Abbotsford Canucks confident in depth amid playoff injuries

The Abbotsford Canucks will look to close out there second-round series on home ice tonight against the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

After splitting the first two games in Coachella, the Canucks returned to the Abbotsford Centre on Wednesday night and squeaked out a 3-1 win. While the Firebirds have been a tough opponent, the Canucks have had a difficult battle with the injury bug.

Abbotsford was without Christian Wolanin (injured in Game 2 against Tucson), Aatu Räty and Jett Woo (both injured in Game 2 against Coachella) for Game 3 against Coachella. When asked for injury updates on the trio, Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra smirked and said, “It’s the playoffs. They’re all day-to-day.”

So, there really isn’t any sort of clarity on when those players will return, if at all.

With those players out, Abbotsford has had to rely on their depth players to step in and play in such crucial games. Räty was replaced by Dino Kambietz, and Joe Arnsten subbed in for Woo.

Kambeitz played 52 games this season, mostly in a bottom-six role, scoring 10 goals and four assists for 14 points. Arnsten has much less AHL experience, playing just 10 games this season, scoring just one goal. These were both players’ first appearances on this playoff run.

Malhotra spoke on the strength of his team’s depth and their “next man up” mentality:

“Yeah, it gave our group a little bit of a new look and some energy,” Malhotra said when asked about his lineup changes. “I’ve said it time and time again, one of the major strengths of our group is our depth and the ability to plug in players at any position and change lineups, and guys play with different linemates, different D-pairings, but we’re able to accomplish the same thing. So the guys stepped in and did a really good job for us, and that’s what we were expecting from them.

Kirill Kudryavtsev, who was scratched earlier this postseason, repeated Malhotra’s statement of the depth of their group, sharing that it motivates him and the rest of the group to play well to earn their roster spot:

“That’s the strength of our group; that’s what our coach always says. I’m just looking at our lineup, and I’m looking at the guys who are sitting out or injured, and I’m like, ‘Holy. We have like, another roster basically to play in the playoffs.’ So that feels great, and also motivates you to play well because if you’re not playing well, there’s really good guys who can step up and take your spot.”

Abbotsford has had guys plucked from their roster all season as the big club in Vancouver suffered through injuries and players earned promotions up to the NHL. Amid the difficulties of dealing with so much turnover, the Canucks still went on a 13-game winning streak that spanned over a month near the tail end of the season.

A handful of players stepped up during that 13-game stretch: Ty Mueller, Danila Klimovich and Max Sasson (who played nine games) all had double-digit points, while Arshdeep Bains and Sammy Blais led the way with 14 points.

Blais has continued his strong play into the playoffs, as he leads the entire AHL playoffs in points with seven (three goals and four assists). He touched on how those players stepped up during that winning streak, not just in the playoffs:

“Even at the end of the year, when we were on our winning streak, we were missing a lot of our top guys – they were in Vancouver – and [other] guys stepped up. Whoever it is we have in our lineup, we always believe in our chance to win. We have a good team, and good team chemistry in our locker room, which is really important to have on a good team.”

It’s has been the Canucks’ depth that has stepped up and produced during this playoff run. As mentioned, Blais leads the team with seven points, but Phil Di Giuseppe, Jujhar Khaira and Nate Smith are all tied for second with five. Regular season point scoring leaders Bains, Sasson, and Linus Karlsson all have four, Räty has three, Mueller has two, while Klimovich and Jonathan Lekkerimäki have only one (Räty, Klimovich, and Lekkerimäki have all missed games).

Puck drops tonight at 7 pm local time. Regardless of if Wolanin, Räty or Woo return or not, the Abbotsford Canucks are just as confident in their depth to try and advance to Round 3 against the Pacific Division winning Colorado Eagles.

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