CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 50 – CANUCKS VS. SHARKS
By Always90four
7 years ago
Welcome back, Canucks!
After a pretty lengthy break, the Canucks are back at it tonight against the Sharks. Surprisingly, this is their first meeting of the season, but there will be plenty of hatred in the next month or so. Everyone is well rested, Jannik Hansen is slated to come back for the weekend and somehow, some way… the Canucks are still in the playoff race.
Let’s play the hockey.
LINE COMBOS
No changes to discuss. Jannik Hansen is supposed to be back Saturday, and it looks like at the very least, the sensational Jayson Megna will sit at that point. Oh, I guess Philip Larsen is back.
Ryan Miller is ready to take charge, and he’ll get the first start out of the gate.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Daniel Sedin |  Henrik Sedin |  Loui Eriksson |
 Sven Baertschi |  Bo Horvat |  Alexandre Burrows |
 Markus Granlund |  Brandon Sutter |  Jayson Megna |
 Brendan Gaunce |  Michael Chaput |  Jack Skille |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Alexander Edler |  Troy Stecher |
 Luca Sbisa |  Chris Tanev |
 Nikita Tryamkin |  Philip Larsen |
The forgotten brother, Joonas Donskoi, is still out with an upper-body injury. No other individual notes aside from Brent Burns getting some Hart and Norris love via the Vegas oddsmakers.
Martin Jones will start.
San Jose Sharks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Tomas Hertl |  Joe Thornton |  Joe Pavelski |
 Patrick Marleau |  Logan Couture |  Mikkel Boedker |
 Kevin Labanc |  Chris Tierney |  Joel Ward |
 Timo Meier |  Ryan Carpenter |  Melker Karlsson |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Paul Martin |  Brent Burns |
 Marc-Edouard Vlasic |  Justin Braun |
 Brenden Dillon |  David Schlemko |
GAME NOTES, STATS AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO
- With 13 points or 7 wins, the Canucks will equal the EA Sports 65 point prediction. Considering their play at home, that could be wrapped up by the end of the February or sooner. Probably end of February.
- Going into the break, Bo Horvat had 1G and 1A in his last five games. They were spread out in the middle of that stretch, so he’s due for some Bo-daciousness. Yes, I’m aware of how awful that looks. He did get 1G and 2A vs. San Jose last year, so he hasn’t done that bad against them.
- As we’ve seen in recent games, Nikita Tryamkin has a monster slap shot. He needs to reign that thing in, but my goodness it’s a blast. Once he gets past the potential to hurt players, he really could give the Canucks a valuable weapon on the PP.
- Ryan Miller hasn’t done too bad against San Jose since 2014. He is sporting a 2.71 GAA but a decent .919 SA%, three wins and three losses and averaged just over 2.5 goals per game. With Miller’s play this year, he could make a solid run against the Sharks.
- Here’s a stat – Daniel Sedin likes playing the Sharks, or so the numbers say. Since Oct 2010, he has a 51.0 CF% at 5v5. He also has the same amount of Cups as the Sharks in that time, so I’d venture to say the trend continues. The stats, not the Cups.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Those stretches… they’ll kill you.
MY TAKE
Being that it’s the first game between these two this year, the Sharks are on a bit of a roll with bottom feeder teams, and the puck seems to be going in for them. Ryan Miller will have to be lights out to keep it close.
The good vibe from the All-Star Game needs to keep going, so I say Vancouver wins.
WHAT WILL BE THE BIGGEST STORY IN THE SECOND HALF?
Bo Horvat would be a popular choice just because he’s getting the publicity right now and is leading the team in points but Ryan Miller and Nikita Tryamkin would get my vote. Miller has made the Canucks his own this year now that he’s been healthy and listening to him on the radio, he just sounds like he found his groove.
Tryamkin has taken huge strides from the beginning of the year, and most people can’t see him out of the lineup; just some familiarity and time made a world of a difference.
If it gets late and things are close, everyone will obsess about the playoffs and points missed or given away. Look at the team that’s coming up, missing the playoffs wouldn’t be the worst thing.
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