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Canucks Extra Rev up the rumour machine

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5 years ago

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The Canucks won their last game at home before Monday’s trade deadline in emphatic fashion and maybe we’re about to see some bold moves?

Is Jim Benning really done? There’s a big opportunity in front of him. It’s not a multi-year window, that’s for sure, but with Pacific Division the way it is, it’s a little insane but it’s also not unthinkable that the Canucks could make a surprising run to the Western Conference final.

They need to avoid Vegas in the first round, that’s for sure. They also need to avoid finishing in the wild card so they don’t face one of Colorado, Dallas or St. Louis.

Match them up against the Flames or the Oilers and there’s a decent chance of winning a round.z

A second-round showdown with Vegas probably goes as you’d expect, given the challenges of playing at T-Mobile, but hey you never know.

There are serious cap-induced decisions to be made once the playoffs are done and it’s unlikely the lineup will be as strong next year as it is at the moment. That’s why there’s a good case to be made to just go hard after creating as deep a group as you can right now, upgrading as much as you can, looking at an elaborate collection of moves.

The Stecher thing

Troy Stecher likes talking hockey. He likes interacting with fans and media.

He doesn’t not like being the story, unless it’s about scoring a fun goal or perhaps to gently chide a teammate. That’s his nature.

So when he was a bit prickly on Friday when asked, as he knew would come, about being in trade rumours, you understood. He also handled the whole scenario professionally.

After Saturday’s game, he was thrilled to have opened the scoring. He was thrilled he didn’t get another bad-luck goal against go in off his chest.

And he made it clear that he really hope he gets to stay a Vancouver Canuck.

The guy always draws notice from the fans.

The VGK thing

It’s been quite the thing watching them, already good, chasing defencemen because they’ve smartly managed their cap and their roster.

They’ve now won five in a row. They face some pretty mediocre opponents in the next five games.

They could win ten in a row.

And they’re likely to only get better in terms of the depth of their squad.

Watch. Out.

The Florida thing

There are so many ridiculous things about the Panthers, who lost Saturday to VGK 5-3.

There’s endless ridiculous fact that Dale Tallon sent the Knights two-thirds of their current first line — Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault — in a fit of spite.

Or that they’re playing defencemen as forwards.

Or that the team that Sergei Bobrovsky *used* to play for is doing just fine with goalies making much, much less.

Or this.

How can you go on with Tallon as you GM?

The elaborate thing

I do think there’s potential for something really elaborate to happen in Jim Benning’s world.

We’ve heard about the Leafs’ interest in Troy Stecher. Maybe that brings back Tyson Barrie, but as I and others have noted, he’s actually a really weird fit on the Canucks’ blue line now.

That said, it’s really unlikely Stecher gets re-signed this summer, so you might as well use him as a trade chip. But if you move him, you do need to find someone, a defenceman who makes your defensive game better in the aggregate

With that in mind, let’s kick out an idea. This is pure speculation here. I have no notions here, have heard nothing — unlike the noise that is actually out there about Adam Gaudette or Troy Stecher.

So: how about Jonas Brodin? Supposedly the Wild are willing to move either Brodin or Matt Dumba. Brodin would look good in blue and green.

But how do you get him? Might Bill Guerin still have Jake Virtanen’s fight 2.5 weeks ago still ringing in his head? (No one tell him that was only Virtanen’s third career fight, his first since his rookie season.)

Virtanen alone doesn’t get you Brodin, but with Devan Dubnyk past his expiry date, the Wild sure could use a goalie. How about Thatcher Demko?

But of course, the Canucks have a pile of games in March. Even if they’d like to ride Jacob Markstrom hard, they’re going to need some starts from a backup goalie, so Alex Stalock, the Wild’s low-salary, serviceable veteran backup will do. (He’s also under contract through 2021-22 so you can expose him in the expansion draft.)

So Virtanen + Demko for Brodin + Stalock.

Now, you need to find a home for Stecher and if it isn’t going to be the Leafs, who else could do with? The Jets are on the lookout for D, so surely there’s a fit there.

The Jets have Jansen Harkins, who’s from North Van and whose dad Todd long ago played a handful of games for the Canucks. He’s feisty, scored in the WHL. He projects as a solid third-line player He’s just the kind of forward prospect Jim Benning and John Weisbrod love.

Plus, he’s rather cheap and with the cap challenges ahead, you need as many solid, cheap, young players as you can find.

The Madden thing

If there was a clear delineation in how Benning and his right-hand man John Weisbrod view their prospect pool, it was in trading Tyler Madden.

Most people I spoke with, scouts and otherwise, rated Madden as one of the Canucks’ top five prospects. Some even said there was a case for top three.  His development since being drafted in the third round now has most calling him a first-round quality prospect.

He’s going to play, they say and he’s going to be good.

My impression is that this is how the Canucks’ scouting staff felt too.

But it’s clear that Benning felt otherwise. His judgment about what the kid should be was made clear in his comments

“I see him as more of a winger,” he said on Tuesday. That caught more than a few people off guard, not just those sitting on the media side of the table.

Benning did see Madden play live once this year. That was three weeks ago during the Beanpot semifinals.

Madden was not good. It was, by all accounts, possibly his worst game of the season.

The war room thing

If there’s final writing on the wall to be observed about the direction going forward of amateur scouting, it’s that while the Canucks’ pro scouts are here in Vancouver this weekend to work with Benning and John Weisbrod in the trade deadline war room, director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett is not. He’s been here every other season he’s been in the role.

That just about says it all.

The owner thing

On the other hand, on top of the big win, apparently part of the reason that Francesco Aquilini took a seat in the stands for a while was because his usual box had actually been sold for the evening.

Business is ramping up.

The Leafs thing

It was astounding to watch the Leafs float around in their own end, to watch them try to make a zone entry on the power play.

They looked like a bunch of guys playing shinny during a weekly casual ice time, less a team in an organized league.

The conflict of interest thing

Just imagine the Leafs hadn’t stunk up the joint, that they’d turned things around and taken the game over and then beaten the Canes.

First, we wouldn’t be talking about the cute story of a guy getting a win in a game he really had no business being in. A CIS goalie, like the guys who the Canucks keep on hand as their emergency backups, would do better. This guy may take shots for the Marlies and sometimes the Leafs, but he hasn’t played a real game in a long time and that performance was terrible.

The bigger issue is he’s *employed by an NHL club*. That he’s the on-call emergency goalie, under a league rule, puts him in an inherent conflict of interest.

He’s supposed to play well for whomever. If the Leafs had lit him up, which you’d expect, you still might wonder if he’d given his best. If I were the Florida Panthers or the Hurricanes themselves, two teams in a playoff hunt alongside the Leafs, I’d have been furious.

It’s not quite the same as the league’s top disciplinarian having a clothing brand that glorifies hockey violence being in partnership with a number of the league’s players, but it’s still a bush-league look.

The Eddie thing

Eddie Lack won hockey twitter today.

The Canes Thing

Let’s get the first absurdity out of the way: in a week where we were reminded that the NHL’s head of discipline runs a clothing line that has players *in the league* doing endorsements for and one of them this week got off without any discipline for a reckless hit from behind, it was pretty fitting on its biggest stage, there was another case of absurd conflict of interest.

David Ayres, the emergency backup who played for the Hurricanes on Saturday and got the win, *works* for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Imagine if the score had gone otherwise. If the Leafs had won. I mean, the chances were good if they’d been able to generate any shots.

They didn’t because the Hurricanes have an incredible defence. You just never have the puck.

And so much about how they run things is because they have some of the smartest people in the room helping make decisions. Eric Tulsky isn’t the general manager. He isn’t the guy making the final calls. But he’s a trusted voice.

And the Canes are winning because they’re being smart in their front office.

The kid thing

We should all take heed of this kid. The game can wait. The chance to watch cool things only happens every so often.

See you Monday.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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21 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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1 day ago

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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1 day ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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