OPENING FACE/OFF
It’s Monday. You’re broke after spending too much money on the retail holiday. Did you do anything for the Canucks? No, you didn’t because you’re all selfish and only think about your significant others. Jerks.
Tonight, the Canucks take on the Flames again, and this one has a chance to be quite entertaining. The Canucks showed life on the weekend and that is just unacceptable if you’re a Flames fan… and potentially one of THOSE Canucks’ fans.
Quinn Hughes had himself a game and Loui Eriksson contributed to close the game out. Welcome back, Loui! There were a lot of good feels last game and it’s possible those feels could return. Knowing the Canucks, we’re in for a heartbreak.
Let’s Do This!™
WHERE CAN I FIND THIS GAME?
TV: SNP / RADIO: SN 650 / PUCK DROP: 7:00 PM
LINEUPS
You know the drill: winning lineup, no changes.
There was reason to believe Braden Holtby could have started last game but instead, Thatcher Demko earned another start. With his impressive outing on Saturday, there’s a good chance he starts again tonight.
CANUCKS LINES COURTESY OF DAILYFACEOFF.COM:
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 BO HORVAT Rating: 74.8#34 C |  TANNER PEARSON Rating: 73.7#38 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 74.25#21 FL1 | |
 J.T. MILLER Rating: 78.5#7 LW |  ELIAS PETTERSSON Rating: 77.7#14 C |  BROCK BOESER Rating: 74.1#41 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 76.78#3 FL2 |
 ANTOINE ROUSSEL Rating: 71.0#97 LW |  BRANDON SUTTER Rating: 70.1#131 C |  ADAM GAUDETTE Rating: 70.2#130 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 70.44#26 FL3 |
 LOUI ERIKSSON Rating: 69.7#123 LW |  JAY BEAGLE Rating: 68.4#163 C |  JAKE VIRTANEN Rating: 72.0#78 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 70.04#23 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 ALEXANDER EDLER Rating: 74.3#26 LD |  NATE SCHMIDT Rating: 75.5#18 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 74.89#15 DL1 |
 QUINN HUGHES Rating: 75.2#15 LD |  JORDIE BENN Rating: 70.9#101 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 73.04#15 DL2 |
 TYLER MYERS Rating: 72.6#50 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.56#12 DL3 |
Derek Ryan is still out – UBI. Don’t expect him tonight. Matthew Tkachuk is also day-to-day after getting Juoleveled (not actually though).
Jacob Markstrom played essentially lights out for most of the game, most of this series, heck, most of this season. He’ll get another start unless Mikka Kiprusoff is available on short notice.
FLAMES LINES COURTESY OF DAILYFACEOFF.COM:
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 MATTHEW TKACHUK Rating: 78.0#9 LW |  ELIAS LINDHOLM Rating: 76.5#19 C |  DILLON DUBE Rating: 70.3#108 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 74.95#16 FL1 |
 JOHNNY GAUDREAU Rating: 76.0#19 LW |  SEAN MONAHAN Rating: 74.4#42 C |  SAM BENNETT Rating: 69.6#127 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 73.33#18 FL2 |
 MILAN LUCIC Rating: 70.7#103 LW |  MIKAEL BACKLUND Rating: 75.5#30 C |  ANDREW MANGIAPANE Rating: 74.2#36 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 73.48#2 FL3 |
 JOAKIM NORDSTROM Rating: 67.9#150 LW |  JOSH LEIVO Rating: 71.7#85 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 68.87#30 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 MARK GIORDANO Rating: 77.9#6 LD |  RASMUS ANDERSSON Rating: 73.5#36 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 75.67#10 DL1 |
 NOAH HANIFIN Rating: 73.3#49 LD |  CHRIS TANEV Rating: 71.0#90 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 72.16#23 DL2 |
 JUUSO VALIMAKI Rating: 72.6#6 LD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.55#13 DL3 |
GAME NOTES, INTERESTING STATS, AND #LITTLETHINGS
- Loui Eriksson registered his first point of the season in his second appearance. He’s half a point per game, elite. The team was pretty pumped to see him get that point, too! They know what’s going on, they know he’d like to be better. Still feels good. Crazy to think we’re at the point in his contract where we feel joy when he gets a point.
- Another point, another reason to praise Quinn Hughes. His fake out turned goal was yet another reason we should be thankful Hughes is a Vancouver Canuck and not any of the teams prior to his picking. He isn’t having the best plus/minus season but no one cares about that stat. He’s still having a season that will have him in the running for the actual Norris trophy. Not just talk of it, he’ll be a nominee. But writer, he’s only facing Canadian teams and he’ll likely feast on a handful of them so should he be in contention? Yes, reader. Yes, he should. Hughes is having a marvelous season and every point continues to prove that. He’s playing at a point-per-game pace right now which would shatter his efforts from a season ago.
- Alex Edler feels like he’s in the penalty box all the time but Tyler Myers is the league-leader in bad deeds with 33 PIM. Edler has a soft 22 minutes of punishment. Let’s just say that neither one of these guys doesn’t take a penalty for the next couple of games. Combined they’re just over three minutes in the box per game which would be three minutes of 5v5 hockey. Now, the Canucks lead the league in goals for and against so seeing the needle move an uptick isn’t likely to be noticeable but adding three more minutes of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Quinn Hughes has to be better than seeing them sit on the bench, right?
- Sticking with the Core-3 for a second, they lead the NHL in PP/TOI with 81:48 (Boeser), 82:04 (Pettersson), and 82:11 (Hughes) respectively. Almost an hour and a half on the power play. Let that sink in. Brock only has five points on the man-advantage and Pettersson has four. They’ve spent 81 minutes on the power play and they have almost nothing to show for it. Pettersson needs to trust his shot more and be more selfish. He leads the league in crossbars hit so his aim is just a little high. As for Boeser, the dirty areas will be his uprising. Time to see this team change.
- Four players have a 50+ CF on the Canucks: Zack MacEwen (52.05), Bo Horvat (51.32), Nils Höglander (51.30), and Tanner Pearson (51.02). This is the line, save ZM, that needs to be utilized the most. Bo Horvat will eventually start to see his run of goals return and Nils looks like he’s on the cusp of a scary run of dominance. Embrace the positives right now because there haven’t been a lot.
TWITTER TOLD YOU
We’re at this point in the season:
For the record, I said yes.
MY 94 CENTS
Calgary is most definitely bouncing back after embodying the Canucks so much so that they allowed 40+ shots against the very same Canucks that normally allow that amount. The Flames didn’t look bad but they let the Canucks control play for much of the game. Are the Canucks controlling? They don’t allow video games so not really and they usually get pushed around so again, no.
Vancouver is going to need the exact same effort against the Flames tonight as they put forth on the weekend. FA might need another edgy tweet to make that happen.
THE FINAL WORD
Never go full-Canucks. It’ll just bring you to a place you don’t want to be.
That being said, the Canucks are capable of winning tonight and I want to see it happen. We invest too much in this team to see it burn to the ground.
