Tanev’s status for Saturday unclear
Desjardins delighted to get the game puck, but admits concern about health of defencemen
Defenceman Chris Tanev missed Thursday’s practice and his status for Saturday night’s home- opener against the Edmonton Oilers seems questionable.
Head coach Willie Desjardins was tight- lipped about Tanev’s injury, saying that he had to be evaluated later in the day.
Asked if he expected Tanev to play Saturday night, Desjardins said: “You always hope that. I think he’ll be good, but we’ll just see where it goes.”
Tanev finished Wednesday night’s game, drawing his second assist of the night on Henrik Sedin’s empty- net goal with just over a minute remaining.
Desjardins did say that he was pleased to see fellow defenceman Kevin Bieksa get through the game and acknowledged that Bieksa had been nursing a shoulder injury.
“He hadn’t had any big hits on him, so you are just wondering if ( his) shoulder is going to hold up,” Desjardins said. “It was a bit of a tough spot to put him in, but he’s real strong mentally and a real character guy, so he did a great job. You need that. He wasn’t at his best, but he stepped up and played.”
With Tanev out Thursday, the defensive pairings were shuffled. Alex Edler, who played Wednesday with Tanev, skated with Yannick Weber, while Dan Hamhuis was paired with Luca Sbisa and Bieksa skated with Ryan Stanton.
CONGRATS, COACH: Desjardins acknowledged he was touched by the fact his players presented him with the game puck after his first NHL win in Calgary on Wednesday night.
Bieksa congratulated Desjardins on behalf of the team in the dressing room immediately following the game before presenting him with the puck.
“I thought back and I probably should have given the puck to Ryan ( Miller),” Desjardins said. “He had more to do with it than I did, and it was his first win with our team as well. It was great. It’s nice the players would think of that. I know it was real important to me.” FOCUS ON FACEOFFS: The Canucks got their win in Calgary despite being outclassed by the Flames in the faceoff circle.
Vancouver won only 27 of 70, or 39 per cent, of its faceoffs.
“It’s an area we have to focus on,” he said. “We have got to be better, for sure. We addressed it during the game. It’s not just the centremen, though. It’s the wingers helping out, guys jumping in and doing those things.”
Brad Richardson, who is Vancouver’s best faceoff man, is playing the wing on a line with Linden Vey and Zack Kassian. But Richardson ended up taking eight draws and won four of them.
“It was really embarrassing how bad we were losing ( the faceoff battle),” Richardson said. “No offence to them, but they are not really known as a great faceoff team. We have got to be a lot better in that department.”
ICE CHIPS: The Utica Comets, Vancouver’s AHL affiliate, assigned forwards Alex Mallet and Dane Fox to the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL. Utica also signed forward Curtis Valk to a AHL contract and assigned him to Kalamazoo.