Vancouver Canucks: Leipsic claimed, Cherry speaks and JV18 is fast

Monday morning did not disappoint. We have an update on Brendan Leipsic, Don Cherry said something realistic about the Vancouver Canucks and Jake Virtanen left everyone in the dust during SuperSkills.

Following up on yesterday’s news, the Vancouver Canucks have lost Brendan Leipsic on waivers. The Kings put in their claim after also snagging Nikita Scherbak this weekend. Vancouver has not been very active in putting in waiver claims, but I would remind everyone that during injury crises, the waiver wire is always a good option. These players can always be waived again if things don’t work out.

Speaking of waiving again, if the Kings do that with Leipsic and no other team puts in a claim, the Canucks could send him directly to Utica. It’s not too surprising that the kings put in a claim. They are the worst team in the league and need to try everything and anything to change. In a funny way from a Canucks fan’s perspective, we are getting an outside view of what Willie Desjardins can do to a team. I’m glad we’re past that point, although the team isn’t in much better shape now.

Like I said yesterday, I don’t think it’s a huge loss to the lineup. Maybe Leipsic can become a regular in this league. But it just makes that meek trade deadline look worse. I still can’t believe Leipsic was the highlight for the Canucks that day. Life sure moves fast.

Don Cherry

Don Cherry was on Sportsnet 650 this morning. Surprisingly, he wasn’t trying to trade Mitch Marner for Erik Gudbranson. He was talking about the team’s goaltending and their collective inability to steal games. To be fair to them, they were the difference between the games going from bad to ugly. However, Cherry does have a point. What he said next was interesting as well.

You can say what you want about Cherry, but he is one of the few people out East who genuinely likes our market. Don’t worry, I know Bob McKenzie and Elliotte Friedman are in that group too, well at least when Friedman isn’t trolling the city.

More from The Canuck Way

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• Back to the future: How the skate uniforms became a regular Canucks’ feature night
• Canucks kick off 2023 with disappointing 6-2 loss to Islanders
• 2nd period penalty trouble sinks Canucks in 4-2 loss against Winnipeg

But the sobering admission that the team isn’t good enough should speak volumes. Cherry is the definition of a hockey man. Since everyone’s favourite logical fallacy is appeal to authority, is that good enough for you? Or do you prefer the softer way to discuss and refer to tanking? Maybe you are more comfortable with saying the Canucks don’t want to be good yet. It doesn’t matter to me. In the end it all means the same. The use of language is just fascinating from my perspective. And the defences for this management group continue to shrink.

Jake Virtanen and SuperSkills

To end things off on a great note, let’s talk about this year’s Canucks for Kids SuperSkills. Elias Pettersson had the hardest shot, just shy of 100 miles per hour, but the player I want to highlight here is Jake Virtanen.

Shotgun Jake was stealing the show, passing to Roussel to complete each goal of his hat trick. Virtanen “drank” from his glove after a shootout celebration and best of all was the fastest skater event. I said he could take on Connor McDavid in a race and Jake proved that he can get close.

At last year’s All Star Game, McDavid posted a time of 14.454 seconds. But hey, let’s use his faster time from the year before at 13.310 seconds. Jake Virtanen had a time of 14.465 seconds yesterday. I’m telling you, Jake is one of the fastest players in this league, which is why fans’ eyes light up when he’s burning down the ice off the rush. The fans are in ShotgunJake withdrawal. Virtanen hasn’t scored in nine games (last one was on November 13th). Here’s to hoping the next shotgun is just around the corner.