CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 19 – CANUCKS @ CANADIENS

8 years ago

It wasn’t that long ago, a few weeks, in fact, that the Vancouver Canucks ended the Canadiens win streak to start the season at 9 games. It felt good, not gonna lie. Since then, well….it hasn’t been entirely fun to watch. Now the Canucks are in Montreal this time and are looking to repeat some of that magic they had back in Vancouver. Token french player, Alex Burrows, may not be in the lineup. Read below to find out the exciting news!

BROADACAST INFO

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC

RADIO: TSN 1040

PUCK DROP: 4:30PM (maybe leave work early, its ok, I’m allowing it)

LINEUPS

Maybe you haven’t heard but Hunter freaking Shinkaruk was called up to join the Canucks. Injuries are more so the reason than his spectacular play, unfortunately, but he by far is the guy who deserves the shot. Alex Burrows flew back to Vancouver for personal reasons and according to Willie it’s a “good thing“. He will not play, I’m guessing he’s welcoming a new family member to Vancouver or he won the lotto and had to get to Richmond. Id expect the latter. Sbisa and Prust are both still a bit away from getting back in the lineup, but they’re close. Sutter also not in the lineup. Shinkaruk will be on a line with McCann and Vrby so he gets a chance to score right away. A period with Horvat would be a lot of fun, baby steps.

Jacob Markstrom is the rumoured goalie of choice for the Canucks this evening, clap for him, clap for him.

Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW
Daniel Sedin	Henrik Sedin	Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi	Bo Horvat	Jake Virtanen
Chris Higgins	Jared McCann	Radim Vrbata
Hunter Shinkaruk	Adam Cracknell	Derek Dorsett

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Chris Tanev
Dan Hamhuis	Yannick Weber
Ben Hutton	Matt Bartkowski

The Montreals are coming off a loss to the Colorados on the weekend so they are feeling the hurt like the Canucks. Not like losing to the Leafs hurt, but they’re not excited. Dale Weise will look to continue his Hart trophy season on the 3rd line while Alex Semin will try and find his scoring stroke and spread the offense to his teammates…3 points in 11 games for Semin, he looks like a laser has just taken away his scoring ability. Cool guy PK Subban just dominating on the blue line this year, don’t expect him to let up tonight.

Carey Price will see the ice, but after he practices alone, it’s still Mike Condon in game action. Carey is still injured in case you forgot.

Montreal Canadiens lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW
Max Pacioretty	Tomas Plekanec	Brendan Gallagher
Lars Eller	Alex Galchenyuk	Alexander Semin
Tomas Fleischmann	David Desharnais	Dale Weise
Brian Flynn	Torrey Mitchell	Devante Smith-Pelly

Defensive Pairings
Andrei Markov	P.K. Subban
Nathan Beaulieu	Jeff Petry
Tom Gilbert	Greg Pateryn

REASONS TO WATCH THIS GAME

This road trip has not been kind to the Canucks. 1 win in 5 games, losing to NJD (no Schneider), BUF (BUFFALO!!!!!), OTT (please stop this) and TOR (please for the love of all things good, stop). Vancouver beat Montreal a few weeks back and it was epic pinball so a win against a good Habs team would sure help.
Playing 60 minutes sounds like a simple task: show up and you have a good chance to win. Well, we all know the Canucks haven’t been putting in full game efforts and tonight is as good a night as any to start showing they aren’t playing for a good draft pick.
Jannik Hansen continues to be “real good” for the Sedins and it allows the other 3 lines to spread out. That being said, they’ve been playing like donkeys so they need to step it up. Loving Hansen though, he’s swell.
Well, well, well…Hunter Shinkaruk. The young sniper is ready to see his first NHL game and with BFF Bo Horvat already there, we might be about to witness magic. Not like Bure first game magic but these two could be the future of the team and its fun. The novelty of McCann and Virtanen has dulled a bit and Ben Hutton hasn’t been as stellar either. Shinkaruk is ready no doubt and he loves to score goals. Sure would be nice to see those again.
You have to believe Radim Vrbata is due for a big goal. He had Reimer beat but the play was offside. He’s slumping like the rest of the team so getting one guy out of a slump might be a step in the right direction. And la dee freakin da, he gets sniping sensation Hunter Shinkaruk to play with tonight. Do the math.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

MY TAKE

There isn’t a whole lot that suggests the Canucks can beat the Habs but it’s entirely possible they do. With a chance of having Shinkaruk, Horvat, McCann, Virtanen AND Hutton in the line up, there is a lot to be thrilled about. I’ll take the losses if we see progress, but getting a few wins wouldn’t hurt either. Canucks in OT.