Canucks: Brandon Sutter, Marc Michaelis injuries push sidelined forwards count to eight
Eight is more than enough. It’s beyond belief.
The loss of Brandon Sutter and Marc Michaelis to upper-body injuries has only added to the adaptation and angst of trying to make May somewhat meaningful for the slumping Vancouver Canucks.
With the absence of other ailing roster forwards in Tyler Motte, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle and Elias Pettersson — along with Justin Bailey and Michael Ferland sidelined long term — the timing of additional ailments couldn’t be worse.
Four games this week against the surging Edmonton Oilers — starting Monday and Tuesday at Rogers Arena — have gone well beyond a litmus test to negate the league’s leading point producers in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
In a season gone incredibly sideways with a slow start, mounting injuries and the numbing effects of a coronavirus outbreak that shut the NHL club down March 31, the game of chasing a long-shot playoff position has become a game of survival.
Especially with few offensive weapons and Pettersson missing his 20th-straight game Monday with a suspected wrist injury.
“It’s a lot — you usually don’t run into that,” Canucks coach Travis Green admitted of the crazy injury count. “It’s a good opportunity for other players, but you’ve got to have a team that can play well. We’ve been talking to our group about skating and energy in our game and we need that. And we need confidence with the puck to make plays.
“We haven’t scored many goals of late (six during a four-game losing streak heading into Monday) and we’ve got to execute plays that you need at the NHL level. We need to bring those elements if we want to win against a good team. And where do you start?
The Canucks were ranked 27th in offence with 2.58 goals per game to start the Oilers series and the power play has plummeted to 19th with three goals in 20 chances in the last 20 games in which the club went 3-6-1.
Brock Boeser, who leads the club with 17 goals, had just one goal in his previous 10 games.
“When you don’t have your top players, a good example was Saturday. Toronto maybe wasn’t on top of their game and I thought we played a very strong two periods and a game-breaker (Auston Matthews) gets the goals. You miss that. It’s not an excuse, but I’m not going to sit here and say we don’t miss that in our lineup.
“Petey (Pettersson) is a big part of our team and future. He’s trying to get back and working and, obviously, if he was ready to play he would. There’s a reason why those guys (star players) are where they’re at because they’re difference-makers and they alleviate pressure in your own zone.”
“But we can’t dwell on it. And we haven’t. We worry about the guys who are here.”
Pondering the world stage
Hockey Canada is starting to reach out to NHL players to help stock its world championship roster.
Ottawa Senators winger Drake Batherson has been approached for the May 21-June 6 event in Riga, Latvia and general manager Roberto Luongo could reach out to Bo Horvat. And maybe the U.S. management head Chris Drury puts out a similar feeler to Quinn Hughes and Boeser.
However, not only would it be a quick turnaround with the Canucks’ regular season ending May 19 in Calgary, the club could need a collective exhale. There are the final 11 games crammed into 17 days and the physical and mental strains of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Horvat had seven points (3-4) in 10 games as Canada placed fourth in 2018 at the world championship. Hughes has played in two events and in 2018 was the youngest player at age 18 for the third-place U.S. He had two assists in 10 games and three assists in 2019. Boeser has yet to play in the event, but had three points as the U.S. won bronze at the 2016 world junior championship.
Jurmo on the move again
Defenceman Joni Jurmo, who has eight points (3-5) in 10 games this season after being loaned to Kiekko-Espoo (Tier 2, Finland) — following 20 pointless games with cellar-dwelling JyP HT Jyvaskala in the country’s top loop — has signed a two-year deal with Tier 1 Mikkelin Jukurit.
The 6-foot-4 198 pound Jurmo was selected in the third round of the 2020 NHL draft.
“He needs to play and still needs to round out his game,” said Canucks general manager Jim Benning. “I look at him a lot like Alex Edler was in his progression. As he got physically stronger, he developed into a good two-way defenceman, where he’s now our best penalty killer, and he also became good with the puck and has a good hard shot. He (Jurmo) will be a good player for us at some point.”
bkuzma@postmedia.com
twitter.com/@benkuzma
CLICK HERE to report a typo.
Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com. ...
Want the trending hockey news in your inbox daily?.
Just add your email, and we'll start sending you the most important hockey news of the day.
