The Vancouver Canucks will host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday looking far different than when they left for a three-game road trip last week.
The Canucks sent forward J.T. Miller, defenseman Erik Brannstrom and defense prospect Jackson Dorrington to the New York Rangers on Friday for veteran forward Filip Chytil, defenseman Victor Mancini and a first-round draft pick in 2025 that is top-13 protected.
Also on Friday, the Canucks shipped forward Danton Heinen, defenseman Vincent Desharnais and a 2025 first-round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman Marcus Pettersson and forward Drew O’Connor.
Those deals did not come as a surprise, especially since Vancouver had been working to move the disgruntled Miller for a couple of months.
The newest Canucks are expected to be in town for Sunday’s game, general manager Patrik Allvin told reporters Saturday. However, he added that coach Rick Tocchet will decide if any or all of them dress against a Red Wings team that has won its last five games and has points in its last six (5-0-1).
“We’ve had some good games here over the last week, and I think this team has shown when we’re playing the right way and playing to our identity that we’re a hard team to play against,” Allvin said. “As I said, hopefully, this will galvanize and make our team better.”
Even with reports about possible trades, Vancouver built a three-game winning streak before dropping a 5-3 decision to the Dallas Stars on Friday. The Canucks’ Jake DeBrusk scored his team-leading 18th goal of the season on Friday. Defenseman Quinn Hughes extended his point streak to eight with an assist on DeBrusk’s goal.
Detroit comes to Vancouver for the third contest of a four-game road trip. The Red Wings won 3-1 at the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Captain Dylan Larkin notched his team-best 23rd goal of the season in the win. The center has scored in consecutive contests and has 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) since the Christmas break.
Lucas Raymond leads the team with 36 assists and 56 points but has been held off the scoresheet in the last two games.
In addition to the current streaks, the Red Wings have played much better hockey since Todd McLellan took over as coach after the holiday break, sporting a 13-4-1 record since Dec. 27.
This will be the second time the Red Wings have played on back-to-back days under McLellan. They lost on the road to Tampa Bay and Dallas on Jan. 18-19. Before Saturday’s win, Detroit had not won any leg of a back-to-back, going 0-9-1.
Despite maintaining the winning streak, neither Larkin nor McLellan sounded pleased about the Red Wings’ performance, especially at the start of Saturday’s game.
“As a whole, we’re going to have to understand that the gas tanks probably aren’t where they need to be,” McLellan said. “We’re going to have to have real good game-management skills, so everybody has to pull on the rope… Try and start better again than we did tonight, but we’re going to worry about that in the morning. We’ll get to Vancouver … and deal with it then.”
–Field Level Media
