VANCOUVER, BC – The Vancouver Canucks went 3-1 for the second week in a row, despite a severe plague of injuries. The Canucks are without seven regular players, including perennial scoring leader, Daniel Sedin, and All-Star goaltender, Roberto Luongo. Nevertheless, Vancouver has managed to put together wins with a game-day line-up consisting of nearly 50 percent AHL players.
The stretch of good play for the Canucks, including wins in six of their last eight games, has moved Vancouver into a tie for fifth place in the Western Conference, just four points back of the first place Colorado Avalanche.
One of the bright spots among the call-ups from the Manitoba Moose had been Michael Grabner, who had begun scoring regularly playing on Vancouver’s second line with Ryan Kesler and Mason Raymond. Unfortunately, Grabner’s rise was halted mid-week by a fractured ankle incurred during the Canucks’ traditional soccer warm-up in the halls of GM Place before a game versus the Avalanche. Grabner is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, just the latest casualty of a Canucks run of bad luck.
On the other hand, defenseman Sami Salo made his return to the Canucks line-up last week, and has been a solid addition.
The Canucks started their week with a 2-1 shootout win over the L.A. Kings. This was the first game that featured backup goalietender Andrew Raycroft as the starter. The Canucks were so riddled with injuries heading into the game that they were forced to play defensemen Aaron Rome and Mathieu Schneider as forwards. Mikael Samuelsson scored both the Canucks only regulation goal as well as the shootout winner.
The following night, Vancouver looked much more the like the depleted team they are in a visit to Anaheim to meet the Ducks. The Canucks got out to an early 2-0 lead, but gave up seven unanswered goals to lose 7-2. Raycroft was pulled after the second period, and Corey Schneider entered the game, only to give up three goals.
Although the Canucks had suffered a one-sided defeat, they picked up their collective socks for a meeting on home ice against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche. Forward Kyle Wellwood returned to the line-up after missing several games due to injury. Raycroft redeemed himself by earning a shutout in the 3-0 victory against their Northwest Division rivals.
The Canucks closed out their two-game home stand with a 4-1 defeat of the New York Rangers. Mikael Samuelsson became the Canucks’ goal-scoring leader with two goals, his seventh and eighth, in the victory. Rick Rypien scored the game-winner on a tape-to-tape cross-ice feed from Ryan Kesler, who has been the Canucks most valuable forward since the injury bug hit.
Kesler has put up numbers and been a key force on the Canucks’ improving penalty kill. Most important has been Kesler’s consistency night to night, marking him an emerging leader in the Canucks’ ranks. Kesler closed out the week with five points in two games.
Contact the author at Happy.Kreter@prohockeynews.com
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