With Soucy out long term, changes likely to come to Canucks' defence

VANCOUVER – Whether it’s better to be lucky or good has been a moot question this season for the Vancouver Canucks because they’ve been both.

The National Hockey League team has earned its franchise-record start, 11-3-1 heading into Wednesday night’s game against Bo Horvat and the New York Islanders. But they’ve also been lucky.

Until general manager Patrik Allvin announced on social media Wednesday morning that defenceman Carson Soucy will miss 6-8 weeks after blocking in shot during Sunday’s 5-2 win in Montreal, the Canucks’ most significant injury was a month-long absence at the start of the season by fourth-line centre and penalty-killer Teddy Blueger.

Blueger was finally healthy enough to make his season debut in Montreal, 24 minutes of game time before Soucy was felled blocking a slapshot by one-goal scorer Juraj Slafkovsky.

NHL teams rarely provide details about injuries but the shot, which appeared to strike Soucy on the ankle, most likely cracked a bone the same way Blueger’s shot-block did in the Canucks’ final pre-season game.

In a way, the injuries to Blueger and Soucy merely reinforce how fortunate the Canucks have been with their team health.

There was an early round of flu and winger Ilya Mikheyev missed the first four games after season-ending knee surgery last winter. Top players like J.T. Miller and NHL scoring leader Elias Pettersson, as well as early Norris Trophy-favourite Quinn Hughes have required treatment and/or rest at times while playing through issues.

But 16 Canuck skaters and both goalies have been available for every game so far. If the Canucks are who they think they are, they should be able to absorb the injury to a third-pairing defenceman like Soucy, who has averaged 16:52 of ice time.

His absence, however, will cause changes, including the possible breakup of the world-class top pairing of Hughes and Filip Hronek. Together, Hughes and Hronek have an even-strength goals-differential of 17-5 and have combined for a staggering 39 points and plus-31 rating through 15 games.

Soucy’s injury could also spur the Canucks’ pursuit of unhappy Calgary Flames defenceman Nikita Zadorov, who has asked for a trade and whose agent, Dan Milstein, has clients in Vancouver and a strong relationship with Allvin.

In the short-term, Mark Friedman goes back into the lineup on Wednesday – and will likely play his off-side on the left – after being healthy-scratched in Montreal for the first time since his Oct. 17 trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“You guys know I like righty-lefty (pairings) obviously,” Canuck coach Rick Tocchet said after Wednesday’s morning skate. “But nothing's perfect, right? I know Footy (blue-line coach Adam Foote) spent a lot of time with Frieds, playing the left side, teaching him some stuff. So that's good. He's played left before. And it's the committee thing that we talked about. Maybe, I might not have Huggy and Hronek together all the time. We might rotate certain guys.

“We've been lucky a little bit, other than Teddy being out for a long period of time. You know, we've had some good bounces, like, a lot of fortune. But 82-game schedule, you're going to have chunks of the schedule where you might have three or four guys out of the lineup. You've got to go through this, I don't care what team you are. And you know, this is where you hold the fort, right? With your identity and your structure, you can handle these injuries or some adversity that hits the team.”

Soucy was one of the Allvin’s major off-season upgrades, signed in free agency to a three-year, $9.75-million-US contract to bolster the bottom half of the Canucks defence. He missed the first two games of the regular season due to a pre-season shot block, but leads all Canuck regulars with 7.1 blocks-per-60 minutes. His 4.4 hits/60 are second among defenceman.

“The disappointing part is I think he's played his best hockey the last three or four games,” Tocchet said. “Him and (Tyler) Myers have been really good. When we put them together, rock solid, I think.”

“You talk about playing the right way,” Miller said of Soucy’s injury. “He absolutely hammers a guy (Slafkovsky) and then eats a one-timer, and then he's got to sit out. It just sucks. He plays the right way all the time. It's unfortunate it has bitten him twice now. We have to play the same way no matter what, but he's going to be missed in our lineup, no question.”

Myers, who finished Sunday’s game after he was injured in an awkward collission a few seconds before Soucy was beaned, is expected to play against the Islanders.

Thatcher Demko starts in goal for the Canucks in Bo Horvat’s return to Vancouver, 10 months after the former captain’s blockbuster trade to the Islanders.