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SixPack: Canucks win in Arizona, but it's all about the trade deadline now

Omar
Omar
|
Feb 26 2018, 7:36 am
SixPack: Canucks win in Arizona, but it's all about the trade deadline now

Boy were the Olympics fun. Our country had athletes competing at the highest level, going for the top in almost every sport.

The women’s Canada-USA gold medal game was the first time we’d been that emotionally invested in a hockey game in years.

Those emotions, that enjoyment – that’s the reason we watch sports in the first place.

Now, we go back to focusing all our sports-fan attention on the Canucks. A team that’s inspiring this analysis.

It’s great analysis, don’t get me wrong. Especially from a six-year-old. Daniel has taught his son well.

The game – it lived up to the (lack of) hype.

Vancouver had 11 even strength shots on net through two periods. They finished the game with 16.

They did beat Arizona 3-1, but it’s hard to find any meaning in a meeting between two of the worst teams in the league, both of whom were out of the playoff picture two months ago.

Honestly, the best and possibly only thing to be happy about was that Daniel scored a couple of goals and Boeser got an assist.

As predicted, the game was boring, so at least we have trade deadline day to look forward to tomorrow, right?

Yeah… not right. Reports surfaced before and during the game that it may indeed be a very quiet deadline for the Canucks, with even a Thomas Vanek trade looking dubious now.

I’ll get to that. First, let’s talk about the game.

1. Boeser update

Max Domi took this cheap shot at the Canucks future in the first period.

The result of that hit?

Boeser stayed in the game, so hopefully it looked worse than it was.

2. Daniel’s on fire

As mentioned, Daniel had two goals. The first, a power play goal, came off a hell of cross-seam pass from Henrik, followed by a nice feed from Pouliot.

His second – a Boeser shot tipped by Daniel, and it was the kind of goal you expect to see scored on the woeful Coyotes.

Serious question – does Jeff even have to look up the numbers on things like this or are they already all in his head?

Anyway, since we’re going through Vancouver’s goals, we shouldn’t leave out Archibald’s sweet shorty goal off a really high-quality pass from Sutter.

3. Edler for Vezina

With the Canucks outshot 31-16, Markstrom, Vancouver’s goalie, stopped pucks really well.

Edler, not Vancouver’s goalie, did not stop pucks really well, and probably didn’t help the actual goalie here.

So Edler for Vezina?

Sorry Edler, you lost your shot.

4. Guddy update

Tweeted by Bailey during Friday’s game:

Updated after Sunday’s game:

Makes the Canucks hard to play against? Good around his net? Solid shut down defenceman?

The theories are not proving to be true, you know.

Aren’t the “intangibles” supposed to help you win games?

5. Winning rebuttal

Moving on to Trade Deadline talke, interesting argument from CHICanucks here:

Better rebuttal from PITBDaniel:

6. About Vanek

Speaking of Vanek, and what the Canucks might do before Monday’s trade deadline, Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre spoke with Jim Benning Sunday and wrote a worrying article before the game. From the article:

Benning confirmed to Sportsnet on Sunday that there is some interest in Canuck winger Thomas Vanek, but he hopes other teams will come calling about the 34-year-old if more prominent trade chips like Buffalo Sabre Evander Kane and Edmonton Oiler Patrick Maroon get moved ahead of Mondayā€™s deadline.

Matt Sekeres tweeted something similar during the game (it may or may not be from the same source):

That’s the team setting Canucks fans up for a silent deadline day, one where Vanek may not even be moved.

If you think that’s bad, perhaps you should ignore this, from later in MacIntyre’s article.

Interestingly, Benning didnā€™t rule out the possibility of a NTC on a future deal for Vanek even though he has been steadfast in excluding them in recent multi-year contracts for Gudbranson, Bo Horvat, Sam Gagner and Michael Del Zotto.

ā€œThatā€™s something weā€™ve shied away from giving out because it ties your hands,ā€ Benning said. ā€œBut I understand it from the playerā€™s perspective and sometimes thatā€™s the only way you can get a free agent. We look at each case individually.ā€

So instead of a trade, we might have a one-year extension with an NTC.

The Canucks are definitely trying new and different routes of going about rebuilding the team. You have to give them that.

BONUS: What could come at TDL

Dirk suggested the following:

Matt replied:

Wyatt explained why that would not soften the PR blow:

Wyatt’s right. The Canucks could be the laughingstock of the NHL if they make that move on Monday.

Wait to see what happens, I guess.

See also
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