Canucks Army GDT #44 – Canucks @ Panthers

Broadcast Info

Lineups

LW	C	RW
Daniel Sedin	Henrik Sedin	Radim Vrbata
Chris Higgins	Brad Richardson	Alexandre Burrows
Shawn Matthias	Nick Bonino	Linden Vey
Derek Dorsett	Bo Horvat	Jannik Hansen

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Chris Tanev
Ryan Stanton	Kevin Bieksa
Dan Hamhuis	Frank Corrado

Brad Richardson is questionable with a lower body injury. Zack Kassian will return to the lineup should Richardson be unable to play. Luca Sbisa will probably draw in for Frank Corrado. Ryan Miller will start in goal.

LW	C	RW
Jonathan Huberdeau	Aleksander Barkov	Brad Boyes
Jimmy Hayes	Nick Bjugstad	Jussi Jokinen
Brandon Pirri	Dave Bolland	Tomas Fleischmann
Tomas Kopecky	Derek MacKenzie	Vincent Trocheck

Defensive Pairings
Brian Campbell	Aaron Ekblad
Willie Mitchell	Dmitry Kulikov
Erik Gudbranson	Dylan Olsen

Scottie Upshall and fancystats darling Sean Bergenheim will sit out tonight as healthy scratches. Roberto Luongo will get the start in goal.

Head to Head

Storylines

• Lu Part Two – The Canucks will face their former franchise goalie and former not-technically-but-he-totally-is captain for the second time this season, as Roberto Luongo looks to thwart his former franchise for a once more. The last time these two teams met just a few short days ago, the Canucks laid an egg, falling to the Panthers 3-1 on home ice. Luongo stopped 32 of 33 pucks fired his way, en route to first star honours. He’ll look to have another solid outing tonight to help his team snap a three-game losing skid. Luongo is 8th among goalies with 20 games played on the year with a 0.934 save percentage at even strength.
• Reversal of Fortunes – After losing to the Panthers on January 8th, Vancouver proceeded to drop their next two outings as well by a combined 6-1 score, mustering no goals at even strength. In the two games since, Ryan Miller has pitched two shutouts, his 4th and 5th of the season which tied him for second in the NHL, and the Canucks have won both games while outscoring their opponents by a score of 7-0 in the process. They’ll look to continue putting the puck in the net tonight against a Panthers team that’s dropped three games in a row.
• Miller Time – Ryan Miller is playing his best hockey as a Vancouver Canuck right now with shutouts in back-to-back games, bringing his save percentage up to 0.918 on the year, good for 17th in the NHL. Miller’s season can best be described as “up-and-down” as he’s struggled enormously at times and been lights-out stellar at others. The Canucks can’t reasonably ask for any more out of Miller than what’s he’s giving them, so it’ll be up to the team in front of him to keep scoring goals, begin outshooting their opponents more often, and pull their possession numbers out of the bottom-10 teams in the NHL.

Gameday Reading

• Canucks.com’s Tale of the Tape
• The Province’s Morning Skate feature with Paul Chapman
• TSN Radio’s game day preview
• Pass it To Bulis takes a trip down memory lane, and celebrates the 1-year anniversary of the Torts game. You know the one.