It's day one of the Canucks' regular season, so naturally, we're talking about their backup goalie. That's just how it goes in this city. You can't have Canucks hockey without goalie drama. It's like wearing a shirt without pants. It's like donald-ducking.
Granted, it's not elite goalie drama. This isn't Roberto Luongo crying at a podium. But give it time. It's the first day.
The Canucks announced Wednesday that Jacob Markstrom had sustained some kind of lower-body injury. I don't know how it happened. Nor do I know how it happened that teams decided to be vague and secretive about injuries to their backup goaltenders in October. I'm not particularly happy about either development, unless they're being secretive because the injury is a clubbed kneecap and there's some suspicion that Ryan Miller is involved. But I don't know for sure that that's true, especially since I made it up.
Either way, for those of you who wanted the Canucks to start the season with Jacob Markstrom and Eddie Lack, tough. Instead you get Ryan Miller and AHL call-up Richard Bachman, the goaltender that may actually be Stephen King doing research for a book about a haunted hockey arena.
As it stands, this isn't a big deal. Markstrom's the backup, after all, so it's not like this changes who will play in goal for the Canucks tonight. And if the injury is minor enough, it's possible that Markstrom doesn't miss a single scheduled start.
But if Miller struggles to start the season, which has to be a real concern after a shaky preseason, then the Canucks don't really have anybody else to turn to. We've all come to terms with Miller, and it's largely because we've always liked the guy behind him. It makes it easier to stomach his bad nights -- worst-case scenario, he comes out and the other guy comes in, and we prefer him anyway.
If Markstrom's injury is serious, though, this is no longer true. It's Miller or bust. Although, considering the Canucks totally traded Eddie Lack because he was eating into Miller's popularity, maybe they're fine with that. Maybe they wanted this to happen. Maybe they're in on it. There's really no telling how deep this goes.
