Con #2: Injury bug strikes
Just when everything was going perfectly for the 8-3-1 Canucks of October, the injury bug struck the team just as it does each and every year. Micheal Ferland hasn’t laced up the skates and tossed on the Canucks orca at all in the month of November as he was sidelined with a concussion from a fight during the last game of October against the Los Angeles Kings.
He hasn’t had a fair opportunity to prove his worth to the new club, and his size and hard-hitting playing style were missed in the difficult November schedule.
Tyler Motte was injured on the Oct. 25 game against the Washington Capitals, and he was initially expected to only miss a week or two. But he has a broken foot and is still a couple of weeks away from returning to the Canucks.
The roster will soon be healthy, and management is going to have some tough choices to make in terms of roster cuts. The forward position is thick with bottom-six players and there may not be a spot for Motte, like it or not. Head coach Travis Green is a “Motte” kind of guy, so maybe he gets a chance when he is healthy.
On the back end, Alex Edler and Hughes both escaped what could have been a potentially scary injury for each defender. Hughes fell awkwardly in the first game of November and bruised his knee, but luckily he only missed one game due to soreness. Edler took a skate blade to the ribs but managed to get back into the line up for the next game. His minutes still need to come down a notch or two.
Surprisingly, the injuries to bottom-six centers Beagle and Sutter have been the biggest losses to the team this far. Sutter has been absent since he pulled his groin in a game on November 12th, and Beagle hasn’t played since Nov. 21. The two penalty killing specialists have been dearly missed in the defensive end and you have to wonder if they could have helped the Canucks find an extra point or two.