It’s Saturday night, it’s the Canucks and it’s the Penguins: this is what it’s all about. With the Penguins playing last night and going the distance, the Canucks could play spoiler and stay in the playoff hunt. Everyone is talking about Sidney Crosby and so they should be but our star, Bo Horvat is worthy of his own following.

Most of us will be watching at home but VanHAC is going on this weekend so they’ll all be at The Pint cheering and stats-ing (is that even a word?) together.   Have fun!

LINE COMBOS

Word on the street is Brendan Gaunce and Nikolay Goldobin are OUT, Alex Grenier has been called up and is IN. Alex Biega gets another tour of duty on the wing. I hate to say it but he looks better as a forward than a defender, am I alone?

Ryan Miller will once again start because Willie Desjardins is a glutton for punishment.

Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW
Daniel Sedin	Henrik Sedin	Markus Granlund
Sven Baertschi	Bo Horvat	Jayson Megna
Brendan Gaunce	Brandon Sutter	Reid Boucher
Joseph Cramarossa	Michael Chaput	Alex Biega

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Troy Stecher
Luca Sbisa	Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton	Nikita Tryamkin

No noted changes for the Penguins but that’s because they’re smoking teams right now and you don’t mess with greatness. Somehow, Phil Kessel and Nick Bonino are beyond major threats now.

Matt Murray should start after Marc-Andre Fleury went the distance last night.

Pittsburgh Penguins lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW
Chris Kunitz	Sidney Crosby	Conor Sheary
Carl Hagelin	Evgeni Malkin	Phil Kessel
Scott Wilson	Nick Bonino	Jake Guentzel
Carter Rowney	Matt Cullen	Tom Kuhnhackl

Defensive Pairings
Brian Dumoulin	Justin Schultz
Mark Streit	Ron Hainsey
Ian Cole	Chad Ruhwedel

 

GAME NOTES, STATS, AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO

• Horvat has two SHG this season and with a third, he would be in a tie for second in the league. The young Jedi has harnessed the force.
• With the fifth least home PP opportunities in the league, the Canucks are last in home PP GF and 29th in PP%. They don’t create many chances to get power plays and as they get faster and shiftier by giving their speedsters more ice time, I see those numbers changing for the better.
• Kind of an odd stat: the Canucks have the third fewest missed shots in the league. however, they’ve also registered the fourth fewest shots taken. At some point, that number too will change.
• Even after two periods of play, the Canucks are tied for seventh in wins after trailing at the 40-minute mark. It’s amazing how many random stats exist but it gives hope that this team is worth watching until the final minute. Some may disagree at this point. There is another stat to go with this: Canucks Army readers are 86% likely to read the entire GDT after getting past the Game Notes section. I have no stats to back this up.
• With Biega once again up on the forward lines, we may see some entertainment with his “bulldog” type hits. Very underrated player in my opinion.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

for sale: hat worn by @JeffVeillette. starting bid $50000 pic.twitter.com/psST1Y2U0W

— Matthew Henderson (@mhenderson95) March 11, 2017

MY TAKE

Worn out from such a long game against the Oilers last night, the Canucks should be primed to crush the Penguins at Rogers Arena. There have been some classics in the Luongo era and with the transition to the new generation, we can only hope it amounts to the same.

BETTER PLAYER RIGHT NOW: CROSBY OR HORVAT?

This one isn’t even close as of the last five games: Crosby – 3A, Horvat – 2G, 4A. Can you believe they let Sid run their team? How is Bo not our guy then?