While Darren Archibald won’t be in the lineup for the Canucks as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night, another call-up from the Utica Comets will. As Archibald deals with immigration issues stemming from him now working for a Canadian company, Reid Boucher has been called up and will be in the lineup.
Sam Gagner is already out of the lineup and heading back to Vancouver with an ankle sprain and he’ll be joined by Brendan Gaunce, who was spotted in a walking boot this morning.
Gaunce took a shot off the foot against the Florida Panthers and was limited to just 6:46 in ice time, though he did skate one shift in the third period. There are reports that he has a fractured foot, but there’s nothing confirmed at this time.
The two forwards will be replaced by Boucher and Nic Dowd.
The injury is ill-timed for Gaunce, who seemed to have turned a corner amidst a series of healthy scratches in the new year.
Gaunce was first scratched in a game against the Washington Capitals on January 9th. When he got back in the lineup the next game, he scored his first ever NHL goal with a stick.
He was scratched for two more games in late January. Two games after he got back in the lineup, he scored two goals against the Chicago Blackhawks, the first two-goal game of his career. Obviously, because he had just three career goals prior to that.
For Gaunce, three goals in his last eight games counts as an offensive outburst. But it’s not just that he chipped in a few goals in recent games, it’s his overall game that seems to be coming into form.
While still playing predominantly in a defensive role, mostly on a line with Brandon Sutter, Gaunce has begun creating more offensively. Gaunce’s game has always been about shot suppression — preventing the opposition from getting shots and chances — but in recent games, he’s been doing a little more shot creation.
As a result, his numbers since he scored against the Blue Jackets have been very good. He has a 61.47% corsi in those seven games, while the team has out-shot their opponents 32-25 when he’s been on the ice 5-on-5. Again, this is while playing on a shutdown line that starts predominantly in the defensive zone.
That’s been true for Gaunce all season. His ratio of zone starts isn’t just extreme; it’s extremely extreme. Gaunce has started just 33 shifts with an offensive zone faceoff compared to 190 shifts in the defensive zone. That’s 14.8% of his non-neutral zone starts coming in the defensive zone. The next closest player is Jay Beagle, with 26.1%.
All that is to say that Gaunce has been performing well in a thankless role, while slowly adding a glimmer of offence to his game. It would be a real shame if a fractured foot kept him out of the lineup long-term just as his confidence seemed to be at an all-time high.
