Vancouver Canucks: The injury floodgates have opened
Name a better combo than the Vancouver Canucks and injuries. This year’s batch has arrived a lot earlier and have a bit of a domino effect with them.
Looks like the injury bug has struck early this season for the Vancouver Canucks. We already had a brief scare when the team’s top two players were briefly out of action. Elias Pettersson missed six games with a concussion and Brock Boeser was held from action for a pair of games due to a groin injury.
I still think his back isn’t 100%, but hockey players tend to play through the pain. Nobody is a better expert in that department than Chris Tanev. As noble as it is, there is a reason why the Canucks blue liner spends so much time hurt, but that’s a discussion for another day.
So, let’s take a current tally of who is out of the lineup now. Recently, we learned about Anders Nilsson‘s fractured finger. He is on the IR and will be out for a few weeks. This would be the perfect opportunity for Thatcher Demko to be called up and play, right? It’s too bad he is still recovering from his concussion. The Canucks might want to think twice about putting a concussed player on a plane next time. They got lucky with Pettersson, but as you can see, Demko was not so fortunate.
The Canucks called up Richard Bachman, leaving the Utica Comets depleted in goal. However, because Nilsson is only out for a few weeks, there could be a temporary solution. The Canucks could call up one of their ECHL netminders from Kalamazoo, but I thought of someone else. Does the name Michael Garteig ring a bell? He was a third string goalie brought in 2016 to back up Bachman and Demko and was a good reserve goalie last year.
Currently, he is with the Toronto Maple Leafs ECHL affiliate and is playing rather well for the Newfoundland Growlers. Maybe the Leafs would be willing to loan him out to the Comets for a short period of time. After all, we loaned Sam Gagner to them and the arrangement would be temporary. Of course, the Growlers or Leafs could just say no, but it’s an interesting thought.
Injuries, injuries, injuries
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Adding to the injured core is Alex Edler, spraining his knee, sidelining him 3-6 weeks. Jay Beagle broke his forearm a couple of weeks ago and is still a month out. The aforementioned Tanev is day-to-day with hip issues and Sven Baertschi is the latest Canuck dealing with a concussion.
Darren Archibald was sent back despite being better than a few of the bottom six forwards left in the current lineup. But hey, what’s in a meritocracy, right? Apparently in Vancouver, we pull the answer out of hat.
Brandon Sutter could be a game-time decision as he did not practice yesterday. It’s probably a maintenance day, but with this many injuries, any and all absences are noted. It’s a bit of a coach’s nightmare to deal with so many missing bodies and Travis Green may have no choice but to get the line blender out today.
Be on the lookout. From this point on, if the games look a lot more like Saturday’s thrashing from the Penguins, wait for the usual suspects to start laying out the injuries excuse. You know it’s coming. However, we expected this to be the team’s shield in December and not October. Maybe that’s just the pessimist in me, but seeing the same cycle year after the year makes you a little jaded. Sue me.
Bo Horvat has done most of the carrying in the absence of Pettersson and Boeser, but we may be asking for too much when the team eventually meets teams with depth again. Fortunately, this week won’t be as bad as Saturday. However, some of the things they are trying on the second unit power play is haunting.
Next. Top prospects of week 8: Brassard, Rathbone, Hughes. dark
Hate on Edler all you want, but this team has yet to show an adequate replacement to patrol the blue line on the first unit. Travis Green will have to get creative and when defensively minded coaches are forced to that, they get predictable. Granted, there is only so much to work with without neutering an offence that already struggles to score. Green has his work cut out for him, but I guess he’s had an idea of that since the ink dried on his contract.