CANUCKS ARMY GDT#2 – CANUCKS VS. HURRICANES
By Always90four
7 years ago
The Canucks roll into tonight with a shiny W to their credit but having been the last team to even play a game this season, they are playing catch up and draw their first back to back. The Carolina Hurricanes are in town with our old friend Eddie Lack. He’ll be manning the pipes this evening so hopefully there’s a bit of love coming his way.
That being said, the Canucks love it when the Hurricanes come to Vancouver. Since 2009, Vancouver is 6-0-2 against Carolina at Rogers Arena. Last night’s win hopefully has built up some energy for puck drop tonight.
The critics say 65 points is the ceiling for the Canucks this year so they might as well get those wins out of the way early.
BROADCAST INFO
TV: SNET-1
RADIO: TSN 1040
PUCK DROP: 7PM
LINEUPS
There were some positives from yesterday’s 2-1 win over the Flames that should carry over into this game: Bo Horvat, despite being left off the score sheet still showed that he was making every effort to be a force. There will be a moment he gets back with Sven Baertschi and maybe Jake Virtanen and Willie Desjardins can really open it up.
Brandon Sutter looked happy last night. Sure, he scored the game-winning goal but you could tell those injuries were behind him and he is ready to be a solid contributor on this team.
Ryan Miller had a solid outing in Vancouver’s first game and I would hope Jacob Markstrom would get the nod this evening. Keeping these two fresh might allow for the Canucks to win more games than they are supposed to. Crazy thought, I know.
As of writing this, official lineups have not been released.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Daniel Sedin |  Henrik Sedin |  Loui Eriksson |
 Brendan Gaunce |  Brandon Sutter |  Jannik Hansen |
 Sven Baertschi |  Markus Granlund |  Jake Virtanen |
 Alexandre Burrows |  Bo Horvat |  Derek Dorsett |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Alexander Edler |  Chris Tanev |
 Ben Hutton |  Erik Gudbranson |
 Luca Sbisa |  Philip Larsen |
Aside from Eddie Lack getting the start, no real important lineup notes for the Hurricanes. Carolina has already put up 2 PPG to start the year so it would be in Vancouver’s best interest to stay out of the box tonight. The Hurricanes to me look like a mish/mash of parts. Not saying this is going to be an easy one, but the Canucks should be able to beat these guys.
Carolina Hurricanes lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Jeff Skinner |  Victor Rask |  Lee Stempniak |
 Joakim Nordstrom |  Jordan Staal |  Andrej Nestrasil |
 Teuvo Teravainen |  Elias Lindholm |  Sebastian Aho |
 Bryan Bickell |  Jay McClement |  Viktor Stalberg |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Jaccob Slavin |  Justin Faulk |
 Ron Hainsey |  Brett Pesce |
 Noah Hanifin |  Klas Dahlbeck |
REASONS TO WATCH THIS GAME
- Delayed penalty calls. Going forward, every single time the Canucks are about to go on a power play this year and pull the goalie to get the extra attacker, we will be watching. Everyone thinks “what if?” when the goalie comes off on a delayed call but rarely does it actually result in an own goal. Last night, new Canuck Loui Eriksson was the goat playing keep away and yes my friends, the puck indeed went in. Who would have thought an empty net could be so intriguing?
- You’ll see my big long form essay later about Luca Sbisa but for now I want to talk about his first game. I thought he had an exceptional game and if he can string more games together like he did against the Flames, he might be over the hump. I’m not expecting to be liked for these comments.
- How great was the Sedin/Eriksson line? It’s not too often where we can talk about “The Shift” and start adding 2.0 to the end. The shift ending in the 1-1 goal by Daniel Sedin clocked in at 2 minutes and 1 second. It was a thing to behold and watching the Flames struggle to keep up kept everyone in suspense. There were so many things that could have thwarted that lines efforts but it all culminated in a bouquet of awesomeness. You have to watch that line tonight, there may be more to come. Here is the new “Shift”:
- The Canucks power play was interesting, no? I guess they are all in on Philip Larsen being the go-to guy for the shot on the top power play. It was as predictable as Alex Edler’s stick flex on a one-timer. The puck comes to Larsen, shot, rebound comes around, puck to Larsen, shot. You get the picture. He does have a boomer so if that formula continues there might actually be fewer shots needed if it goes in on the first one or two attempts.
- There seems to be a bit more grit with this team so far. Even the Sedins are getting in the scrums after the whistle. Maybe the Canucks have finally taken enough crap from the rest of the league that they are going to stand up for themselves. Would have been nice 5 years ago.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
At some point, we’ll need to lay off of this whole tacos thing but it’s still cool so let’s keep it up!
MY TAKE
DISCLAIMER: I thought Luca Sbisa played a “really good” game last night and I think there is a chance he could still blossom into a top 4 pairing defenseman. He had some big hits and a Mason Raymond spin o rama:
I don’t have a clever name for this but my LOCK OF THE NIGHT goes to Luca Sbisa. I believe he will be a factor. The downside to all of this is that it might be a detriment. I’m OK with being wrong though.
DO THE CANUCKS WIN?
Overtime and shootouts might be a common trend this year for the Canucks so even though I am picking them to win, it will most likely take 65 minutes or more to get there.
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