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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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    Injuries batter blue line as Vancouver Canucks' win streak ends vs. Flames

    jedi17
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    Injuries batter blue line as Vancouver Canucks' win streak ends vs. Flames Empty Injuries batter blue line as Vancouver Canucks' win streak ends vs. Flames

    Post by jedi17 Sun 08 Jan 2017, 9:27 pm

    Injuries batter blue line as Vancouver Canucks' win streak ends vs. Flames
    January 8, 2017, 3:49 PM ET [142 Comments]

    Vancouver was behind the 8 Ball even before the opening faceoff—short one body on the blue line. After sustaining injuries in Friday's win over the Flames, Chris Tanev was ruled out for the game early in the day and Ben Hutton was scratched shortly before the opening puck drop.

    Alex Biega was the only spare defenseman available, so that meant the Canucks could dress only five blueliners.

    Far from ideal, especially since the team also played most of Friday's game with just five D after Tanev's first-period injury. But situations like this happen to every team from time to time. The only other healthy extra player available was winger Anton Rodin, so he drew into the lineup. Since he doesn't play defense, he didn't play a shift. 

    I have no problem with this. If a forward had been injured on Saturday, Rodin could have been shuffled into the rotation but otherwise, there wasn't really a place for him to play.

    “You have 13 forwards and you don’t have enough ice time for 12,” coach Willie Desjardins told Ben Kuzma of The Province after the game. “There’s no sense sitting him for 15 minutes and giving him a shift. My fourth-line guys didn’t have 10 minutes tonight, so they were warm and I could keep them going.

    “And I didn’t think our power play was good. Late in the game (power play) I’m not playing him (Rodin) after he sat that long.”

    Considering that the horses Willie was using that just delivered six consecutive wins, I can understand why he was inclined to stick with what had been working for him. The fourth line even scored against the Flames on Friday!

    It's one thing when you're, say, Joel Quenneville and you know your job is secure. He has the luxury of shuffling his lineup without being second-guessed, and won't take too much heat for a loss. When you're Willie, and you've been on the hot seat all season, I think it's natural to err on the side of caution with your player personnel choices.

    Coach did make one significant change to his lines up front. During his six-game stint with the Sedins, Jayson Megna produced just one assist during his six-game stint with the Sedins—and that came on the second-unit power play against the Flames on Friday. Saturday night, Willie started in his usual fashion, but quickly swapped Megna with Loui Eriksson. 

    At last, Eriksson back with the twins! Neither line was able to score but they both generated some good chances. Megna finished the night with a team-high four shots on goal in his new role, and Eriksson was right behind him with three. 

    And all things considered, the team played a winnable game right up till Michael Frolik's breakaway goal sealed the win for the Flames with 1:50 left on the clock.

    Calgary scored twice in the first period—and both those goals came when the Canucks were scrambling with only four defensemen, while Nikita Tryamkin was getting attention in the dressing room after taking a hard hit from Micheal Ferland.


    He wasn't gone long—Tryamkin left the game with 8:28 to play in the first period and returned with 4:31 to play. But in his absense, the Canucks were down to two pairs—Edler/Stecher and Sbisa/Biega. It was the Edler/Stecher pair that was on the ice for both goals against.

    The Flames opened the scoring with 5:34 to play in the first, when Alex Chiasson tipped a shot by Sean Monahan. Just 63 seconds later, Matt Stajan tallied what proved to be the game winner when he tipped a Garnet Hathaway shot past Jacob Markstrom with 4:31 on the clock.

    That's when Tryamkin returned—and the Canucks made a game of it the rest of the way. After managing just 13 shots in the entire game against the Flames on Friday, they put 13 on the board in the second period alone on Saturday night, and Bo Horvat recorded his team-leading 13th goal of the season at the 3:04 mark.


    Bo's current seven-game point streak is just a couple of games behind the guy on the other side who currently leads the league with the longest active streak—rookie Matthew Tkachuk.




    A couple of minutes after Horvat's goal, the Vancouver blue line took another blow, as Luca Sbisa was rocked by Garnet Hathaway.


    At this point, Sbisa's the only Canucks defenseman who has played in every game so far this season. Impressive, considering all the injuries that limited him to just 41 games last season. Saturday was his 42nd game of the current campaign, and he didn't miss a shift after that hit.

    I'm crossing my fingers that he and Tryamkin will both be okay for this week's road trip, which stops in Nashville on Tuesday and in Philadelphia on Thursday. Coach Desjardins also holds out some hope that Tanev and/or Hutton might be able to rejoin the team.

    "They checked him out in the morning and it was good news," Desjardins told Kuzma about Tanev after Saturday's game, "but they (doctors) just didn’t think he could go tonight. 

    "There could be some concern with (a rib-cage injury), but I think he’s going to be fine to go (on road trip).”

    Hutton's injury "came off a shot (Friday) and we thought he was going to be able to go. It’s a short turnaround with back-to-backs and you don’t get a real read until the warm-up skate at night. We thought he was good..." 

    Factoring in all that adversity, I'm impressed that the Canucks had a chance to win on Saturday night. And I loved seeing the frustration they showed then Frolik got that clinching goal. It warms my heart to see how much this group hates to close, and hated to see the winning streak come to an end.


    This year's strong effort level is one of many topics I covered in my long conversation with Sbisa as the winning streak was beginning. I'll get that posted for you tomorrow, while the team's getting ready to head to Nashville.
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