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CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 27 – CANUCKS VS. STARS
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Always90four
Dec 3, 2015, 14:23 ESTUpdated:
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The funny thing about losing to the Stars both times this season is that Vancouver has taken the game the distance both times, once in a shootout and the other in OT. We bash them for not playing 60 minutes, but they have survived a very good Stars team twice and came away with a point. This one is at home and Canucks fans aren’t very forgiving when their team looks like it isn’t giving it 100%. Tonight should be a good test to see if the Canucks indeed can make some magic happen still. We can hope.

BROADCAST INFO

TV: SNET 360
RADIO: TSN 1040
PUCK DROP: 7PM

LINE COMBOS

Yuh dam skippy he’s back! The Latvian Locomotive Ronalds Kenins are back in the lineup and Willie D must be desperate when he brings up a grybrid (grinder/hybrid) instead of Gaunce, Shinkaruk or Grenier. Brandon Prust and Derek Dorsett at this point are just collecting paychecks. Shame really. The Canucks have no grit to them, no fight back and with Chris Higgins (concussed), Jake Virtanen (hip pointer) and Alex Edler (giveaways) are lacking in the lineup or in the first two guys cases OUT, we gots ourselves some problems. Change may again be coming, he wears a suit and has a moustache.
Whether I’m right or wrong on this one Jacob Markstrom should start. Don’t come here for fantasy start advice. Contracts aside, everyone knows who should be starting right now.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
Defensive Pairings
 
Alexander Edler
 
Alex Biega
 
Dan Hamhuis
 
Yannick Weber
 
Luca Sbisa
 
Matt Bartkowski
Kari Lehtonen is off the injured list, but defenseman Jason Demers was injured in Calgary so he’s day to day. The usual suspects are in the lineup and if you do a once over, you might pee your pants. 3 of the top 5 scorers in the league will be wearing the D-star on their chest tonight. Wishful thinking could get Vancouver through this but with relentless talents like Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin it will be tough for them to stay off the score sheet. Saying that, Jacob Markstrom could stop them…
Antti Niemi should start.
Dallas Stars lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

REASONS TO BELIEVE IN THIS GAME

  • Oh, how we’ve missed him; Ronalds Kenins is back baby! His hit meter is charged up and the hometown faithful are ready to see the train steamroll some bodies. Don’t forget how good it felt Ronny, we had a good thing once.
  • Jared McCann is still impressing and everyone can see it. The losses continue to pile up but McCann hasn’t let up yet and he has out Horvat’d Bo IMO this season. To be fair, Bo has been asked to do a lot more and with Sutter out healing up from sports hernia surgery the middle of the ice is Henrik and then not much more. McCann is shining and don’t look to see him at the World Juniors this Christmas. 
  • Its early but if the Canucks win tonight, they can jump up to 6th place in the conference. Yep, for realsies! We can beat them up but as bad as it’s looked, they aren’t actually out of anything yet. Imagine if they put say 3 wins together (ok cool your jets, I was just being hypothetical) they could really be back in a dog fight again (not Michael Vick style, though). This season will test your Canuckness but if you hung around after Messier, you can get through anything.
  • I seem to remember Cory Schneider doing really well against the Stars on our illustrious run to the Final of yesteryear and he was the backup, well really 1B. Markstrom is basically fulfilling that role now as he has been asked so why not throw him a bone and play the matchup game. 
  • Your A94 fancy stat of the night from Puckalytics.com – Daniel Sedin since Oct 2010 has a 5v5 home CF% of 61.3 and his PDO in that same time frame is 93.2. Dude is ready to up that number it would seem. Daniel Sedin shoots as we know, but he likes to really shoot against the Stars at the Rog.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING


I would say that’s close enough. By the last 4 games of the season, we’ll be ok anyways.

MY TAKE

If somehow I could forget that we haven’t lost what feels like every game and that we haven’t been blowing chances to actually win, I might think the Canucks could take this one. If Markstrom is in net (TBD) and Kenins does exactly what he was called up to do, they might just pull it off. Dallas is too good though right now and I have to be realistic; Stars win in OT.

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