Canucks Back In Action, Finally

Image courtesy TSN.ca

It has been a long few days since that Vancouver Canucks last stepped out onto the ice at General Motors Place for a National Hockey League game. It was Wednesday night when the Canucks last played an NHL game, a game that saw them finally pick up their first win of the season against the Montreal Canadiens. During that break the Canucks held their fourth annual open practice, which allows fans to get a behind the scenes look at how the Canucks practice and prepare for their games. However, noticeably absent from the event was Daniel Sedin.

Daniel Sedin has missed team practices since Wednesday's tilt with the Canadiens as he nurses a heel injury. The injury was sustained when he took a shot off his foot on Wednesday night and he has been diagnosed with a deep bone bruise. Jason Botchford of The Province has reported that the swelling and bruising has been so severe that Daniel has not yet been able to get an MRI. When the swelling and bruising subsides the team will have Daniel's foot scanned to see if there is a break. If there is a break it would sideline Daniel for 4-6 weeks. The Sedin twins have been remarkably durable with Daniel missing just one game in the last four seasons while Henrik has not missed any in the same time frame. Break or no break, Daniel is expected to at least miss Sunday's match up against the Dallas Stars.

Update: Daniel has a broken foot and will miss 4-6 weeks.

In the meantime the Vancouver Canucks have called up Guillaume Desbiens from the Manitoba Moose. Desbiens will not be replacing Daniel Sedin, but Steve Bernier who has been promoted to first line duty with Daniel out. Desbiens is expected to play on the third line with Kyle Wellwood and Tanner Glass. The first line will feature Bernier, Henrik Sedin and Alex Burrows. The second and fourth lines will remain intact. Ryan Kesler will centre Mason Raymond and Mikael Samuelsson on the second line while Ryan Johnson anchors the fourth with Darcy Hordichuk and Rick Rypien.

The Dallas Stars come into General Motors Place after doing a big favour for the Canucks by handing the Calgary Flames their first loss of the season. The Stars are coming off a year to forget as they missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. Dave Tippett was subsequently fired and replaced by former Canuck bench boss, Marc Crawford. Tippett had an impressive resume with the Stars as he had never missed the playoffs before last season and had led the Stars to the Western Final just the year before.

Last season the two teams split the season record with Dallas winning the first two meetings, one in a shootout at G.M. Place, and Vancouver taking the final two.

The puck drops at 7:00PM Pacific. Watch the game on Sportsnet Pacific with commentary by John Shorthouse, John Garrett and Dan Murphy. Rick Ball has the radio call on TEAM1040 with Tom Larscheid and Joey Kenward.

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