30 Sep 2015 The Vancouver Sun Iain MacIntyre McCann flashes future hope Bright spot: Given the makeup of Vancouver s squad, their top pre-season goal scorer likely won t stick as starter which is a shame Jared McCann refuses to go quietly back to junior hockey. The 19-year-old sniped a pure, goalscorer s goal in the first period of the Canucks 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. It was his fourth point of the National Hockey League pre-season more than Vancouver forward hopefuls Jake Virtanen, Sven Baertschi, Brendan Gaunce, Ronalds Kenins, Linden Vey and Adam Cracknell have combined. It still may not be enough for McCann because the Canucks will probably carry only one under-age player and Virtanen has a powerful NHL build and a game that translates to depth-duty at the bottom of the lineup. But, man, McCann can handle and shoot the puck. Ineligible to go to the minors, the centre has played well wherever he has been plugged into the lineup. The 2014 first-round pick, chosen 18 spots after Virtanen, has gotten better with each pre-season game. When you play at the next level, it s a lot about confidence, McCann said. You have to be confident in how you play. You can t just back away from all those superstars. And I feel with each game, as I ve progressed and played against bigger and better guys, I have that confidence. He s got such a quick release, teammate Derek Dorsett marvelled. And he can pull away from guys. That s what I ve noticed most about his skating he can get out of hightraffic areas and make plays. He s a real bright spot for our organization. Tuesday s performance, despite the loss, was easily the brightest spot of the Canucks pre-season. Against a Sharks team that dressed nearly all of its NHL lineup, Vancouver was the better team the final 40 minutes and outshot San Jose 31-22 in a game with regular-season-like intensity. With Daniel and Henrik Sedin and top goal-scorer Radim Vrbata sitting home in Vancouver, the Canucks didn t have anywhere near the firepower possessed by the Sharks. But the Canucks, who hung on at times in the first period, got stronger as the game progressed. Shots in the third period were 9-1. Despite a territorial advantage, Vancouver surrendered the only goal of the middle period and Brent Burns fluky tiebreaker at 7:43 turned out to be the gamewinner. Burns attempted goalmouth pass to Joe Pavelski was redirected by Canuck defenceman Matt Bartkowski between the pads of Vancouver goalie Ryan Miller to break a 1-1 tie. The Sharks used a pair of dominant power plays to build momentum and a 1-0 lead midway through the opening frame, but the Canucks escaped the period level when McCann sniped an opportunistic tying goal at 18:34. He rifled a shot into San Jose goalie Martin Jones top left corner after a ghastly turnover by Shark defenceman Matt Nieto. It lifted McCann into a tie with another rookie, defenceman Ben Hutton, for the Canucks pre-season scoring lead at four points.
McCann created another good chance for himself in the third, cutting across Team Canada defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and releasing a heavy shot from the high slot that Jones saved, and set up Linden Vey on another chance. San Jose dominated the middle of the first period when Canucks Brandon Prust and Chris Tanev took consecutive penalties. But Miller, culpable of half the shots that beat him in the Canucks 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday, made strong saves against Patrick Marleau and Pavelski before Tommy Wingels deflection tumbled past him at 10 minutes. They basically had a full lineup, Dorsett said. Guys are starting to skate a little harder, and things were a lot cleaner out there. In the preseason, you just want to get better every game and I think we ve done that. With their top guns missing, Canuck coaches tried to get struggling centre Vey going by using him on an attacking line with wingers Baertschi and Virtanen. Gaunce got a another game with centre Bo Horvat, this time accompanied by rookie Alex Grenier, but had a quiet night. Cracknell effectively centred Brandon Prust and Derek Dorset on a dash-and-crash line. On defence, newcomer Bartkowski had his best game of the pre-season, which also helped quiet rookie Frankie Corrado have a solid night as his blueline partner. But Hutton, the 22-year-old straight out of college hockey, was excellent moving the puck and his feet and probably outplayed Corrado again. ICE CHIPS: Veteran winger Jannik Hansen played just his second game of the pre-season... After playing four times in five nights, the Canucks final two pre-season games are Thursday and Saturday, away and home to the Edmonton Oilers. 30 Sep 2015 The Vancouver Sun IAIN MacINTYRE Cracknell grasps long shot to crack lineup SAN JOSE, Calif. He has been in this situation before. But, of course, after nine years and nine teams in professional hockey, Adam Cracknell has been in most situations before. The 30-year-old journeyman forward from Victoria has a genuine chance to make the Vancouver Canucks opening-night lineup. Two weeks ago, if you d listed on paper new players who might make the National Hockey League team, Cracknell s name if it appeared at all would have been an afterthought scribbled in the margin. In pencil, so it could be erased. He s not Jake Virtanen or Jared McCann, firstround picks who appear to have a long, lucrative future with the Canucks whether it begins next week or not. Signed at the end of August for organizational depth and to provide leadership and experience on the Canucks farm team in Utica, N.Y., Cracknell was chosen 279th by the Calgary Flames in the 2004 entry draft. The NHL draft doesn t even go that deep anymore. In nine pro seasons in three different organizations, Cracknell has played 82 NHL games and 507 in the minors. But here he is, one week until the Canucks season-opener in Calgary, threatening to push incumbent Linden Vey out of a job.
I know they brought me in for maybe some depth, Cracknell said before Vancouver s pre-season game here Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks. But I came here with the mentality of making this team. They ve given me a very good look here, and the way I m playing, I think I ve shown what I can do. I just have to keep doing it. It s hard for any guy to stay in the NHL. The first step is making the NHL, but the second is staying here. I got rewarded with an opportunity, and that s all I m looking for. You create your own opportunities with the way you play. I have to show them I can play here. Cracknell s candidacy has been helped by the poor pre-season Vey carried into Tuesday s game. Canuck staff love the 24-year-old s puck skills and believe they may be essential for power play depth. But as a potential fourth-line centre playing behind Henrik Sedin, Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter, Vey, a step slow and without the natural inclination to create physical contact, looks unsuitable. It s the same miscasting that led coach Willie Desjardins to scratch Vey from the playoffs last April. I think the way I play complements a couple of other guys on the team that play big and physical, Cracknell said. It may be something (the organization) wants more of. It s something I can provide. I know what my role is and I know how I have to play it. That s how I can stay in the lineup. Cracknell, whose family moved to Victoria from Prince Albert when he was 15, was excited Tuesday to centre rugged wingers Derek Dorsett and Brandon Prust. It was essentially a test flight for the potential fourth line. We all bring grittiness and physical play, and still definitely provide some offence with how hard we work, Cracknell said before the game. I think this is somewhere I can fit in. So far, that hasn t happened for Cracknell at the NHL level. He has played bits of the last five seasons with the St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets. But Cracknell has never logged more than 24 NHL games in a season. I think every year that goes by, you definitely think about that, Cracknell said. When an opportunity comes knocking like it did this summer, I have to understand where my career sits and what s in front of me. I think this is where maybe my experience comes into play. I can only take care of how I play, and if I give my best effort, then I give myself a chance. 30 Sep 2015 The Province Jason Botchford McCann displaying wow factor PRE-SEASON: Young prospect should have decent shot at making Canucks roster SAN JOSE, Calif. If pre-season really matters, if the Canucks are being honest about an emphasis on youth, Jared McCann will be playing in one week, on opening night, when it matters. McCann has outplayed Jake Virtanen, Linden Vey, Sven Baertschi and Ronalds Kenins. In fact, name any Canuck forward. McCann is eating their lunch right now. He was good in Penticton, great at training camp, impressive in the first week of pre-season and now, well now, he s scoring. He has set up plays, picked corners and, lo and behold, produced offence. When is the last time a 19- year-old, who is very good defensively, was doing anything like this in Vancouver in September?
Much of the talk this summer was focused on Virtanen s chances of making the Canucks. What if McCann is the 2014 first-round draft pick who is more ready for this? Because, currently, that s how it looks. Stay calm. All of this may go away in a flash once the season starts. Many pre-season promises do. But, to borrow a phrase, let s do this. McCann now has four points, leading all Canucks. People can compare him with Ryan Shannon, Sergei Shirokov and other frauds who have shown well in the pre-season. The difference? Pedigree. McCann isn t a journeyman or a late-round draft pick. He s a firstround stud, who has the potential to be a second- or first-line centre. Can McCann work centring a line with Brandon Prust and Derek Dorsett? Great question. But right now, honestly, who cares? It s like the Canucks just found water on Mars. It requires further study. Some will point out McCann s struggles in the faceoff circle. I don t care. Something unexpected has a chance of happening here and the Canucks have to give it every chance they can to let it breathe. Mostly, this has been an awful pre-season. The Canucks veterans, and that includes their No. 1 goalie, have been sleepwalking through it for so long, the coaching staff addressed most of them Tuesday, essentially telling them: Give us more, like now. You can understand it from the Sedins, Alex Burrows and even Brandon Sutter, though you d think he d be trying to make a bigger early splash after signing that massive extension. You can understand it when Alex Edler and Chris Tanev play like they d rather be watching a Jays game, like they did Tuesday. You can t understand it, however, from players like Vey and Kenins, whose jobs are either in jeopardy or should be. All of the sludge we ve endured, at least those of us who have watched these games, is making McCann s efforts stand out even more. He is doing this for a team that lost players who scored 54 goals last year; for a team that really doesn t have an obvious answer where those goals are going to come from this season. And on Tuesday, he was playing on a team of almost entirely prospects who were up against the San Jose Sharks. The real ones. The roster the Canucks sent to San Jose should have been totally overmatched. There were times they were. For the first 10 minutes of the second period Vancouver produced one shot. Vey spent most of the first two periods getting, figuratively speaking here, his head kicked in on his matchups. The Canucks had two even-strength shot attempts when he was on the ice in the first 40 minutes. The Sharks had nine. McCann, meanwhile, was holding his own. His line generated as many shot attempts as it surrendered. This is good. So is this: McCann can shoot. On the Canucks first power play Tuesday, he launched one off the heal of his stick. It was ripped. It was heading for the top corner when Martin Jones made a really good save.
Later, in front of Brenden Dillon, McCann picked up a turnover in the slot, whirled around, and in one motion, wired the puck into the net. You think the Canucks could use that shot this year? What about the second power-play unit, which played last season like Ray Donovan took them out in October and buried them somewhere in a desert. Where McCann fits in is on the Canucks. They have to make it happen. Virtanen is hitting people, as advertised. He s also turning the puck over and not exactly looking comfortable defensively. McCann has been more polished, and has shown a more complete game. Is it his time? Well, next week it should be time to find out. 30 Sep 2015 The Province Ben Kuzma Slow start doesn t concern Sutter Right now, you don t expect to feel great, but the goal is to feel 100 per cent by that first game. Brandon Sutter The theory goes something like this: While wide-eyed prospects push for roster spots like they ve been shot out of a cannon, a more methodical approach by veterans is predictable and an NHL preseason staple. There is the removal of offseason rust, acclimating to new teammates and systems, while trying to ensure they don t get hurt and are ready for the regular-season opener. They look at Chris Higgins and applaud his shot-blocking bravado, but who wants to be sidelined for at least a month with a foot fracture? It s only human nature. Run all this by Willie Desjardins and you get a long pause before the Vancouver Canucks coach cuts to the chase. For me, I always want to win, and I judge guys every night in how hard they play, and it doesn t matter if they re a veteran or whatever, Desjardins said Tuesday after watching those not playing in San Jose being put through the paces at Rogers Arena. A lot of our veterans haven t played the way they need to play, and I want to see them playing great so I can relax when I go home. And if I don t see that, I m going to have some concerns. But in saying all that, I know guys have played in big games and I know they ll play that way again, I know they will. You don t put up 101 points or ice the second-ranked penalty kill and ninth-rated power play by accident. The Canucks still have eight players from the 2011 run to the Stanley Cup final, so any measure of angst should be tempered by a degree of confidence. However, when the six goals in the first five pre-season games come from prospects Jared McCann, Alex Friesen, Brendan Gaunce and Jake Virtanen, along with sophomore Bo Horvat and the welltravelled Adam Cracknell, it does raise eyebrows. So does Ben Hutton leading team scoring with four assists, and Brandon Sutter having no points and little to show for three pre-season outings.
Sutter is supposed to be the straw that stirs the second-line drink, aids the power play, kills penalties, wins key faceoffs and can match up against tough Pacific Division centres. He was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a reason and is considered an upgrade on Nick Bonino, who went the other way in the swap. But with just six shots through three games and a minus-2 rating, he hasn t excited the coach not yet, anyway. I haven t seen him play his best, said Desjardins. I see a guy who s big and a good skater and who understands the game real well, but just hasn t got that involved. It s not a slight on him. In the end, you have to know as a coach what guys will give you when you need them. I know he ll be there and I totally believe that. But l just want to see him harder on pucks, go harder to the net, and get involved. Sutter was on a four-forward power-play alignment at practice Tuesday with Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Radim Vrbata, while Alex Edler manned the point. As a right-shot centre, he s expected to find open ice to accept passes, get to the net to set screens, be a presence and retrieve pucks. Those are things he can do and when he s hungry and on top of his game, added Desjardins. But whenever you re thinking too much, you don t react. And when you don t react, you hesitate and you re in trouble. Sutter understands the scrutiny in a hockey-mad market, but believes he ll be comfortable by the season opener on Oct. 7 in Calgary. Even in his third game on Monday a 1-0 win over Arizona in which he managed three shots, but won just six of 21 draws he was still asking players and coaches about positioning. It takes a few games, said Sutter, 26, who matched a career high with 21 goals last season and was second in the NHL with four short-handed goals. The first two games this year, I was excited and ready to go, and you go out there and it s like you forgot how to play hockey. After the third, you start to feel it. Right now, you don t expect to feel great, but the goal is to feel 100 per cent by that first game. You want to have a fast start and come flying out of the gates, and not just statistically. You want to feel like you re doing a lot of things right. It s getting the puck up well and helping the defence break out. A couple more games and hopefully it will come together, but we ll see where we re at the first week or two weeks of the season, and then we ll start drawing judgment. And with the X s and O s of it, it probably takes you 10 or 20 games to get that down pat. Canucks general manager Jim Benning called Sutter a foundation player and paid him like one, with a five year extension for $21.875 million US that kicks in after this season. It includes a no-trade clause in Sutter s expiring $3.3-million season, and a no-trade in the first three years of the extension, before a modified no trade in the final two years. That can bring a heightened level of pressure to perform. I don t think they signed me so I can be a completely different player than I ve been in the past, reasoned Sutter. You ve got to be yourself. I ve never been worried about stats. They come together as you play. It s about winning, and that s why they got me here. Eric MacKenzie September 29
24 Hours McCann makes his mark again in Canucks loss A decision on Jared McCann is coming soon, and the 19-year-old centre keeps making that call tougher and tougher for Vancouver Canucks management. McCann scored his second goal in as many nights Tuesday as the Canucks lost 2-1 to an experienced San Jose Sharks lineup at the SAP Center. Now with two goals and two assists in exhibition play, McCann leads the team in goals and is tied with defenceman Ben Hutton for the Canucks most preseason points. Though it was McCann who lit the lamp Tuesday for an unassisted marker, fellow 2014 first-rounder Jake Virtanen set it up with a strong forecheck that forced a San Jose turnover. The puck squirted into the slot where McCann was waiting to beat Sharks goalie Martin Jones with a quick release late in the first period. The goal tied the game at 1-1, but San Jose s Brent Burns would net the eventual winner midway through the second period. The Canucks couldn t find a tying goal despite outshooting their hosts 9-2 over the final 20 minutes. McCann can t be assigned to the AHL, so if he doesn t stick with the big club, he must be returned to the OHL s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Based on his body of work through Tuesday, it would be a hard sell to Canucks fans that he isn t deserving of at least a nine-game trial in Vancouver at the beginning of the regular season before deciding if he ll stay the year. It s an honour, but I feel like I ve deserved it, McCann told Sportsnet s Dan Murphy during the first period of Tuesday s broadcast of still being with the team. Each game my confidence keeps growing and I just work from there. It s been two straight games in which McCann was the Canucks lone goal-scorer, and with the team having scored just seven times through six preseason games, he s been involved in more than half of them. With Henrik Sedin, Brandon Sutter and Bo Horvat ahead of him at centre, it seems general manager Jim Benning will have to decide if McCann has passed Linden Vey for the fourth-line spot on the Canucks depth chart. Also at Tuesday s first intermission, Benning told Murphy that it s possible the Canucks go with a fourth-line centre who can also be part of the second power-play unit. Whether it s Linden or we look at another player, that s kind of the mindset on that position right now, said Benning. Ryan Miller played the full 60 minutes in the Vancouver net and turned in his best preseason appearance so far. The 35-year-old stopped 20 shots and couldn t be faulted much on the two that got behind him one coming on a fluttering deflection by San Jose forward Tommy Wingels, the other banking in off Canucks defenceman Matt Bartkowski, who was trying to break up a pass across from Burns. The Canucks are now 2-3-1 in preseason play with a pair of games remaining against the Edmonton Oilers the first Thursday in Alberta, the other Saturday at Rogers Arena. Sportsnet
THOMAS DRANCE AND DAN MURPHY SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 Nerdy Guy vs. Naked Eye: Canucks offseason recap Looking back at the season that was for the Canucks and looking ahead to the improvements made during the off-season and how it may help them moving forward. It s that time of year again for the Naked Eye and the Nerdy Guy to start kicking the Canucks again. In this column Thomas Drance and Dan Murphy have a go at the Canucks off-season. Eddie Lack trade Thomas Drance (Nerdy Guy): Eddie Lack was phenomenal down the stretch for Vancouver, and his track record particularly his.923 5-on-5 save percentage the past two seasons suggests that he s a decent bet to be a roughly average NHL starter. The problem with dealing Lack from Vancouver s short-term perspective is that neither Ryan Miller (.917 even-strength save percentage since 2013) nor Jacob Markstrom (.905 even-strength save percentage for his NHL career) are similarly good bets to provide even average puck-stopping performance. Dan Murphy (Naked Eye): I don t know if Eddie Lack is a better goaltender than Ryan Miller, but I do know he s younger and cheaper than Vancouver s current No. 1. Jim Benning s first big move as Vancouver s GM was to sign Miller to that three-year, $18-million dollar deal so we shouldn t be surprised he wanted to stick with his guy. The return for Lack wasn t great, but the Canucks couldn t afford to pay him at the end of this season and continue to have Ryan Miller around, too. Decision not to deal Ryan Miller Drance: Jim Benning told Canucks fans at a season ticket holder event in July that the opportunity to deal Miller, who has two-years and $12 million remaining on his contract, presented itself this summer. Considering Miller s contract, his sub-average performance over the past few years, and what the stats tell us about the aging curve for NHL goalies a numbers-based approach would ve advocated that the club leap at the chance. Murphy: Benning kicked a hornet s nest when he admitted he took calls on Miller (Elliotte Friedman says SJ wanted to bring him in). The fact Eddie Lack was a fan favourite obviously does not play into determining a players value BUT keeping the guy your fan base loved, gives you more cap flexibility and has performed at an equal level as Miller last season seemed like a no brainer to me. Brandon Sutter trade Drance: Nick Bonino has produced even-strength offence at a higher rate than Brandon Sutter, and his performance by the shot-based metrics is similarly more auspicious. In other words, the upgrade from Bonino to Sutter may not be significant enough to warrant the premium paid. Sutter s negative underlying performance and his anemic production by the counting stats would imply that he s a long-shot to live up to the lucrative 5-year contract extension he signed this summer. Murphy: Will Sutter be an upgrade on Bonino? Past numbers say no. However Sutter is a player the Canucks (and Benning) had coveted for a couple of years and when the opportunity arouse to acquire him they jumped at it.
Sutter will get top six minutes in Vancouver (he didn t in Pittsburgh) so he ll get a chance to prove 40 points is not his ceiling. Believe in your scouts. You pay them for a reason. The heat is now on Sutter to make his GM look good. Giving good money and term to a player who has averaged 30 points per season for the last five years is definitely a gamble. If Sutter does not pan out this one is going to be a real strike against Benning. Allowing Brad Richardson and Shawn Matthias to walk in free agency Drance: Richardson is an elite penalty killer, while Matthias does only one thing really well, but it s a really useful thing: he scores goals in bunches. With seemingly natural replacement (Sven Baertschi and Bo Horvat) in the system and signed to affordable contracts, the club s decision to allow Matthias and Richardson to walk was sensible. Murphy: If you want a younger team you have to give younger players a chance. The Canucks never held contract discussions with either of these players so it was clear they weren t interested in bringing them back. Personally I thought Matthias would get more money (and some term!) but I m all for letting them walk if players like Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann get a legitimate shot at making the club. Signing Matt Bartkowski Drance: Matt Bartkowski is only two years removed from playing on a Presidents Trophy winner s second pair. Though he s probably better suited for the third pair and can t be counted on to produce goals, he s managed an auspicious primary assist rate (comparable to what Christian Ehrhoff and Mark Giordano have produced over the past three years), which generally indicates that a defender can move the puck effectively. Murphy: The Canucks were desperate for blue line depth. Bartkowski is a player Benning knows well from his Boston days and let s be honest, the Canucks do not have enough defencemen who can carry the puck out of danger. At 27, he is still relatively young and a one-year, $1.75-million dollar deal is relatively low risk. Dealing Kevin Bieksa Drance: For years, Kevin Bieksa s abilities offensively and in transition served to outweigh his habit of marauding into trouble in his own end, but this arithmetic changed as the physical veteran defender began to age precipitously. Netting a significant future asset without taking money back in a Bieksa trade was a win for the Canucks. Murphy: Bieksa is one of my all time favourite Canucks. For 10 years he represented the Canucks organization with class and played his guts out on the ice. Bieksa was accountable both on and off the ice and his leadership will no doubt be missed. That said, it was time to move on. Vancouver needed to get younger and Bieksa was a player they could get value for. Trading Zack Kassian for Brandon Prust Drance: Zack Kassian is younger, cheaper and a much more dynamic offensive player than Brandon Prust, but Prust is still a plus defensive winger and an ace penalty killer. The numbers prefer Kassian overall, but Prust should be a useful contributor. Murphy: Kassian was great, compelling TV. The young man has a tremendous amount of upside but the Canucks were not willing to put in any more work to see if he could fulfill it. I believe the Canucks put in a tremendous amount of work to try and help Kassian become a professional but he wasn t willing to match. This could come back to bite the Canucks in the rear, but I doubt it will. The Sedins turning 35 Drance: Age has taken its toll on the twins 5-on-5 scoring rates, which are in marked decline. Similarly, the twins shot attempt differential (or Corsi For percentage (CF%)), has slid somewhat in recent years though they remain elite two-way players: Vancouver has leaned on their top line to
win their matchup over the years so if these trend lines continue downward this season, the Canucks could be in trouble. Murphy: Father time is undefeated. The Sedins know this. However I m not ready to kick dirt on a couple of players who finished ahead of Stamkos, Johansen, Pavelski, Parise, Perry, Couture and Toews in PPG last season. Daniel and Henrik still have good hockey left in those 35-year old bones but they do need others on the team to start picking up some slack. September 29 The White Towel Jason Botchford Canucks 2-1 loss, what we learned: Virtanen benched, Kenins MIA and Hutton s best yet Jake Virtanen was benched. Virtanen didn t play the last nine minutes of the game and he was not hurt. Uh-oh. Off night for the Canucks prospect or sign of things to come? Virtanen is going to get NHL games. The regular season ones. Unless something unforeseen happens. How many? Well, that depends on him. He has hit people and even scored. There have definitely been some good times. Tuesday was not among them. He did not played well with the puck and a stacked Sharks team was more than eager to exploit it. He s still leaning, Gulutzan said. In the junior game you can get away with some things. Here, it s about teaching them when you can try things and when you can t. When Big Joe and Little Joe Thornton and Pavelski are out there, you got to be a little more careful out there. They ll learn that as they go. When NHL coaches say junior players are playing a junior game, it is never good. What the hell did you do with Ronalds Kenins? Is the real one buried somewhere? Maybe playing him with the Sedins wasn t the best idea this preseason. In a game a few hours after Willie Desjardins told Kenins, and other vets, to pick it up, he hit no one. Literally no one. His line had nice long possession going in the first, until Mike Brown dummied Kenins along the boards and took the puck and probably his car keys.
He had a wide open lane to the net in the third, with the team down one, and he worked the puck back into two defenders instead of taking it. He tried to dangle the puck through his legs, stripping himself of the puck and tripping himself at the same time. You can t make this stuff up. Linden Vey was bad He was tapped to centre the first line, between Baertschi and Virtanen. Blame any one of them you want, or all of them, it was the team s worst and by a significant margin. He was asked to centre PP1. He played 2:35 minutes of the final 3:21 with the Canucks down a goal. The team did everything it could to extract something positive out of Vey. As Vey got all that late game opportunity, McCann did not get a chance to play in the final four minutes. Unfortunate that, because if you were to bet on someone on that roster tying it, I d think McCann s odds would be among the lowest two. Vey did have a nice chance on a PP, set up by McCann, but other than that, there was not much going on here at all. For most of the game, his line was getting its teeth kicked in, the only line to have a negative Corsi (Vey finished at minus-4) Jared McCann was good If the Canucks are true to their word, he s on the team and probably centring their fourth line in a week for opening night. If it doesn t work when the grind gets real, so what? You tried. You stuck with what you promised. McCann has out played pretty much everyone, played 15:48 in San Jose and actually got better as the game went on. He finished with a 60% Corsi, playing a group of Sharks who will mostly compromise their opening night roster. And, oh ya, he scored. You think the Canucks could use that shot on their PP2? You saw it from Jake too, they come off that wall and they can zip a puck, Gulutzan said. You saw it from Jake against Calgary and you saw it from Jared against Arizona. They just have that skill. They re quick. They can really shoot. I think Mac, he sees the ice, he has that speed and I think he can help (PP2). Time will tell, but he s certainly done a lot for himself. Willie addressed his Vets today unhappy with preseason performance He wants to push, he wants the veteran guys to push now, Gulutzan said. We have two games left. It was a little bit of a challenge, like Hey, let s get going here. We have these young guys that are pushing every night. Now we need a little push from the vets.
I thought Jannik Hansen came in and played hard. I think that message was delivered. Brendan Gaunce was gutsy His nose doesn t appear broken. Neither does his spirit. Gaunce took a Ben Hutton clearing attempt to his face, and kept on killing a penalty with blood gushing everywhere. Coaches eat this stuff up. As a guy who does the PK, to see a guy take one right in the face and then stays out there still trying to kill it, that s that youth stuff you like, Gulutzan said. He s a real good details guy. He bounced back from that and played strong. Utica could have used Ben Hutton It s been wild to watch Hutton these few weeks, seeing how smooth and smart with the puck. Even with a couple obvious mistakes in San Jose, it was his best game yet. The Canucks gave up just two third period shots. Hutton and Biega were their best pairing. Hutton led all defencemen with a 67% Corsi rating. Barkowski was at 40%, and Corrado 36%. His best play came early in the third when he cut through four Sharks, getting deep into the offensive zone. Brent Burns was completely dummied on the play and had to hook Hutton to prevent an fantastic scoring chance. I picked the puck up around our net and I got some speed, Hutton explained. There was an open space when I was wheeling up. Originally, I was going to dish it off on my backhand, but I saw (Burns) cheating that side. I could see he thought I was going to dish it off. So I thought You know what, maybe I should try to dive through this hole here. I got halfway through and he can opened me there. That s pretty great. It s also something the Canucks don t have nearly enough of. He would not have tried that play the first game of the preseason, by the way. He s feeling it. You d think Utica could have used some of this in the Calder Cup when it was so hard to score goals. I asked Hutton if this is what the Comets would have got if they played him in May and June. I would have tried to play my game and that s what you ve seen me doing this preseason, he said. I would have stuck to my game plan. What about plays like that one that drew the Burns hook. Oh ya, you would have seen a little of it, Hutton said. Big smile. Just think where he d be now if he playing in 15 playoff games instead of one.
Canucks will think long and hard about Hutton making the team Hutton can make it if the Canucks keep eight dmen. Or he can make it if they waive Corrado. Murph asked Benning directly about what would need to happen, and Benning didn t exactly say no to waiving Corrado. Of course, that makes zero sense. Corrado is way too good defensively, despite his preseason, to risk waivers. The most logical plan would see Hutton take the Tanev path of going to the AHL and playing the first half of the season in as many scenarios as possible (big minutes, PP, PK). If he excels it opens up a trade move for Vancouver at the deadline, where they could deal one of their vets (hello, hamhuis) when sellers have huge leverage. That makes the most sense. But if he s building all this momentum now, would the team really consider putting him in the NHL without any seasoning? He s certainly making a bid for it, Gulutzan said. I thought he was real strong again tonight. The subtleties of his game are so good, his ability to buy himself a little time with some look offs and his patience, waiting for plays to develop, using a few little moves or a step. It s a hard thing to teach a defenceman and he has that naturally. He s a very noticeable defenceman for us.