The Vancouver Canucks have been hit hard by injuries all season; why should now be any different?
Heading into Saturday afternoon's game against the Anaheim Ducks, the Canucks are expected to be missing Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil, Nils Höglander, Nils Åman, and Tyler Myers.
Chytil is as he deals with "good days and bad days" recovering from the fifth documented concussion of his professional career. Pettersson has an upper body injury and has yet to test it with a hard skate or practice, so it's unclear when he'll return. Höglander was at practice on Friday in a regular jersey rather than a red non-contact jersey but Tocchet said he was unlikely to play Saturday, though he could return on Sunday.
Åman got injured at Friday's practice, going hard into the boards. According to Postmedia's Patrick Johnston, . As for Myers, it's unclear what injury he's dealing with, but he missed the last 12 minutes of the Canucks' last game. Head coach Rick Tocchet said that Myers wanted to keep playing, but they held him out. Now, he's expected to miss Saturday's game.
On the plus side, at least the Canucks don't have anything to play for. It's not like any additional injuries at this point are going to hurt their playoff chances; they don't have any.
Sure, technically speaking, the Canucks have yet to be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. They're eight points back of the Minnesota Wild for the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference, ground that could be made up in the Canucks' seven remaining games if absolutely everything breaks the Canucks' way.
But the Canucks have lost five of their last seven games. The time to buckle down and lock in was weeks ago. The moment has passed, and the playoffs are long gone. It's time to move on.
One motivation to get players back from injury at this point is to not put too much of a strain on the Abbotsford Canucks, who have won 11-straight games as they heat up for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Let Abbotsford cook.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
While the Canucks haven't made an official announcement, Max Sasson is listed on their roster, so presumably has been called up under emergency conditions after Åman's injury at practice on Friday. Sasson was previously called up under emergency conditions on the Canucks' road trip when it looked like Teddy Blueger might miss a game, so it makes sense that he'd be the call-up when another centre goes down.
Here are the Canucks' projected lines:
Some of this is guesswork, but it seems likely that they'll plug Sasson in where Åman was playing between Linus Karlsson and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. They seem to like the fit of Aatu Räty with Dakota Joshua and Kiefer Sherwood, so it's likely that line will stay together, but we'll see how they take the ice for warm-up.
UPDATE: While Sasson will slot in directly for Åman, the Canucks are making a change to their top-six.
Conor Garland and Jake DeBrusk will swap places, with Garland joining Pius Suter and Brock Boeser, while DeBrusk will be with Drew O'Connor and Teddy Blueger on the second line.
On defence, Victor Mancini will get an opportunity to prove himself on the top pairing with Quinn Hughes, with Marcus Pettersson and Filip Hronek skating as the second pairing.
The Canucks' starting goaltender will be Thatcher Demko, with Kevin Lankinen expected to get Sunday's start against the Vegas Golden Knights on the second half of back-to-back games.
Anaheim Ducks projected lines
With their loss to the Calgary Flames on Thursday, the Ducks have been officially eliminated from the playoffs.
The fundamental issue for the Ducks is that they just can't score. They average 2.69 goals per game, which is 27th in the NHL. Combine that with slightly below average goals against, and it's not surprising the Ducks are once again on the outside looking in. They're a young team with some intriguing talent — Jackson LaCombe, in particular, has been a revelation on defence this season — but I don't know if they'll be ready to turn the corner next season.
Here are the Ducks' projected lines:
Cutter Gauthier - Leo Carlsson - Alex Killorn
Frank Vatrano - Ryan Strome - Troy Terry
Trevor Zegras - Mason McTavish - Sam Colangelo
Jansen Harkins - Isac Lundeström - Nikita Nesterenko
Jackson LaCombe - Radko Gudas
Olen Zellweger - Oliver Kylington
Pavel Mintyukov - Drew Helleson
Lukas Dostal
Ville Husso
Jacob Trouba is out with a lower-body injury, so Oliver Kylington will be on the second pairing with Olen Zellweger.
The Ducks' starting goaltender is expected to be Lukas Dostal. John Gibson suffered a lower-body injury during Thursday's game and they have called up Ville Husso from the AHL in his stead.
