For your viewing pleasure, we offer up three things to ponder about the Vancouver Canucks heading into their Saturday meeting with the Los Angeles Kings.
1. How badly hurt is Radim Vrbata?
Vrbata seems to have a leg ailment of some kind. He finished the San Jose game and wound up with 15 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time, but he missed about seven minutes of the second period.
According to our own Ben Kuzma, the Sedins’ running mate was taking some treatment when the Canucks arrived in Denver on Monday.
And he offered up a “no comment,” when Kuzma asked what was bothering him.
Now, messing with Da Kuze is one of my personal pastimes, but I highly doubt that Vrbata was toying with him for kicks this early in his tenure with the hockey club.
For what it’s worth, Vrbata is averaging 18:04 of ice time with Vancouver.
Vancouver is dealing with assorted injuries up front. Nick Bonino didn’t take the morning skate due to an apparent shot-block injury he picked up in Denver, and Zack Kassian was a late scratch from the San Jose game. with a lower body injury, likely from the check he received from Avalanche defenceman Nick Holden.
2. Luca Sbisa turned in one of his better efforts Canuck colours against San Jose, playing a team-high 20:48.
Is that a sign of him going in the right direction?
You forget he’s only 24. He’s a month younger than Chris Tanev, a few months younger than Ryan Stanton. He’s two years junior to Yannick Weber.
He was a beast as a junior. He was good enough, in fact, to go 19th overall in the 2008 draft. That’s two spots after the Toronto Maple Leafs took Jake Gardiner, three picks before the Edmonton Oilers grabbed Jordan Eberle.
Here’s a little Sbisa video that Vancouver Giants fans might be familiar with.
3. With Justin Williams (blurred vision after being struck near the eye with a stick Tuesday in Dallas) sidelined, the Los Angeles Kings went with noted Canuck pest Jordan Nolan on their top line for much of Thursday’s 2-1 shoot-out loss to the New York Islanders.
Dustin Brown took Williams’ usual spot besides Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik late in the contest.
Williams is being listed as day-to-day, so it’s merely guessing right now about whether he plays against the Canucks. Nolan only played 10:57 on Thursday, so he might not being going back to prime duty against the Canucks if Williams is out..
Canuck fans might remember Nolan from this little episode.
