CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 80 – CANUCKS @ COYOTES
By Always90four
7 years ago
The beaten and battered Canucks fly to Arizona to take on the equally terrible Coyotes. This one has a fair amount riding on it as a win by either team puts the loser in 29th place overall and a better chance at the draft lottery. It’s not all hum and glum because the season is almost over for the Canucks and the real decisions start to be made.
Hey, it’s a rebuild, what did you expect?
LINE COMBOS
Nikolay Goldobin is officially on the Sedin line, Michael Chaput has been put in a more appropriate role with Brandon “#ExposeSutter2017” Sutter and the next Jannik Hansen, Reid Boucher. We could talk about power play units but honestly, what does it matter at this point?
Ryan Miller will play his league-leading 800th start this season.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Daniel Sedin |  Henrik Sedin |  Nikolay Goldobin |
 Sven Baertschi |  Bo Horvat |  Brock Boeser |
 Reid Boucher |  Brandon Sutter |  Michael Chaput |
 Griffen Molino |  Drew Shore |  Jayson Megna |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Alexander Edler |  Troy Stecher |
 Luca Sbisa |  Chris Tanev |
 Ben Hutton |  Nikita Tryamkin |
Oliver Ekman-Larsson will miss tonight’s game and the remainder of the season after his mother passed away in Sweden. No confirmation of his replacement yet.
Shane Doan and Radim Vrbata are both day-to-day and may play this evening.
Mike Smith should start.
Arizona Coyotes lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Max Domi |  Alex Burmistrov |  Anthony Duclair |
 Clayton Keller |  Christian Dvorak |  Shane Doan |
 Brendan Perlini |  Josh Jooris | |
 Lawson Crouse |  Jordan Martinook |  Tobias Rieder |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Jakob Chychrun |  Luke Schenn |
 Alex Goligoski |  Connor Murphy |
 Anthony DeAngelo | |
GAME NOTES, STATS, AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO
- I really don’t like this stat anymore but it tells a bit of the story: Henrik and Daniel Sedin are both a -4 in the last 5 games and over the entire season, Henrik is dead last on the Canucks with a -28 rating. That could also be because he has been kept out way too long, that he’s asked to still log first line minutes or that the inconsistent linemates, at least one, has dragged him down.
- What if Jayson Megna was a constant 4th line guy or at the very most, the 3rd line? Would we still hate him? His misuse is really a big reason he’s been awful and the same can be said for a few players on this team. What if we wrote this season off and plugged in the players that made sense in the proper spots? They might still be close to this but at least it would be because they just weren’t good enough. They’re not good enough because we have no idea what this team is actually supposed to look like.
- Based on a minimum of 500 minutes played this year, Henrik and Daniel are the last remaining healthy Canucks to lead the team in CF%. Henrik’s 49.40 and Daniel’s 49.32. It’s not much but they’ve managed to hang as close to 50 as possible and I suppose we have to give them credit even though it looks like they are being outplayed every single game.
- Let’s tap into that +/- again. Luca Sbisa has played 79 games this year, that’s all of them, and aside from Chris Tanev who has played only 50, Sbisa leads the Canucks with a plus 2. He has 13 points but at the very least he’s managed to stay on the right side of the ledger for the whole year. Well done, Sbpizza!
- OK, what the heck, how about ONE MORE SBISA STAT? According to nhl.com *ducks down for cover* Sbisa is 2nd on the Canucks in total shot attempts for with 1019. I would never have guessed he’s had the puck on his stick offensively that much but here we are. This all probably means Sbisa has an amazing game tonight. You can thank me later.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Excuse me for a second, it’s dusty in here, kinda stuffy too!
MY TAKE
I thought the Sharks were ripe for the picking so this game is anyone’s guess. I would love to see Goldobin make his time with the Sedins count but I guess they have to have the puck first. It really feels like these last few weeks have been running time, just nothing to remember and another game in the dumpster.
For whatever reason, Mike Smith seems to do pretty well against the Canucks but he has his stinkers too! Canucks in a shootout. There, I said it.
ARE WE THERE YET?
Three more games, people, three more games. I’m just holding out hope that Bo gets the “C” at the last home game. Let’s all hope for that.
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