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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    Vancouver Canucks claim Reid Boucher, look for 5th-straight win vs Coyotes

    jedi17
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    Vancouver Canucks claim Reid Boucher, look for 5th-straight win vs Coyotes Empty Vancouver Canucks claim Reid Boucher, look for 5th-straight win vs Coyotes

    Post by jedi17 Wed 04 Jan 2017, 8:36 pm

    Vancouver Canucks claim Reid Boucher, look for 5th-straight win vs Coyotes
    January 4, 2017, 3:23 PM ET [231 Comments]
    Carol Schram
    Vancouver Canucks claim Reid Boucher, look for 5th-straight win vs Coyotes Van Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
    Wednesday January 4 - Vancouver Canucks vs Arizona Coyotes - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific

    Vancouver Canucks: 39 GP, 18-18-3, 39 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
    Arizona Coyotes: 37 GP, 11-21-5, 27 pts, seventh in Pacific Division

    The Vancouver Canucks have cancelled their morning skate ahead of tonight's game, where they're looking to extend their winning streak to five games against the Arizona Coyotes.

    The Canucks are playing four games in six nights this week, so I like this logic.

    Coach Willie Desjardins must be feeling relieved that his job appears secure again for the foreseeable future. Vancouver's four-game winning streak ties them with Pittsburgh for the second-longest current streak in the league—though it's a long way back from the Columbus Blue Jackets, who beat Edmonton last night to hit 16 games and are getting close to all-time record territory. 

    They'll have a chance to tie the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins—you know, the two-time defending Cup champions with Mario, Jagr and so many more stars—for the longest winning streak of all time when they line up against Washington on Thursday.

    L.A. and Winnipeg won last night and Nashville got a point, so the Canucks go into tonight's game three points out of that second wild-card spot, in a four way tie with the Stars, Predators and Jets with 39 points. As we've celebrated the Canucks' return to .500 status, it is worth noting that they're also still just three points out of 28th place. 

    The loser point continues to make a lot of teams look better than they are—going into tonight's games, only four teams in the league are actually below the .500 mark. Winnipeg and Buffalo are one point below, while the Coyotes and Avs are the two teams that are legitimately struggling. Arizona is 10 games below .500 while Colorado is 12 down.

    In today's 30-team league, the full-season NHL schedule is 1,230 games. Last night's late game between the Kings and Sharks was game No. 571—we're nearly halfway through 2016-17.

    So far, more than a quarter of the games played this season have been three-pointers, which is part of the reason why the standings are so bunched up. Nineteen of the league's 30 teams currently sit within nine points of each other, from St. Louis, Edmonton and Philadelphia at 45 points, starting in 10th place, down to the Islanders and Buffalo with 36, in 27th and 28th place.

    The expansion draft is already going to dampen the market for big moves at the trade deadline. Unless the standings start to spread out over the next month, a lack of clear definitions of which teams are buyers and which are sellers could also limit the number of trades that we'll see.

    A couple of other lineup notes for tonight's game—Alex Burrows is expected to return, so Anton Rodin will most likely return to the press box.

    Ryan Miller's riding a personal three-game winning streak and will start his fourth-straight home game. His numbers are improving—he's now up to 10-10-1 with a 2.73 goals-against average and .910 save percentage.

    And Henrik Sedin has four points in his last four games as he marches toward the 1,000-point plateau. He enters the game at 996.

    The other big news today—after avoiding the waiver wire all season, the Canucks finally made a move, picking up left winger Reid Boucher from the New Jersey Devils.

    Boucher's a 23-year-old who hails from Lansing, Michigan, near Ryan Miller's hometown of East Lansing. He's listed at 5'10" and 195 pounds and was drafted in the fourth round by the Devils back in 2011.

    Known primarily as a depth player, Boucher broke Steven Stamkos' goal-scoring record in junior with the Sarnia Sting in 2012-13, scoring 62 goals and 95 points as a 19-year-old. 


    Considering he has played mostly a depth role in the NHL, his offensive numbers actually aren't bad. 

    He had eight goals in 39 games with the New Jersey Devils last season and has a total of 12 goals and 30 points over 85 games.

    The Devils seem like they've had a tough time deciding what to do with Boucher this season.

    Since Nashville has been above Vancouver in the standings all year, this also means that the Canucks passed on Boucher when he was available back in early December.

    Boucher will arrive in Vancouver today, but won't be ready to play tonight.

    CapFriendly shows that the acquisition fits easily into the Canucks' 50-contract limit, putting them at 46, but it puts the team one player over the 23-man roster limit.

    That shouldn't be a problem; Jannik Hansen can be placed on injured reserve for the time being.

    If the team does find that it needs to shuffle someone down to Utica at some point, Brendan Gaunce is the easiest choice.

    Boucher's acquisition isn't exactly a vote of confidence for Anton Rodin but there's still half a season to go. More injuries will probably happen. 

    If I was Jake Virtanen, though, I'd take this as a sign that I'm probably staying in the minors for the foreseeable future. Jake has four goals, seven points and is a minus-four in his 20 games so far with Utica and has been shuffled through the lineup.

    One other quick note from the farm: Richard Bachman is returning from injury, so goaltender Michael Garteig has been re-assigned to the Alaska Aces. Thatcher Demko carried most of the load while Bachman was sidelined. Garteig was 0-1-1 in four games with a 2.85 goals-against average and .897 save percentage.

    And over at World Juniors, Finland has now safely escaped relegation after two straight wins over Latvia, 2-1 and 4-1. The team responded after the Finns fired their coaching staff, bringing in U18 coach Jussi Ahokas as the replacement.

    "I used to play with him, he was my coach in younger years," Canucks prospect Olli Juolevi told Lucas Aykroyd of IIHF.com about Ahokas. "I really like him. I like his style of coaching. The coach is the coach and players play. I respect all the coaches, but he is one of the guys who I actually really like."

    Of his team's humble redemption, avoiding relegation, Juolevi said "I’m proud that we won those last two games. But they were not good games. The thing is, we had to win those games. Even if you have a bad game, you have to find the extra gear and score a couple of goals and win those games. I’m proud of my guys."

    His biggest takeaway from this tournament?

    "We’re still young guys and we have a lot to learn. I think this was a huge lesson for us that there are not always just good teams in your career. You need to come up from the tough things and you need to get out for a new day and a new game."

    That could be a very valuable lesson for Juolevi going forward.

    It'll be interesting to see what happens next year. He's still 18, so he's one of nine Finnish players from this year's team that could be back for the 2018 tournament in Buffalo.

    To wrap up today, a couple of quick notes on the Coyotes.

    The team is being led offensively by ex-Canuck Radim Vrbata, who leads all offensive categories with 9-15-24. Tonight's game will be the first of the year for the Coyotes, who dropped a 4-2 decision to the Flames in Calgary on New Year's Eve. 

    The Coyotes are currently on a seven-game losing streak. Like Vancouver's last opponent, Colorado, their last win came against Toronto—in this case, back on December 15.

    Expect Mike Smith to get the start in net. Despite a solid .920 save percentage for the season, he's 7-10-4 with a 2.82 goals-against average. Overall, the Coyotes are 29th defensively, giving up 3.24 goals against, and are also 29th on the penalty kill.

    Injury-wise, the Coyotes are without Max Domi, who broke his hand in a fight on December 8, as well as Ryan White and Brad Richardson, who suffered a gruesome broken leg last night Arizona visited Vancouver, on November 17. Young defenseman Anthony DeAngelo is currently in the midst of serving a three-game suspension for abuse of an official.

    The Coyotes claimed forward Alex Burmistrov on waivers from Winnipeg earlier this week. He skated with the team this morning but isn't expected to play tonight.
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