Rogers Arena, stretching into the beginning of January. There are no back-to-backs and just one flight—to San Jose.
January features seven road games, but they're broken up by the five-day bye week at mid-month, and the team will also get a four-day break for All-Star Weekend before the schedule intensitifes again in February.
With any luck, the team will be able to mitigate further injuries and players like Nikolay Goldobin will be able to take advantage of the opportunities that they'll be given with regulars sidelined.
Down on the farm, it has also been a grind for the Utica Comets. Currently fourth in the North Division with an even 10-10-2-1 record, the Comets have been bleeding goals this month, losing 7-6 in overtime to Bridgeport on December 1, then dropping a 6-1 decision to Syracuse last Wednesday, while Thatcher Demko was on his brief call up.
That makes it tough to win when the Comets are 24th in the 30-team AHL in goals for—and are missing Goldobin. Their 73 goals against have them in the middle of the pack, in 16th place.
Reid Boucher continues to lead the team offensively, with 11 goals and 22 points in 21 games. On the blue line, Philip Holm had been playing well but has missed the last three games due to injury.
At least we have World Juniors! Team Canada's selection camp opens on Tuesday and will include three exhibition games at the home base in St. Catharines before the next round of roster decisions are made. Canucks prospects skating for the United States, Finland and Sweden will be following similar schedules.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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