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Canucks debut Reverse Retros; Quinn Hughes back to face Jack & the Devils |
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Tuesday November 1 - New Jersey Devils at Vancouver Canucks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet 360
With Game 3 of baseball's World Series bumped back a day after a rainout in Philadelphia on Monday, you'll have to tune into Sportsnet 360 to find Tuesday night's Canucks game against the New Jersey Devils.
It's November, and baseball is still on! And we now know that this landscape will remain in place for the next decade, after the Canucks and Rogers announced on Monday that they're extending their partnership which includes the regional TV rights, radio rights and naming rights for Rogers Arena through the 2032-33 season.
I suppose this is the first time I've given any real thought to the idea of the 2030s. Seeing 90s fashion trends — and even some teams' new Reverse Retro jerseys — reminds me that a generation has passed. But I still feel a bit like Y2K was the day before yesterday.
Speaking of Reverse Retro, the Canucks will be sporting their new threads when they host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. They'll wear them for seven home games in total, between now and the end of December.
The team's record in their 'Sprite Cans' two years ago was dismal — but that was also during the fan-free era. Special activities are planned on Tuesday to help celebrate this Reverse Retro launch. And my sense is that while the jersey has been well received overall, local fans are a bit 'meh' since they've grown accustomed to seeing the Johnny Canuck logo on the uniforms of AHL Abbotsford.
I'm interested to see how the full look plays on the ice, in terms of colours and details that we might not have noticed yet.
Another retro angle for Tuesday's game — this year's Devils squad is making like its trap-happy 90s predecessors, allowing its opponents a league-low average of just 21.7 shots against per game through nine games this season.
New Jersey is kicking off its three-game Western road trip on Tuesday on a high — riding a three-game winning streak and with wins in six of the last seven games. On Sunday, the Devils demolished Columbus by a score of 7-1, as they celebrated 40 years of Ken Daneyko's involvement with the team as a player and broadcaster — speaking of those trap-happy squads from the 90s. I think I'm still carrying the memory of Jan. 30, 1998 — when the Canucks were outshot 32-14 at what was then General Motors Place, but actually pulled out a 3-1 win. Mark Messier and Brian Noonan both beat Martin Brodeur in the first period, Dave Andreychuk replied in the second, and Pavel Bure iced it with an empty-netter in the third. Arturs Irbe got the win for the Canucks. And Daneyko did not dress that night: he was limited to just 37 regular-season games that year.
Back to present day: though they're riding a two-game winning streak, the Canucks will be making some lineup changes on Tuesday night. Quinn Hughes is drawing back in, so he'll get to play against his brother — with their parents in town to watch, of course. And new trade acquisitions Jack Studnicka and Ethan Bear are also expected to make their debuts for Vancouver, after a few days of practice and acclimation.
Tuesday's morning skate is an optional, so Monday's practice probably gives us a better idea of how the lines could roll out.
These combinations make sense — and it's good to see both Hughes and Riley Stillman healthy again. But I'm not sure I support seeing Kyle Burroughs potentially get knocked out of the lineup.
As for Brock Boeser, he's said to be close to being ready to return, but I'd guess that won't happen against New Jersey.
As for a few more stats to compare:
• The Canucks are giving up an average of 32.6 shots a game, which ranks 18th overall.
• The Devils are scoring 3.44 goals a game, led by Jesper Bratt. After grinding his way to a one-year contract extension with a cap hit of $5.45 million, he sits fifth in NHL scoring with 15 points heading into Tuesday's games, and has at least one point in every game so far this season.
• The Canucks aren't too far behind, sitting in the middle of the pack with 3.11 goals scored per game. Elias Pettersson leads the way at a point-a-game pace, and Bo Horvat's six goals lead the scoring category.
• One area where the Canucks have outperformed the Devils this season is on the power play. Vancouver is at 25.8% efficiency, while New Jersey is at 19.2%. But the two sides are at opposite ends of the spectrum with their penalty kills, where the Devils are at 93.1% and Vancouver remains last in the league at 62.1%. Vancouver has only had one game this year where it didn't allow a power-play goal — and that was against Columbus, which is still looking to score with the man advantage for the first time all season!
Expect to see Thatcher Demko back between the pipes on Tuesday, after Spencer Martin earned the win against the Penguins. Vitek Vanecek has started all three games in the Devils' current winning streak, and given up a total of just three goals.
The other interesting news to drop on Tuesday was Sportico's annual NHL franchise valuations. Overall, the report paints a robust picture of the overall health of the league. Owners continue to get richer on paper as the values of their franchises keep rising, even while the league is re-balancing its books on the cash-flow side after the revenue losses related to the pandemic.
The Canucks are listed as the league's 11th-most valuable franchise, right around the league average at $1 billion. And even though they have one of the lower increases in franchise value over the last year, at 3%, that three percent of a billion is still equal to $30 million. Not bad!
The Sportico piece also emphasizes that while sports franchise valuations overall are on the rise, the NHL is generally considered to be a good value proposition for investors.
For all the criticism the league takes, its current business model is robust, and it's impressive that the league has been able to engineer a quicker-than-expected recovery from the financial tailspin caused by the pandemic. I think all those helmet ads, jersey patches and distracting dynamic dasherboards are accomplishing what they're meant to achieve.
I'll leave it there for now. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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