Thomas Vanek and the Vancouver Canucks ended the year with a defeat in the NHL. The Canucks lost the Los Angeles Kings 3-4 on Saturday at home. Vanek received 21:05 minutes of ice time from trainer Travis Green, by far the most since he moved to Vancouver in summer.
From the three Austrian NHL players, only one of them will go into the new year on a play-off spot. The Canucks have dropped back to penultimate place in the West after only two wins in the last eleven games and are six places and six points behind the play-off ranks. Michael Raffl and the Philadelphia Flyers are trailing by four points just before the halfway point.
Michael Grabner, on the other hand, is good with the New York Rangers in the race for one of the eight promotion places at the Eastern Conference. On Monday the Villacher will have a very special game on his agenda. The Rangers receive the Buffalo Sabres in front of 42,000 spectators in Citi Field in the Winter Classic, a traditional open-air game on New Year’s Day. The opening bully in the New York Mets’ baseball stadium is 1 pm local time (19.00 CET).