VANCOUVER – So many bubble boys, so little pop.
A handful of Vancouver Canucks players, either trying to claim or retain National Hockey League employment towards the bottom of their team’s lineup, failed to seize an opportunity Wednesday when they lost 4-1 to the Calgary Flames’ B-team.
With the best 26 Flames in China for exhibition games, Calgary’s lineup consisted mostly of minor-leaguers, second-tier prospects and tryout hopefuls – a group largely anonymous to anyone outside Calgary’s player development department. The Canucks also dressed a young lineup, but it included a few NHL veterans and some of their best prospects not named Elias Pettersson or Jonathan Dahlen.
But the Canucks trailed 2-0 after nine minutes, fell behind 3-0 on a second-period short-handed goal and were outgoaltended by Flames David Rittich and Tyler Parsons, who combined to stop 38 of 39 Vancouver shots.
“The guys know the situation,” American Hockey League coach Cail MacLean, who ran the Flames bench, told reporters.
“With a lot of the squad being over in China, they know things are going to change here when people come back and opportunity is going to be harder to come by. So I think they did a good job of taking advantage of that. Guys you might not know as well, guys that might not have as a big a role when the whole squad was here, I think they did a good job.”
First-round draft pick Juuso Valimaki led the Flames with a goal, assist, five shots and plus-3 rating over 25:19 of ice time.
None of the Canucks came close to matching him.
Adam Gaudette, Brendan Leipsic, Reid Boucher, Brendan Gaunce and Derrick Pouliot were all on the NHL roster when Vancouver’s season ended last April, and none made a positive impression early on when the Canucks looked nervous and the game was decided.
Elite goaltending prospect Thatcher Demko allowed three goals on 21 shots while playing the first two periods, but did make a couple of impressive saves in the second when the Canucks power play kept yielding outnumbered rushes to Flames penalty-killers.
[relatedlinks]
In contrast to Valimaki, the Canucks’ first-round draft pick from Finland, Olli Juolevi, logged only 16:58 of ice time.
“I thought I overplayed the first one,” Demko said of Matthew Phillips’s goal at 7:33 of the first period. “Obviously, I want to play better, need to play better. Hopefully I’ll have another opportunity to get back out there and show how I feel and how I can play.”
Pouliot, who appears to be battling Ben Hutton for a spot on the Canucks defence, was especially mistake-prone early although he got better like the rest of the team as the game progressed and finished with 22:01 of ice time.
Canucks coach Travis Green admitted after the game he should not have started the left-shot Pouliot on the right side of the ice.
“I thought we were a little jittery off the start, just not making the clean plays,” Pouliot said. “(The Flames) came hard; their guys were moving. It took us a little while to get into the game and they took advantage of that.”
Vancouver, 0-2 in the pre-season, is expected to dress a slightly more experienced lineup for Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
