CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 34 – CANUCKS @ RED WINGS

8 years ago

Welcome to the Motor City. For $100 you can buy 2 tickets to tonight’s game AND you get a down payment on a $500,000 home. Land of the free indeed! The Canucks venture to Detroit to take on the Red Wings for the second night of the Canucks back to back. No doubt they’ll be tired from the semi-effort they put out last night, but it sure would look nice if they won, at least, ONE game this trip. Captain Hank might be out so stay tuned. We may have the technology to switch him out if need be.

BROADCAST INFO

TV: SNET-P

RADIO: TSN 1040

PUCK DROP: 4:30 PM

LINE COMBOS

So probably no Henrik, eh? That stinks. Maybe they put Bo Horvat on the top jam? Is this the “destined” moment when we see the evolution of Bo Horvat, the next chosen child? Probably not but its an idea. I’d say the team has been decimated by injuries, but I can’t count 10 guys yet so they’re just banged up. The roulette wheel of line combos is going to be spinning a bit more in the next while and today is no different. Let’s just see some slumps busted, ok?

Ryan Miller will start as is the case on a normal back to back. Take note Willie.

Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW
Daniel Sedin	Henrik Sedin	Alexandre Burrows
Chris Higgins	Jared McCann	Jannik Hansen
Sven Baertschi	Bo Horvat	Radim Vrbata
Brandon Prust	Adam Cracknell	Derek Dorsett

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Chris Tanev
Ben Hutton	Yannick Weber
Matt Bartkowski	Alex Biega

Thomas Tatar has been ill lately, no license to be, but he should be good to go this evening. The Red Wings haven’t won since last Thursday, but they’ve been waiting for the Canucks at home like Sharks circling a bleeding leg in the ocean. Sadly, this is almost too real.

Jimmy Howard will start. Petr Mrazek is day to day with a vowel injury.

Detroit Red Wings lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW
Dylan Larkin	Henrik Zetterberg	Justin Abdelkader
Darren Helm	Pavel Datsyuk	Brad Richards
Gustav Nyquist	Riley Sheahan	Tomas Tatar
Joakim Andersson	Luke Glendening	Tomas Jurco

Defensive Pairings
Niklas Kronwall	Mike Green
Dan DeKeyser	Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith	Alexey Marchenko

REASONS TO WATCH THIS GAME

They sure tried last night. I have said this for a bit but I believe there are wins hidden in their efforts, how deep they are is the tough part. Seeing all this happen away from home can’t be easy either. Stay the course Canucks fans, this time, it’s for real: we’re headed for Auston.
Henrik Sedin has been playing hurt. He’s also 35 years old, tied for 9th in league scoring and sits 5th in the league in assists. What does OUT look like? Does he just throw Daniel’s jersey on and keep going? Who fills his presence? Gaunce? Bo? McCann? None of those guys are twins though.
Alex Burrows seems like he might be ready to get back his old job even without Henrik there. He’s been in the news lately for things…things, and he always seems to elevate when the chips are against him. Either that or maybe we’re close to a trade with Burr, probably after Christmas though.
The Canucks deserved better last night and you could probably draw a few conclusions from it, if only for a game: Goaltending is not the Canucks problem; keeping the puck out of that area is. That’s a team effort. When Vancouver actually puts in the visible effort we all look for they have the talent to win but they don’t have the personnel to ensure that anymore. This is a coach/GM thing. Tank or no tank these things need to be addressed. Sure, the Canucks are losing and things look bad but imagine what happens if they do rebuild and start over-ish? Those pieces could come.
Daniel Sedin had a 4 goal night in Detroit many years ago. Lets hold out hope for another miracle like this one:

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

MY TAKE

Players are dropping like flies, no one is scoring and the fans are restless; probably another loss but its coming. Ryan Miller will puff his Michigan chest and who knows, a big win isn’t out of the question. Still, I’m taking the Wings tonight. You wanted honesty, that’s honest.

WHAT’D I MISS?

Nothing to do with this game but honestly, doesn’t it make you feel a bit better about things?