During Friday night’s contest against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Vancouver Canucks lost defenceman Tyler Myers after the towering blueliner went down with what seemed like a lower body injury.
“Hopefully we dodged a bullet, but I’m not sure,” the Canucks’ bench boss said.
And while everyone is hoping the same as Tocchet, the old saying reminds us: hope for the best, plan for the worst.
How can the Canucks withstand losing a top four defenceman in Myers? Let’s dive in.
Right off the bat, it’s obvious that the Canucks could just slot Desharnais back into the lineup to fill the empty spot next to Carson Soucy, but that may do more harm than good, especially if that pairing will still be relied on to face tough matchups. That would give them a defence corps looking like this:
Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy-Vincent Desharnais
Derek Forbort-Noah Juulsen
What the Canucks may want to do instead to withstand losing Myers is create three more balanced pairings.
To do this, it seems obvious that the Canucks will need to split up their first pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek. The pairing has been dynamite through the first two games of the season, but the Canucks’ other defencemen — namely the third pair — has been a bit spotty. Losing Myers will certainly hurt, but the good news is that Derek Forbort turned in a much stronger effort playing alongside Noah Juulsen on the third pair in game two than he did playing with Vincent Desharnais in game one vs. Calgary.
With the Hronek-Hughes pairing split, the Canucks have a few different options:
Quinn Hughes-Noah Juulsen
Carson Soucy-Filip Hronek
Derek Forbort-Vincent Desharnais
The pros of this setup is that Hughes and Juulsen have found success with each other before, and should be able to split some of the tougher matchups with Soucy and Hronek. The big con here is that the Forbort-Desharnais pairing is back together.
Option 2:
Quinn Hughes-Vincent Desharnais
Carson Soucy-Filip Hronek
Derek Forbort-Noah Juulsen
The pros of this defensive lineup is that the Canucks could keep the Forbort-Juulsen pairing together after a strong showing in their first game together against the Flyers. The big con here is that the Canucks would be asking Hughes to play with Desharnais, which could limit the captain’s ability to make as strong as an impact as he has through two games at both ends of the ice already.
What do you think Canucks fans? How should the Canucks structure their defence pairings in the event Myers’ injury keeps him out of the lineup?