Canucks Notebook: Vexing Jake Virtanen has to put work in, Adam Gaudette has to grind
gaudette #gaudette
You need an army.
That shouldn’t be Jake Virtanen’s mantra to strip the healthy-scratch sticker, but the reality of a compacted 56-game season, and 13 games in a 25-day span in February, should allow the wayward winger to eventually return to the Vancouver Canucks’ lineup.
It could be after a loss. It could be to ice a different look. It could be to aid roster fatigue. But it shouldn’t be that way.
Virtanen has one point and 14 shots in nine games this season — a long wrister goal that deflected off Flames’ defenceman Juuso Valimaki on Jan. 18 in Calgary — and that has raised the usual concerns about commitment and consistency and trade speculation regarding his franchise future.
And because Virtanen has run the gamut of an encouraging 36 points (18-18) in 69 games during the shortened 2019-20 career season, followed by management disappointment in a poor post-season presence with just two goals in 16 games and 25 penalty minutes, you have to wonder where all this is leading.
Is it just Jake being Jake?
The winger will do something incredible or infuriating on any given shift with size and speed, but is not always in sync with systems play. Are the Canucks beyond the roller-coaster ride? Hard to tell.
Can they move Virtanen to strengthen back-end depth, or should they have been more proactive in the off-season to broker a trade and use his US$2.55 million salary cap hit in a package equation to help retain Tyler Toffoli?
Then again, Virtanen is 24 but it feels like he’s at a career crossroads. He logged 15:46 in the season opener but has twice played less than 10 minutes since then — 9:20 and 9:23.
He’s watching instead of playing because Zack MacEwen is doing everything to stay in the lineup, Adam Gaudette is winging it again after three scratches, and rookie Nils Hoglander is making an impression in a top-six role by playing fast, hard and finishing — something Virtanen was supposed to do.
Canucks coach Travis Green has long maintained a teacher-pupil relationship with Virtanen. There has been tough love coupled with opportunity and now there’s seeing how the winger will react when he’s reinserted into the lineup.
Green believes the oddity of this season, including no exhibition games and little practice time, hasn’t just hurt Virtanen.
“You’re going to see this periodically from guys,” said Green. “Gaudette came out of the lineup. You don’t have practice time and Jake hasn’t quite found his game this year and needs a little re-set. He needs to get on the ice and practice a bit and feel the puck and put some work in.
“Sometimes, just getting away from the game helps a player. And I’m hoping it does. He’s better than what he has shown so far this year. Not that I think it. I know it. He’s a good player and we need him to be at this best. I know he wants to, but he just hasn’t yet.
“When he goes back in, hopefully he plays better for himself and better for his team as well because we need him.”
The return of Brandon Sutter to the middle to help the Canucks shore up defensively has created an Adam Gaudette riddle.
How do you evolve as a third-line centre when Sutter has suddenly turned back the competitive clock with four goals — including his first career hat trick in 13 seasons — and has been effective in the faceoff circle (56.8 per cent) compared to 43.6 per cent for Gaudette?
If you’re Gaudette, you use the opportunity on wing to better engage physically and win board battles without the extra responsibility that comes with playing centre.
Gaudette, 24, had five shots in the first period on Jan. 18 while playing between Antoine Roussel and Virtanen. He could have had a hat trick in the opening frame, but couldn’t buy a goal with seven shot attempts. He also won three of six draws that night. It was an early statement that despite a US$950,000 one-year, show-us contract extension, he could build on an evolving game that showed some promise last season with 12 goals and 33 points in 59 games.
However, in the post-season, Gaudette appeared in 10 of 17 games and went pointless. So, the point of the matter is to not only talk a good game, but play one, no matter where he lines up and despite having trouble keeping his weight up with a digestive problem.
That Calgary game should be the incentive.
“Those are the starts I need and I have to keep my feet moving and working hard and I have to get into the gritty areas to be successful,” said Gaudette, who has but two blocked shots and four hits this season.
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