Can Gagner add scoring spark by playing with the Sedins?
Gagner has seemingly played 5-on-5 with everyone this season, except the Sedins
Henrik Sedin has jokes.
Good thing, because if Vancouver hockey fans don’t have laughter right now, they don’t have much.
This is as close as fans have ever been to the players they follow, mostly because they have scored as many goals as the Canucks have in the past three games.
“I don’t think we’re going to go the rest of the way without scoring,” Henrik mused.
No, but sometimes it sure feels that way.
“It’s nothing we can worry about,” Henrik said. “I don’t think we think too much about it. But come (tonight’s game), if we don’t score for half a game, we’re going to start thinking about it.”
Head coach Travis Green gave a full-throated defence of his team Friday as it prepares for a showdown with the San Jose Sharks — and history.
Green claims the scoring chances have been there for his group, suggesting the Canucks are averaging 12 a game at even strength in the five games they ’ve played since Brock Boeser was hurt.
“I liked how we pushed back and I liked how we responded in Anaheim,” Green said. “I didn’t like we lost. But it had a real playoff feel to the game.
“That’s what you want out of your team.”
If so, the bar for the Canucks just got a lot lower because in the final 10:51 of the third period in Anaheim the Canucks didn’t get one shot on net. They attempted only two.
If that’s a good pushback, God help us all.
If Green is right in his assessment, however, it’s just a matter of time before the floodgates open and the goals rush over the Lower Mainland.
Right?
The Canucks need a goal in the first 23 minutes or they will set a franchise record for the longest time spent without scoring.
The team seems poised to at least start tonight’s game playing Sam Gagner with the Sedins. It’s a combination that got some press in training camp because it was one of the first lines Green had a look at.
But Gagner’s versatility is both his greatest gift and his biggest curse. He’s a forward a coach can use everywhere. And Green has done just that. Gagner’s been on the wing and he’s been a centre. He’s been in an offensive role and he’s been a matchup guy on Brandon Sutter’s line. Consider, his third-most-common linemate this season at even strength is still Alexandre Burmistrov — and Burmistrov bolted for Russia back in December.
Gagner has been moved up and down the lineup.
Really, the only place he hasn’t been is the one place many of us were most intrigued with before the season started.
Gagner only smiles, clenching his teeth just a little, when it’s pointed out to him the high hopes some of us had for him in training camp when it looked like he could spend a good chunk of the year playing with the Sedins.
One headline from September read: “Can Gagner save the Sedins?”
He never even got a chance to try. “Hopefully, there will be a chance to play with the Sedins five-on-five here and it can feed into our power play game,” Gagner said. “If it is a line, I’ll be very excited for that opportunity. There are guys who think the game offensively and they’re in that zone a lot.
“That’s where I feel I’m at my best, when I can give-and-go with people and play with guys who think the same way.”
The Canucks invested heavily in Gagner in free agency. They offered up both term and significant money for a player who was on a fourth line most of last season. But in that season he put up 50 points, which is the same number that got Bo Horvat a US$33-million contract.
It’s impossible not to call this season a disappointment. He has more penalty minutes (29) than he does points (25).
There’s been some bad luck and an injury along the way that excuses some of that lack of production.
There’s also a lingering question. Have the Canucks put him in a position to succeed?
One of the biggest reasons the Canucks wanted him was because of his success on Columbus’ power play last year. Much of that was attained when he was roving high in the slot, a spot they call the “bumper.”
He’s spent very little time in that spot with Newell Brown’s power play in Vancouver.
Instead, especially lately, he’s been asked to be the right-shot trigger man, in the area where Boeser had so much success this season.
How has it gone? He has nine power-play points. A season ago, he had 18.
That stat alone sums up his year.