CANUCKS ARMY GDT 28 – CANUCKS VS. HURRICANES
By Always90four
6 years agoThe Vancouver Canucks continue their homestand against the Carolina Hurricanes, who are coming off an OT victory over the Panthers on Saturday.
Scoring may be at a premium again this evening despite the Canucks having the rookie leader in their lineup amongst a few other hot hands of late. Carolina has one player just outside the Top 50 scorers in Teuvo Teraveinen with 22 points.
Vancouver will have to have a bit more pushback than the Leafs game if they want to have any success against a blue-collar Carolina team.
Let’s do this!
WATCH / LISTEN / FACE-OFF
TV: SNET-P
RADIO: SN650
PUCK DROP: 7:00 PM
LINE COMBINATIONS
No real changes on the homefront. Brandon Sutter and Erik Gudbranson are still a week away at the very least from returning to the team.
Jacob Markstrom didn’t get the shutout last game, but he played well enough to earn the win. Travis Green may choose to go back to Anders Nilsson to see what he has there.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 NIKOLAY GOLDOBIN |  BO HORVAT |  BROCK BOESER |
 DANIEL SEDIN |  HENRIK SEDIN |  JAKE VIRTANEN |
 SVEN BAERTSCHI |  ALEX BURMISTROV |  SAM GAGNER |
 THOMAS VANEK |  MARKUS GRANLUND |  LOUI ERIKSSON |
Carolina looks to be icing the same team that beat the Panthers on Saturday, and the only question will most likely be in net.
Scott Darling should start and has a 2-0 lifetime record versus the Canucks.
Carolina Hurricanes lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 SEBASTIAN AHO |  JORDAN STAAL |  TEUVO TERAVAINEN |
 BROCK MCGINN |  VICTOR RASK |  JUSTIN WILLIAMS |
 JEFF SKINNER |  DEREK RYAN |  ELIAS LINDHOLM |
 JOAKIM NORDSTROM |  MARCUS KRUGER |  JOSH JOORIS |
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
- Carolina wasn’t so nice to the Canucks last season. The Canucks took the home portion of the series, but the Hurricanes blasted Vancouver for eight goals, including a six-goal third period. It’s a slightly different Canucks squad this year, and at the very least, Jayson Megna won’t be on the ice. Vancouver is a lot more disciplined, and Willie Desjardins won’t be rolling four lines, so this game has potential to be interesting.
- Rookie Haydn Fleury will be tested against the Canucks own rookie, Brock Boeser. Fleury has four points through 24 games but is getting top minutes with Justin Faulk on the back end. He’ll be a player to watch this evening.
- Brock Boeser still leads pretty much every rookie category and will look to have a bounce-back game tonight. He’s averaging just over a point per game currently, and it still feels impressive. Although, that’s just a data point, so it’s probably not that interesting.
- Misery loves company. Ben Hutton and Justin Faulk are tied for last place in the NHL for lowest P/60. They both have a whopping 0.14. It should be noted this is at 5v5 with minimum 200 minutes played. The zero’d players were left out as they didn’t have a point to their name. This will probably mean one of them has a decent game on the score sheet. Remember when Hutton was so dreamy? How the times have changed.
- It pays to be picky. Vancouver the 2nd fewest missed shots with 273 while the Hurricanes are in the Top 10 with 346. If the Canucks can keep lanes to the net open, whoever is in net probably doesn’t have to worry about the puck hitting him at all. Safe to say Vancouver probably doesn’t need to block any shots either?
THE TWITTER TAKE
Why is McKenzie not taking Lind?
MY 94 CENTS
This might not be the most exciting matchup of the season, but it will be a good test to see what the Canucks learned from their victory over the Leafs and how well they can pounce on a team that is struggling to stay above the cut line. Brock Boeser was held pointless against Toronto, and that doesn’t sit well with #flownation. Now that all the milestones and accolades have passed, it’s time for the Canucks to step their game up.
OVER / UNDER
Thomas Vanek slappers (+/- 0) We haven’t seen one of these in awhile and an unsuspecting Hurricane team would be a great place to unleash one. Take the over.
(Insert Canucks goalie here) Shutout tonight, the Canucks hold a clean sheet against the Hurricanes. I think I worded that correctly, basically, they shut them out.
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