Sedin twins can still help Canucks
The longer the drama plays out, the more it feels like they will be back for one more year
The Canucks-Coyotes showdown is now just three sleeps away and if that isn’t enough to get your heart racing, here are the Monday-morning musings and meditations on the world of sports:
■ There are, of course, 35 layers to this question, but the longer the Sedins’ soap opera plays out, the more it feels like the twins will be back for one more year.
As for the why, it has nothing to do with their exalted place in Canucks history or the irreproachable standard they set in the locker-room.
It’s about something far simpler. They can still play.
Following Saturday’s win over Columbus, Daniel has 52 points on the season and Henrik has 48. To put that in perspective, Daniel has more points than Brendan Gallagher, Ryan Johansen, Jeff Skinner and others who’d be considered frontline NHLers. Henrik, meanwhile, has more points than Kyle Turris, Corey Perry, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a bunch of other name players.
Ice time you ask? Both are averaging just over 15 minutes per game.
The real issue facing the Canucks, in fact, isn’t that the Sedins might take playing time away from younger players next season. The issue is Loui Eriksson, Sam Gagner and, to a lesser extent, Brandon Sutter might take playing time away from a younger player.
The twins, as they’ve done throughout their 17 seasons in Vancouver, held up their end of the bargain in 2017-18. There’s no reason to think they wouldn’t do it again for one more season.
■ Only a Canucks’ fan could look at a four-game win streak and recoil in horror, but let’s, for the moment, put aside the tanking issue and look at the team’s recent run.
It would be delusional, of course, to assign a larger meaning to a four-gamer in which Jussi Jokinen has been the scoring star. But neither can its significance be completely dismissed.
Two of the wins have come against playoff teams — Anaheim and Columbus — which are battling for every point they can get. There’s also an encouraging aspect with the contributions of some of the younger
players. Jake Virtanen is starting to look like an everyday NHLer. It’s just been two games, but Mr. Magoo could see Adam Gaudette is a player. Thatcher Demko stepped in amid less-than-ideal circumstances Saturday and delivered a win. Still don’t know about Nikolay Goldobin, but he’s been producing consistently. Derrick Pouliot remains an intriguing figure on the blue-line. Ashton Sautner has played his way into NHL consideration.
Those last three, moreover, aren’t integral to the master plan, but if just one of them develops into a player it’s found-money for the organization.
Don’t know what this group will become, but when you add them to the other Canucks prospects, you can see the makings of something.
■ The tanking hey rube, meanwhile, is one of those faux issues that consumes this fan base because they have little else to occupy their attention.
Still not sure if I understand it completely. A true fan would never root against his team. No, a true fan
wants the highest draft pick possible and therefore roots against their team. Sorry, me confused.
But this, dare we say, controversy does say something about the frustration and heartbreak the faithful have endured over the last five decades. Since they came into being, the Canucks have had one moment when the great cosmic roulette wheel spun their number — 1989 when they finagled Pavel Bure in the draft. It’s been hope and pray the rest of the time and the mere suggestion that their team might get a crack at a franchise-changing talent — Rasmus Dahlin in this case — is enough to cause deep divisions within the congregation.
As a reminder, we’re here talking about an infinitesimal increase on the odds in a lottery but, somehow, it’s become a plebiscite on what it means to be a Canucks fan. The irony, of course, is that is the ultimate commentary on what it means to be a Canucks fan.
■ Don’t know what to say about new Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash
than hasn’t been said before but, for me, this is what sets him apart: He belongs to that rare breed who makes you think it’s cool to be Canadian. Other members of the club: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Donald Sutherland, Ryan Gosling, Robbie Robertson, Neil Peart, Marshall McLuhan, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Oscar Peterson and the entry of Banting and Best.
And maybe Norm Jewison.
■ And, finally, Gaudette played just over 13 minutes against Columbus, which at least represents an upgrade in his ice time. But his first two games have again highlighted one of the enduring frustrations with the Canucks’ organization.
This team, which has nothing to play for but its future, continues to limit the playing time of their best prospects under the misapprehension they’ll be crushed by the pressure of playing in the NHL. As a result, fans see Jokinen playing with the team’s best centre in Bo Horvat, they see Sutter playing over 20 minutes and Alex Edler over 27, and they
rightly wonder, what gives?
By way of comparison, look what Boston has done with Ryan Donato who, like Gaudette, is a finalist for the Hobey Baker this year.
In his first game a couple of weeks ago, Donato played over 19 minutes while recording a goal and two assists. He’s since been playing on the Bruins’ second line with David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk. In his eight games, he’s been under 14 minutes of ice time just once. He also has four goals and three assists.
OK, the Canucks don’t have comparable players to line up with Gaudette, but you’d still like to see more of him. You also wonder what it’s going to look like when the rest of the Canucks’ youngsters arrive.
The organization, it seems, is trying to build a stress-free environment for their prospects, but that animal doesn’t exist in the NHL and it certainly doesn’t exist the way the Canucks have gone about it. What does exist is a league that is trending younger and places a premium on speed and skill.