Vancouver Canucks Friday Roundup: November 21, 2014

Nov 20, 2014; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Kesler (17) and defenseman Clayton Stoner (3) and goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) defend against Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Hovat (53) during the third period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to Friday Roundup at The Canuck Way. Every Friday we’ll take our Top 5 Canucks stories of the week, share them with you, and add a little color to the news being talked about around Vancouver.

Canucks’ Record this Week: 1-1-1

After a terrible game against Arizona, the Canucks bounced back in Edmonton. And I literally mean “bounced,” because their 5-4 win against Edmonton had the high-scoring, back and forth quality of a pinball game. Come to think of it, I meant “bounced” metaphorically. They were not literally playing pinball.

The game of the week, however, was Ryan Kesler’s return to Vancouver. The Canucks lost the game literally, but they won morally, because Ryan Kesler didn’t score. Unfortunately you only get one point for moral victories, and that’s only if you can take the game to overtime. The Canucks have been great at taking their moral victories to overtime this year.

Let’s talk news, shall we?

1. Dan Hamhuis Injures his Leg

Last night’s game did not start well for Vancouver. Andrew Cogliano scored on the first shot of the game, which was disheartening. But the worse blow came not long after, when Dan Hamhuis seemed to pull up lame after making a turn in the offensive end. You could tell by the way he was limping that it was a pretty serious injury. There’s not much news on it this morning. Hamhuis isn’t up on the Canucks’ website injury list yet. Jason Botchford suspects a knee injury. It’s hard to say at this point. Hamhuis’ leg went in a weird direction when his skate hit another player’s on that play. Personally I suspect a hamstring injury. Either way, this is not good news for the team. It likely means that Luca “Free Delivery” Sbisa will see more minutes in the short term.

2. Alex Burrows’ Mystery Injury

The more mysterious injury last night was Alex Burrows, who was a late scratch due to an upper body injury. Hopefully whatever was ailing him won’t keep him out of the lineup too long, especially since Chris Higgins seemed to be nursing some wounds after last night’s game, according to Tony Gallagher. What could this upper body injury be? I suspect male pattern baldness.

3. Oh, Ryan Kesler! I Didn’t See you There.

As I mentioned above, the big story this week was Ryan Kesler’s return to Vancouver. I was listening to TSN 1040 on Wednesday before the Oilers game, and they couldn’t stop talking about Kesler. Nobody cared about the Oilers. It’s been on everyone’s mind this week. His return was an interesting study in Canucks fan psychology. My conclusion? We are a confused bunch. The Canucks played one of the shortest tribute videos of all time right at the beginning of the game, then the “clooing” started. That’s when some people clap and some people boo, and you can’t really tell which is which. I think that perfectly sums up my own conflicted feelings about Kesler. Although I maintain that I was saying boo-urns.

4. Martin Hanzal: Nemesis

None of us really want to relive that Coyotes game, but it did happen this week, and Martin Hanzal did score a hat trick. Here’s the problem though, he scored one of this goals with a blatantly high stick. Here’s the video:

That’s a pretty clear high stick, but the refs didn’t see it. The amazing thing is that it wasn’t overturned on review. I would be more mad about it, but the Canucks lost 5-0. We got shut out on home ice! This whole game went into the mental “forget me” file pretty quickly.

5. Bo Horvat Scores his First NHL Goal

We’ll end on a positive note, with one of the great stories from last night’s game: Bo Horvat’s first NHL goal. Horvat had a great game overall, going 9 for 14 in the face off zone and making some great defensive and offensive plays. But his crowning moment was scoring on a beautiful pass from Derek Dorsett, of all people. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the goal:

I love how Dorsett picks up the puck for him. That’s a good teammate right there!

Canuck of the Week

Jannik Hansen is my Canuck of the week. His stat line isn’t anything amazing, but two goals in three games is solid. And I’m just so happy that he scored on a breakaway! That was a key shorthanded goal to get the Canucks ahead against the Oilers. His goal against the Ducks was an important game tying goal that ended a dominant 6 on 5 shift for the Canucks. Hansen isn’t always the flashiest, but he does have a way of scoring important goals at unexpected times. Great work Honey Badger!

What stuck out to you this week? Was there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

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