CANUCKS ARMY GDT# XLI – CANUCKS VS. WILD
By Always90four
7 years ago
The Minnesota Wild have arrived to take on your Vancouver Canucks. Boredom may set in between these two teams but I can assure you this one will be different. Pre-game festivities will include Henrik Sedin being honoured for scoring 1000 points, Jannik Hansen is returning and the Granlund boys reunite for ultimate household supremacy and keeper of the remote.
This one is going to be intense!
LINE COMBOS
Jannik Hansen is back! You can stop reading now and I’d totally get it. Jayson Megna is out and the world is whole again. He’ll be flanked by Brandon Sutter and Markus Granlund and that’s just super.
Philip Larsen will basically finish the season on the back end because Willie Desjardins doesn’t watch the games and Jordan Subban is crying somewhere because quite frankly, this just isn’t fair.
Ryan Miller will try and steal the game tonight.
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 |
Alex Tuch has been called up and could play with Eric Staal and Zack Parise. Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula and Jason Pominville will stick together and the Koivu line will go untouched.
Devan Dubnyk most likely starts.
Minnesota Wild lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Nino Niederreiter |  Eric Staal |  Charlie Coyle |
 Jason Zucker |  Mikko Koivu |  Mikael Granlund |
 Zach Parise |  Erik Haula |  Jason Pominville |
 Chris Stewart |  Tyler Graovac |  Jordan Schroeder |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Ryan Suter |  Jared Spurgeon |
 Marco Scandella |  Mathew Dumba |
 Nate Prosser |  Mike Reilly |
GAME NOTES, STATS AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO
- Keep it 1000 – Tonight the Canucks formally honour Henr1k Sedin for notching 1000 points. It’s a pretty impressive feat considering he’s done it all with a Canucks jersey. He’ll get a shiny stick, probably some kind of print and tickets to Wimbledon or something. Isn’t that around playoffs, though? Maybe Mast…a gift card for Home Depot.
- State your goals – Ok, the Canucks 116 of them and that’s good/bad for 3rd worst in the league. This can’t be stapled to one single thing but even in the playoffs, they require you to score at least 1 goal to win a game.
- Shot in the dark – We’ve all said, yelled it, buried our hands when it doesn’t happen: saying “shoot the puck” just feels good and we all hope our team follows suit. The Canucks are beyond selective when it comes to official shots on net. They are averaging 27.8 shots/gm which is just under 7 full shots from the best team in the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thankfully, the Wild only averaged 2 more shots per game but that basically means we may in store for a glorified figure skating long program. Please, please, please prove me wrong tonight.
- MMm Bop – Jannik Hansen needs to stay healthy. His 0.50 pts/game is crucial to the Canucks success. He’s only amassed 18 games but is injury has affected the team up and down the lineup. Jayson Megna is still playing which means someone isn’t getting a chance to show their worth. It’s about time this team has a full squad again.
- Nino NEATerreiter – Nino has 3 points in 4 games against the Canucks since October 2015 and has been even more impressive in his last 14 games, notching 6 goals and 7 assists. Guessing the Canucks will have to watch for him because well… they tend to let those guys score.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
I have a feeling lucky number 13 is coming in that one goal category, way sooner than we’d like.
MY TAKE
I hate watching the Canucks lose on Saturdays so they are going to win this one because Henrik Sedin, in good conscience, can’t lose a game where he’s being honoured; it’s un-Sedin like.
WILL THE CANUCKS GO FOR 2 POINTS?
It’s a Super Bowl weekend so I’m all about the relevancy questions. For a team that seems content with playing for OT, the Canucks will HAVE to go for two points against one of the top teams in the West; anything less and it could be over early.
The answer is yes.
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