Canucks at Oilers
The Vancouver Canucks will be missing their coach and a key player when they visit the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. John Tortorella was suspended 15 days (six games) by the NHL for his actions during Saturday's contest against the Calgary Flames and captain Henrik Sedin is out with an upper-body injury - ending the league's sixth-longest games played streak at 679. Tortorella, who had an in-person hearing at the NHL offices in New York on Monday which reportedly included commissioner Gary Bettman, tried to get at Bob Hartley on Saturday because he was incensed when the Calgary coach started his fourth line, initiating a 5-on-5 brawl two seconds into the game.
Sedin has been playing with a finger injury which required a splint, but a cross check to the ribs during Thursday's 1-0 loss at Phoenix led to the 33-year-old center not being able to finish the last two games. "The fact he's been able to play that many games consecutively is just a testament to his determination and how tough he is," assistant coach Mike Sullivan told NHL.com of Sedin. "Him and (twin brother) Daniel both play in the hard areas of the rink on a consistent basis because they have the puck so much." Edmonton plays three straight at home after a 3-2 overtime loss to Winnipeg on Saturday finished a 0-3-1 road trip.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, SNET-Pacific (Vancouver), SNET-West (Edmonton)
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (25-16-9): Vancouver, which holds one of the two wild-card spots in the Western Conference, snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 shootout victory over the Flames. The four-game stretch included a 1-0 loss at Los Angeles on Jan. 13 when the Canucks sought retribution for Kings captain Dustin Brown injuring goaltender Robert Luongo on Jan. 4, and an embarrassing 9-1 defeat at Anaheim on Wednesday. While the donnybrook and Tortorella's antics garnered most of the attention against Calgary, Luongo returned after missing six games with an ankle injury and made 31 saves before stopping 4-of-5 shots in the shootout.
ABOUT THE OILERS (15-30-6): Edmonton owner Daryl Katz posted a letter on the team's web site asking for more patience as the team continues to struggle. "I know this will almost certainly be the eighth consecutive year since we made the playoffs,'' Katz wrote. "I hate that fact as much as anyone, but the reality is that this is only year four of the rebuild that started when we drafted Taylor Hall." The 22-year-old Hall has a club-best 46 points and shares the team lead with David Perron with 18 goals, but the Oilers have been even slower building a defense as they allow an NHL-most 3.51 goals per game - .31 more than the next-worst New York Islanders.
OVERTIME
1. Said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell: "Mr. Tortorella's actions in attempting to enter the Calgary Flames locker room after the first period were both dangerous and an embarrassment to the league. Coaches in the NHL bear the responsibility of providing leadership, even when emotions run high, and Mr. Tortorella failed in his responsibility to the game."
2. Doug Jarvis holds the NHL record for consecutive games played at 964, a streak he compiled from 1975-87 while playing for Montreal, Washington and Hartford.
3. Edmonton has the second-fewest points to Buffalo's 33 and has the worst goal differential in the NHL at minus-50.