Batchelor: Jay Beagle to return to lineup

According to Brendan Batchelor of Sporstnet 650, Jay Beagle will play Tuesday night against the Stars.

The statement was later confirmed by the team’s official Twitter account.

The return of Jay Beagle bodes well for the Canucks, as Travis Green had been reluctant to use Utica Comets call-up Tyler Graovac. Graovac played 5:31 Thursday against the Dallas Stars and only got 2:46 of ice time Saturday night against the Colorado Avalanche.

Beagle will likely return to his fourth line centre role alongside Tim Schaller and Loui Eriksson. Beagle has been playing well in a fourth line role this season and contributing with on the penalty kill. He has been outstanding in the faceoff dot this season, winning 63.1% of his faceoffs thus far.

Adam Gaudette is likely remain the the third line centre role as Brandon Sutter’s health remains in question.

Beagle’s return should affect Loui Eriksson and Tim Schaller as well, as Green used both players sparingly in his absence. Eriksson is averaging just over 6 minutes a game since Beagle’s injury and Schaller has been averaging 10:30 over those two games as he has been contributing on the penalty kill.

When Sutter returns to the lineup all signs are pointing towards a benching of Loui Eriksson. Somehow the Loui situation almost feels as it has gotten worse and the Canucks need to keep players like Gaudette and Sven Baertschi in the lineup to continue to have success on the second powerplay unit.

The Canucks are a quarter of the way through the season and have to continue to push through this tough month of November. Jay Beagle will help by taking some pressure off of Horvat who won 24 of 30 faceoffs on Saturday night against the Avalanche.

In the meantime, Beagle is back and the fourth line is whole again.