Vancouver Canucks

Jannik Hansen returns from injury as Vancouver Canucks host Minnesota Wild February 4, 2017, 3:40 PM ET [212 Comments] Carol Schram  Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT

Saturday February 4 - Minnesota Wild at Vancouver Canucks - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet

Vancouver Canucks: 51 GP, 23-22-6, 52 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Minnesota Wild: 50 GP, 33-12-5, 71 pts, first in Central Division

Tomorrow's Super Bowl Sunday, when the NFL crowns its champion for another year.

Tonight, the Vancouver Canucks will face a virtual must-win situation of their own when they host the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Arena.

After a humbling 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, the Canucks are now on a two-game losing streak and are sliding backwards in the Western Conference playoff race. A win on Friday night moved the Calgary Flames up to the first wild-card spot, which means the Canucks are now four points out of eighth place in the Conference. That spot is currently occupied by the Los Angeles Kings—already in action in an early game. 

By the time the Canucks hit the ice for their game tonight, they could be five points out if the Kings get one or two points today against the Philadelphia Flyers. If the Kings lose and the St. Louis Blues beat Pittsburgh later today, it'll be the Blues moving into the second wild-card with 57 points, which would also increase Vancouver's deficit to five points. 

During the month of January, the Canucks were winning while most of their rivals were losing. Now the tables have turned. If the trends continue, it won't be long at all before the idea of a playoff berth becomes a distant memory.

So—two points today for Vancouver are a virtual necessity just to stay in the mix, and they won't come easily against the Minnesota Wild, who are thriving in their first year under coach Bruce Boudreau. Strong on both sides of the puck, the Wild have scored 50 more goals than they've surrendered this season—second-best in the league behind Washington. Minnesota is tied with Columbus for second place overall in the NHL standings, also behind Washington.

Boudreau's reputation is that he's a great regular-season coach, but hasn't been able to get his teams over the hump in the playoffs. His first year in Minnesota is true to form so far.

The good news for Vancouver is that precedent is on their side this season. They've played Minnesota just once so far this year—an entertaining, back-and-forth game at Rogers Arena that saw the Canucks pick up the 5-4 victory thanks to Sven Baertschi's game-winning tally with 2:35 to play in the third period.

The Canucks had a good day on special teams in that November game, going 2-for-3 on the power play while killing off both their penalties. Vancouver has only scored two power-play goals in the same game twice all season—the other time was the early-season shootout loss to Los Angeles on the road back on October 22.

Jannik Hansen will help out on the struggling penalty kill. He's pegged to return to the Canucks lineup tonight after missing 17 games with a knee injury.




As I suggested a couple of weeks ago, at this point it looks like Hansen is the odd man out on Vancouver's list of protected forwards for the Las Vegas expansion draft—the likelihood is that it'll be a higher priority for the Canucks to protect younger forwards Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund.

Rather than lose him for nothing in June, there has been some suggestion that Hansen would be valuable trade bait heading into the March 1 deadline. According to The Fourth Period, Hansen's limited no-trade clause means that, if asked, he'd need to submit a list of eight teams where he'd be willing to be traded—which I believe is the same as what Radim Vrbata used to kibosh any possible realistic deal at last year's deadline.

Earlier this week, Hansen told Iain MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun that he's taking Jim Benning at his word—that he wouldn't ask any player to waive his no-trade clause.

“I don’t have to think about it, worry about it,” Hansen said. “I won’t get asked by you about it. Definitely, what happened last year wasn’t good with Hammer and Vrbie (former Canucks Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata) where every day you come in and you guys are asking them questions.

“Am I going to get traded anyway? I can’t answer that. But at least we’re not going to get those repetitive questions every day. That part helps.”

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I don't think Benning's position is quite so clear-cut for a guy like Hansen, with a modified NTC. Sounds like Hansen's doing what he has to do to give himself some peace of mind as he gets back to work.

The media will also have limited opportunities to bring up trade-deadline issues over the next month. After tonight's game, the Canucks go on the road for two weeks, where only a couple of reporters will be embedded with the team. After a couple of quick games at home, they've also got their five-day bye week coming up between February 20 and 24, when they'll be completely off the radar.

Tonight, expect to see Hansen playing on the right side with Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund. Jayson Megna will join Reid Boucher and Alex Biega in the press box.

Ryan Miller gets the start in net.




As for the Wild, they've been off for the last three days after coming out of the All-Star break with a 5-1 loss to the Flames in Calgary last Wednesday. The Wild gave up 36 shots against the Flames and 43 shots in their 5-2 win over the Oilers before the break, so Boudreau has been cracking the whip to get his team prepared for tonight.

There has also been some line-juggling. Charlie Coyle has been pulled from the power play and dropped to the fourth line, and rookie Alex Tuch will make his NHL debut on the first line tonight.




Tuch is a big winger—6'4" and 220 pounds—who was chosen 18th overall by the Wild in 2014. He spent his last two years playing with Thatcher Demko at Boston College before turning pro this season.

Devan Dubnyk's killing it in net for the Wild again, much like he did when he was first picked up by Minnesota two years ago. He's 27-9-3 this season with a .933 save percentage and a 1.96 goals-against average.

Tonight's the first night where all goalies must be wearing the new, streamlined goalie pants. I haven't seen a recent comment from Ryan Miller on this topic—keep an eye on him tonight to see if it looks like the change in his gear is an issue for him.

To close today, the NHLPA website has an in-depth interview with Derek Dorsett about his neck surgery:




Dorsett has been staying close to his teammates, doing his rehab at Rogers Arena, and was with the group at the Dice and Ice benefit last Tuesday. He says an unexpected source of support has come from players from visiting teams that he has crossed paths with in the hallway at the arena.

“At the rink, guys coming through town will see me in the hallway – guys I didn’t play with or even know – and they wish me well, tell me to heal up and get back out there,” said Dorsett. “The support from the entire hockey world has been great."

Though he's a long way from getting back into game action, it sounds like Dorsett's recovery has gone well so far. He got his neck brace removed two weeks ago and hopes to get back on the ice soon.

“I hope to be skating at the three-month mark, but no contact,” he said. “It’s a process. The start of next season is when I want to be 100 per cent and back playing. Everything is going in the right direction, but it’s a long road.”[/size]