^{The other team responsible for Logan Cooley’s injury is missing the reason for it…}

I had this game circled on the calendar a few weeks ago. Tonight was going to be the second retribution game Utah needed to take on behalf of their star center, Logan Cooley. Back on December 5, an already injured Cooley was playing against the Vancouver Canucks, following a knee on knee hit sustained in St. Louis a few days after Thanksgiving. That hit, by Alexey Toropchenko, looked to be a season ending injury, but Cooley returned, only to be held by then Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes. His subsequent fall and high-speed crash into the goalpost was the catalyst for his 8 week IR stint.

Imagine my frustration, then, when Quinn Hughes was traded away from Vancouver and to a division rival instead. The bad news – a terrible Canucks team would have been great to dogpile on because of the Hughes hit, and that motivation is gone. The good news – that motivation just carries over to a more worthy and useful opponent to beat.

Either way, Utah still has a job to do tonight. Against a reeling Canucks team, Utah needs to make sure they don’t fall into “trap game” territory. Coming off a tremendously difficult game, with a playoff opponent coming into town on Wednesday, tonight’s game is one they could overlook. This, however, is the furthest thing from what the team needs. A win to break a two game streak of just terrible breakdowns is exactly what the doctor is ordering for tonight.

What smells fishy at the bottom?
The Vancouver Canucks pulled the rip cord on their season a few weeks ago, trading away superstar Quinn Hughes, as mentioned above. They got a haul for Hughes, though, with some major pieces for a rebuild. However, Vancouver has seemed to attract not just a bug, but an injury swarm. Leading goaltender, Thatcher Demko, is out for the season. Zeev Buim, their star pickup from Minnesota, is out until at least the end of Februray with a broken bone in his face. Marco Rossi, the other main part of the Quinn Hughes trade? Lower body injury, not coming back until after the Olympics.

As a result, the Canucks have dropped like a stone to absolute worst team in the NHL, and it’s not even close. 7 points behind the Blues in the division, and 8 points behind the worst team in the East. Vancouver is 2-7-1 in their last 10.

Vancouver’s first road game in the past 8 games brings them here to the Delta Center. On the surface, the Canucks have a really good road record for the year. However, that’s not really the truth – since the trade, Vancouver is just 5-7-0 on the road, and haven’t won away from home since December. They aren’t winning AT home either, but that’s their problem.

In 6 road games in January, Vancouver has posted 9 total goals, and given up 27. They’re averaging losses being outscored by 3x. For the year, Vancouver has a -54 goal differential, giving up almost 200 goals this year already. Only St. Louis compares, but that’s because St. Louis also has trouble scoring.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Barnum and Bailey It’s time to get a few monkeys off backs this game. Vancouver’s penalty kill away from home since New Year is an atrocious 54%. Giving up 6 goals on 13 attempts, they’re a sieve on defense, have next to no structure, and are allowing teams to score at will.

Utah, for their faults, has tons of high-level scoring talent. So, with an extra man, that scoring should be able to… score, right? Well, not so far – as has been well documented on this blog.

This may be a case of the stoppable force meeting the movable object, but Utah needs to find a way to convert here, period.

Education System The Mammoth took devastating penalties in the beginning of the game against the Stars, and fell behind quickly. They never had a chance to recover. In fact, in their past 10 games, Utah has given up the first goal 7 times.

Vancouver simply sucks. Simple math tells you that the more goals you score, the better chance you have to win. A corollary to that is that the fewer goals you give up, the better chance you have to win.

Hopefully someone gives Tourigny a calculator tonight, shows him to keep the team disciplined, out of the box, and pressuring the Canucks early. Getting a first goal for a change, and getting dominating play out the gate would be a refreshing change of pace – one the fans and the team both need.

Sink or Swim The Canucks are forced to turn to Kevin Lankinen in net. Lankinen is posting a 3.54 goals against and just an .880 save percentage for the year. Since Demko went down? 4+ goals against average. Backup Nikita Tolopilo isn’t much better – posting a .910 save percentage, but up over 3 goals against. So, either way, Vancouver’s goaltending is ripe – for the picking, and for their performance.

Olympian Clayton Keller has been less Olympian on the Wheaties box and more just the cardboard the past few games. Similarly, Lawson Crouse has struggled since his illness. Schmaltz, for his defensive plays, has only a single goal and point. This line has produced just a single goal in the last 4 games. Only Nick Schmaltz is at a positive +/- rating, with Keller and Crouse at -1 and -2 respectively.

The success the line saw? 5 games ago, when Kailer Yamamoto was in Crouse’s spot. Keller’s lone goal, and all the first line linemates were +2 in that one game.

Crouse, Keller, and Schmaltz need to take advantage of a defeated team just going through the motions. Anything short of at least positive +/- ratings (or at least a PPG from the unit) just won’t fly.

No time like the present, and no present like a gift-wrapped team that’s already setting tee-times in April.

Projected Lineups:
Looks like we’re back to the Liam O’Brien experiment as Daniil But sits.

Clayton Keller — Nick Schmaltz — Lawson Crouse
JJ Peterka — Barrett Hayton — Kailer Yamamoto
Michael Carcone — Jack McBain — Dylan Guenther
Brandon Tanev — Kevin Stenlund — Liam O’Brien

Mikhail Sergachev — Sean Durzi
Nate Schmidt — John Marino
Ian Cole — Nick DeSimone

Karel Vejmelka
Vitek Vanecek

Game start 7:30 PM at the Delta Center or Utah 16 / SEG plus

TUSKS UP!