Been there, survived that
EVERYBODY’S BACK: Slumping Canucks have more defencemen than they can dress
Nine games into the Canucks season and Loui Eriksson is still without a goal, but the 31-year-old has been through slumps before and he isn’t too worried
On a team parched for scoring, the Vancouver Canucks were flooded with defencemen Monday.
The return to practice of first-pairing defenceman Chris Tanev gave the NHL team nine blue-liners — one too many for the roster and three too many for the lineup.
Giant Nikita Tryamkin, whose last game was April 9, took regular turns at Rogers Arena with Luca Sbisa, and that could be the Canucks third pairing Wednesday in Montreal when they open a six-game road trip that, on paper, possesses the bleakness of a funeral procession.
If Tryamkin plays, it appears summer signing Philip Larsen may come out of the lineup because minor-league call-up Troy Stecher is still with the team. But what happens to Stecher when Tanev is ready to play, which will be soon? Will extra defenceman Alex Biega, who looks like the most expendable asset but has defied odds many times to earn his pro career, still be a Canuck when the road trip ends?
And will Willie Desjardins still be the coach if the current five-game losing streak (0-4-1) stretches to eight or nine or 10 games?
The mob on defence will fuel a lot of debate in Canuck Nation because the return to the Utica Comets of the remarkable Stecher, a pure 22-year-old rookie whose average ice time on 21:22 in his first three NHL games ranks second on the team, is the easiest solution to the overcrowding.
But none of this really helps the attack, which is what has the Canucks teetering just 2½ weeks into the regular season.
Nor will the return of grinders Alex Burrows and Derek Dorsett, who also practised Monday and could play in Montreal after sitting out the Canucks 0-3 homestand last week, do much for the scoring.
Burrows and Dorsett have zero goals between them, which ties them with pivotal wingers Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi.
But Burrows and Dorsett should provide energy, and maybe that will lead to something. The competition on defence should generate urgency, and maybe that will lead to something good.
Yes, these are straws we’re grasping at but that’s about all the building materials the Canucks have to buttress themselves ahead of these six games.
That and the knowledge among those players who experienced the deep, dark dive down the standings last season that the team wasn’t nearly as bad on the road as it was at home.
“It’s us against the world; that’s the mentality we have to have,” Burrows, the 35-year-old from Montreal, said before the Canucks flew east Monday afternoon. “It doesn’t matter what everybody says in the outside world. (Negativity) can’t creep into this locker-room. That’s really important.
“It’s a great challenge on Wednesday. We’re playing the best team in the NHL right now, in their building, so it’s a great time to show what we’ve got.
“I don’t think it should even be an issue what people say. It doesn’t matter. It won’t change anything. We’re the 23 guys who are going to make a difference.”
They’ll be well over the 23-man limit when Burrows (neck), Dorsett (shoulder) and Tanev (ankle) officially come off the injured list, but we understand Burrows’ mindset.
There is a frightening familiarity about the Canucks last week and the Canucks last season: Outskated, outshot, outscored. Yes, lots of effort and terrific goaltending, but simply not enough offence to compete.
“We started out this season 4-0, so, obviously, we know we can win,” Dorsett said. “We just have to find a way to do it consistently, making sure we’re not cheating. The season wasn’t what we wanted it to be last year. But that can motivate us to not want to go back down that road.”
With rugged Erik Gudbranson added from Florida, the return of a healthy Alex Edler, the discovery of Stecher and even the reclamation project that is Larsen, the Canucks defence should be better than it was last season. The 265-pound Tryamkin, who has flexed an outclause in his contract to keep the Canucks from sending him to the AHL to develop, is literally and figuratively a huge wild card for Vancouver.
And with goalies Ryan Miller and Jacob Markstrom in outstanding form, Vancouver should be able to build from the back.
But there won’t be room for everyone.
“It is a hard decision,” Desjardins said of his defence. “And it’s not just a hard decision on the eight, it’s hard on who’s the six that you play, too.
“It’s a good decision, but we’ll have a tough decision.”
Biega has played one more game than Tryamkin so far, but it was as a fourth-line forward last Sunday in Anaheim after Burrows and Dorsett were injured the previous night against Los Angeles.
Unlike Tryamkin, Biega is subject to waivers if the Canucks wish to send him to Utica to keep Stecher. At least a couple of NHL teams inquired about Biega last season, so the 28-year-old ‘Bulldog’ may not clear waivers.
“You know the job you signed up for, right?” Biega replied Monday when asked about job security. “It’s part of playing in a Canadian city and being a professional hockey player and being in the NHL. Obviously, you look at the numbers, but you can only control what you can control.
“You can’t speculate what people are thinking because it will drive you nuts. I just stick to my mindset that I have a job to do, and when I’m not in (the lineup), I’m trying to get better and helping the people around me get better. I’m pretty comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
Hopefully, the rest of the Canucks are, too.
“We started out this season 4-0, so, obviously, we know we can win. We just have to find a way to do it consistently. …” — Derek Dorsett