CANUCKS ARMY GDT #68 – CANUCKS VS. LEAFS (HNIC PRIMER)

9 years ago

There aren’t a ton of games to really get up for lately in Vancouver, but anytime the grammatically incorrect Leafs roll into town it’s must see TV. I personally will have my “Leafs Suck” button on as I cheer on Vancouver and so help me if the basement dwelling buds don’t disappoint.

Broadcast Info

Puck Drop: 4:00 PM PST

TV: CBC It’s Hockey Night In Canada, where else would you be?

Radio: TSN 1040

Lineups

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

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Chris Tanev
Dan Hamhuis	Yannick Weber
Luca Sbisa	Kevin Bieksa

Kevin Bieksa and Brad Richardson will return from injuries. Frank Corrado and Linden Vey will sit in turn. Chris Higgins will play despite a lower body injury. Eddie Lack starts in goal.

LW	C	RW
Joffrey Lupul	Tyler Bozak	Phil Kessel
James van Riemsdyk	Peter Holland	Richard Panik
Leo Komarov	Trevor Smith	David Booth
Joakim Lindstrom	Zach Sill	Brandon Kozun

Defensive Pairings
Jake Gardiner	Dion Phaneuf
Eric Brewer	Morgan Rielly
T.J. Brennan	Andrew MacWilliam

Nazem Kadri returns from a team-imposed suspension. Jonathan Bernier is expected to start.

Head to Head

What the Other Side is Saying

From those scallywags over at mapleleafsnation.com:

Ok, so here’s the plan. We get this hockey game over with and then we all head to The Roxy. That’s the place to be, man. It’s where every visiting hockey team (and members of the home team, I’m sure) go after the game to unwind and drink and meet pretty ladies. It’s like hockey player heaven, and they even hold parties and bring in the Stanley Cup! No, I mean, not when the Canucks win. They don’t win anything. It only happens when a Vancouver-born player wins the Cup elsewhere and brings it home.

Reasons You Might Wanna Watch

Going into tonight’s action, both teams possess plague-like power plays and at some point you know the power play on either side will get its chance and most of us will see one of these:

I have a feeling the PK might be one of the stars tonight.
The Canucks and Leafs are headed in opposite directions with the Leafs “tanking” for uber prospect Connor McDavid at the draft in June, while the Canucks have pleasantly surprised many this year and are fighting for a valuable playoff spot. If the Leafs really want McDavid, this game will be a wash and the Canucks will get some stat padding done.
Not to be forgotten, the Leafs coming to town isn’t the only thing to get excited for; Brad Richardson and Kevin Bieksa are rumoured to be back in the lineup and it couldn’t come at a better time. Things haven’t been pretty lately and it wouldn’t hurt to have some fire injected into the lineup. Oh ya, Chris Higgins is back too, but there are more worthy guys right now of his roster spot that appear to be giving more.
Coach Willie Desjardins isn’t a big lights glitz and glamour type of guy, he’s a simple “real good” person. That being said, this is a great game to turn on the fireworks. Let’s see Burrows-Horvat-Hansen at some point and see where that goes. I know a few of you out there have talked about that one so let’s get it going, definitely some potential there.
Eastern ratings should soar when Sleeping Beauty, Nazem Kadri, returns from a 3 game team imposed suspension. Quite the convenient storyline for a team that would benefit at the Draft Lottery with a few stars out of the lineup for awhile.
Hockey Night in Canada hosts this slobberknocker and we all remember NOT beating the Leafs back before Christmas….5-2…..anyone….anybody? It mustn’t happen again. Did I even spell mustn’t right? Sorry, the Kings game on Thursday still has me at the point of mentally vacant. Canucks/Leafs is always a beauty and its the one time where ALL of Canada joins together to festively hate on each other for 3 hours.
That is to say if Leafs fans are even cheering for their guys anymore.
Finally, and this is a hunch; I expect the “Horkensen” (Horvat-Kenins-Hansen) line to blow up big tonight. It just feels like something awesome is going to happen. Get your twitters ready folks!

Our suggestion

Sit back, enjoy your favourite brew maybe even some Jhalepeno chips too, don’t worry the J is silent. The Leafs are in rough shape and the Canucks week hasn’t gone so well so, something has to give. Canucks return the favour and go on to a 6-2 win.