Morning skate for #Canucks:
Goldobin-Horvat-Boeser
Baertschi-Sutter-Gagner
Archibald-Gaudette-Virtanen
Schaller-Granlund-Motte
Edler-Stecher
Juolevi-Gudbranson
Hutton-Tanev
Del Zotto-Biega
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) September 24, 2018
#LAKings showing
Iafallo-Kopitar-Brown
Kovalchuk-Carter-Kempe
Pearson-Amadio-Toffoli
Clifford-Thompson-Lewis
Brickley-Doughty
Muzzin-Martinez
Phaneuf-Fantenberg
-Quick off first
-Carter/Kempe may be interchangeable
-Clague, LaDue, JAD, Etem, Forbort, etc appeared to be extras
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) September 24, 2018
- Goaltending has not been the Canucks strong suit for quite some time. Sure, Ryan Miller held his own and Eddie Lack finished out the Roberto Luongo season fairly well but until someone steps up and grabs that ring, it’s an open competition. Jacob Markstrom will win the job to start the season after sub-par showings from Thatcher Demko and Anders Nilsson’s lack of exhibition action. The confidence in that net is nowhere to be found and they’re running out of games to prove a point. The point may not be made in time.
- Despite not having consistent success on the man-advantage, the Canucks have had a plethora of power plays so far. They’re drawing penalties regularly which means they’re skating and getting to areas the opposition doesn’t want them to be. The Canucks do have some speedsters this year and a few offensive threats that will need to be contained. Vancouver has five power play goals which are only two back of the preseason lead of seven which is held by Vegas (not again with these guys), the Islanders and the Hurricanes. With the chances they’ve been given, the Canucks might be a very good power play team this season.
- Olli Juolevi needs to get some serious ice-time the next few games and even if he’s making mistakes, how he handles a team like Los Angeles will give Travis Green an idea if he’s worth pushing for an opening night roster spot. Realistically, he’s going down to Utica but a few strong showings might say otherwise.
- Expect the Canucks and Kings to be physical tonight for a few reasons: 1) they don’t like each other and Drew Doughty is probably still reeling after being burned by Nikolay Goldobin at the beginning of last season and 2) no one likes a six o’clock start and in Salt Lake City no less. No good can come of this. On a serious note, Erik Gudbranson needs to prove a team like the Kings can’t push his team around. Michael Del Zotto has been doing all the heavy lifting so far.
- With a few more spots up for grabs, Travis Green will have to decide what he’s looking for to start it all off. Injuries have helped a few players stick around. Just when it looks like someone is going to take charge, they regress. Nikolay Goldobin comes to mind, Adam Gaudette does as well and Loui Eriksson is MIA. If those trades that management was talking about are coming, expect them to come awfully soon. This is getting a bit ridiculous.
Before preseason: “50 points seems like a reasonable expectation for Pettersson.”
Now: “Pettersson could play not a single shift at 5-on-5 and still get 60 points.”#Canucks
— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) September 23, 2018