CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 23 – CANUCKS VS. WILD
By Always90four
7 years ago
The Canucks are riding a one game winning streak as the Minnesota Wild come to town. Let’s not get too excited here, we have a long season to go still. You know that Alex Edler is out for awhile so it’s all hands on deck and that isn’t exactly reassuring.
Both teams are at opposite ends of the Western Conference and with a Canucks win this evening, Vancouver is within striking distance of the playoffs… which start in April.
BROADCAST INFO
TV: SNET-P
RADIO: TSN 1040
PUCK DROP: 7:00PM
LINE COMBOS
So Edler has a broken finger — 4-6 weeks kinda broken. Pretty lame! Alex Biega however, IS BACK… to probably sit in the press box. Those conditioning stints really work in Utica, just one game and you’re done! Philip Larsen gets to come back and play for awhile and word is Chris Tanev is real close to a return (please hurry).
Ryan Miller should start tonight. He lost a heartbreaker in Dallas so hopefully, he can singlehandedly win this one.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Daniel Sedin |  Henrik Sedin |  Brandon Sutter |
 Markus Granlund |  Michael Chaput |  Loui Eriksson |
 Bo Horvat |  Alexandre Burrows | |
 Jack Skille |  Brendan Gaunce |  Jayson Megna |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Luca Sbisa |  Troy Stecher |
 Ben Hutton |  Erik Gudbranson |
 Nikita Tryamkin |  Philip Larsen |
Nate Prosser is in the lineup again (basically the Wild’s defensive Megna), Mikael Granlund has impressed his coach lately and will probably see a bit more playing time.
Devan Dubnyk should get the start in the first game of their Canadian roadie.
Minnesota Wild lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Zach Parise |  Eric Staal |  Charlie Coyle |
 Jason Zucker |  Mikko Koivu |  Mikael Granlund |
 Nino Niederreiter |  Erik Haula |  Jason Pominville |
 Tyler Graovac |  Zack Mitchell |  Chris Stewart |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Ryan Suter |  Jared Spurgeon |
 Jonas Brodin |  Mathew Dumba |
 Marco Scandella |  Nate Prosser |
GAME NOTES, STATS AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO
- The battle of all battles, the feud to decide who gets the other turkey leg at Christmas dinner – Markus Granlund vs. Mikael Granlund: Oh Brother! Mikael with the hearty 14 points this season and Markus with 9... WAIT, WHAT? Does he seriously have NINE POINTS? How are we not talking about this more?
- This preview is littered with sadness and it’s worth putting it in here: Edler is out for awhile and this pretty much is the first game that we can all go back to when this train comes off the rails.
- Bo Horvat leads the Canucks in points and it’s not close. 2 points separate himself from Daniel Sedin and 3 from Henrik. That could take weeks to catch up with this team. Thank you, Horvat for all you do.
- The Canucks have done ok at home since the Cup run in 2011. Their CF% is 9th best at 52.12%. The Wild, they’re 25th at 49.39% Does that really say all that much about this matchup tonight? Not really, but I found something the Canucks are better than a lot of teams at so you have to like that.
- Loui Eriksson is starting to catch fire and against the Wild he might be one of the lone stars to shine. Believe in blue they said, well… time to believe again.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
This is amazing! I imagine this is how Jim Benning feels every single day. OH SHOOT THEY’RE PLAYING!
MY TAKE
Your #1 defenceman goes down clearing the way for Larsen. That also means your #1 defenceman is basically Luca Sbisa. No, that’s not what we would all believe as Ben Hutton is there as is Troy Stecher but PEOPLE this team is in disarray. You may struggle to watch all 60 minutes and heaven forbid this one goes to OT or a shootout, let’s just not go there.
WILL PAINT DRYING BE MORE EXCITING THAN THIS GAME?
We all know the Wild aren’t an exciting team and they find ways to beat you by being very sneaky. This game falls into that category and I have a feeling without Edler we are doomed. This could have also been my take.
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