Riding high after a huge win over the Wild, the Canucks go north to take on the Winnipeg Jets for Hometown Hockey. Neither the Jets nor Canucks will make the playoffs this year so it will be a straight up Smythe Division showdown tonight. The hype has obviously died down since Brock Boeser made his debut yesterday so it should be business as usual.
Just another kid living out his dream.
LINE COMBOS
arrived in Winnipeg after canucks. One of those Canucks was issued a work permit ?
— Jason Botchford (@botchford) March 26, 2017
Jack Skille is out for an indefinite amount of time after bending his knee in a not so nice way. My guess is Alex Biega is in but we’ll find out today what the official announcement is.
Ryan Miller will start, bless his heart.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
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The Jets are without a handful of notables: Tyler Myers, Tobias Enstrom, Shawn Matthias and Marko Dano. This isn’t exactly a walk in the park for either team but it would be nice, I’m sure, to have those guys in the lineup for Winnipeg.
Michael Hutchinson looks to start but I was wrong yesterday so who knows?
Winnipeg Jets lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
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GAME NOTES, STATS, AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO (WHICH MAY INCLUDE BROCK BOESER)
- This is the third and final meeting between the two teams and it isn’t unreasonable to expect a similar finish to the previous two: both games ended 4-1, one for the Canucks and one for the Jets. Considering some of the names involved tonight (Boeser, Boucher, Horvat, Laine, Ehlers, Chaput) we could easily see that final score yet again.
- Christmas came a bit late yesterday for the Canucks. With the addition of Brock Boeser, Vancouver gets a sniper that is ready to contribute. We all saw how impressive he was and what he can bring to this team. Jim Benning might get to keep his job a lot longer than we once thought.
- What is the deal with Reid Boucher? Two goals against the Wild yesterday puts his total at 5 goals in 19 games. A young kid with the same kind of determination that Jack Skille started with this past fall and he has a shot that should get him way more ice time than he has. I don’t think anyone expected the team to look like this when it all started back in September.
- Horvat had two assists yesterday and his personal numbers may climb steadily in the last stretch of the season; call it the Boeser Effect.
- The Killer B’s is an unoriginal nickname for a line but we saw a brief glimpse of how deadly they could be. All three players (Bo, Boeser, Baertschi) had points in the game yesterday and I don’t think we could handle the Twitters if it would multiply by even another game.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Duke Boeser has Parkinson’s and has had some complications lately, but Laurie said, “He’s running on adrenaline today.”#canucks #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) March 25, 2017
Feel good story, for sure.
MY TAKE
MY TAKE
I didn’t expect to see what I saw yesterday so it’s unlikely we’ll see two amazing Canucks games in a row. That being said, there is much reason to watch every game here on out as the team landscape has changed. I’m ok with whatever rebuild the Canucks put our way if it means they keep a good portion of this team together.
I take the Canucks in regulation. Reid Boucher scores one more.
HAVE THE CANUCKS PLAYED TOO WELL TO GET A GOOD PICK?
Well, they haven’t exactly turned the world on its side but they’re playing themselves out of a better percentage to get the first pick. We saw last year that doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot but if Willie D plays the kids more, Vancouver can keep their hopes alive. That, or they can get the pick and parlay it into a king’s ransom.