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CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 40 – CANUCKS VS. COYOTES
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Always90four
Jan 4, 2017, 12:00 ESTUpdated:
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The Vancouver Canucks go for five wins in a row tonight against the Arizona Coyotes and I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty freaking excited! They’ve already equalled their best streak of the year at four games but this is uncharted territory for Willie Desjardins’ crew.
Thankfully, the Coyotes are in a funk so bad even the NFL’s Cleveland Browns are spotting them a lead (you know, if you could play teams in different sports). Arizona has lost seven straight and the Canucks have never looked better.
BROADCAST INFO
TV: SNET-P
RADIO: TSN 1040
PUCK DROP: 7:00 PM
LINE COMBOS
Alex Burrows’ scratched eye seems to be fine now so he’ll get back in the lineup. Obviously, Anton Rodin once again goes to the press box. Tough go for that guy. How are we going to know if he can cut it on this team without playing him? Brendan Gaunce is alright to healthy scratch, he hasn’t really been a burner out there.
Ryan Miller is unsung and he should be more sung in my opinion. He’s sports old but getting 350 wins is pretty impressive. He is most likely the starter. 
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
Arizona hasn’t played since New Year’s Eve and that’s probably a good thing. Alex Burmistrov (waivers from WPG) will not play this evening. Bad boy Anthony Deangelo is serving a 3-game suspension for disrespecting an official (shoving and foul language) so he too, will not play. 
Talking with various people covering the Coyotes, Oliver Ekman-Larsson looks off lately, even before the Kassian hit, maybe he’s injured or something off-ice related, so watch for that.
Mike Smith should start and if things go anything close to sideways this game could get ugly and Mike Smith may borrow one of Alex Edler’s sticks (they break easy).
Arizona Coyotes lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
GAME NOTES, STATS AND OTHER INTERESTING INFO
  • Henrik Sedin is 4 points away from 1000 career points. A huge milestone for any player, let alone on the same team. If there ever was a game to notch 4 points, this is it. 
  • Vancouver’s PK is bad but Arizona’s is worse. At 74.6%, the Coyotes are a bad game away from being dead last in the league while down a man. This game is sounding better by the second.
  • Still excited about the Canucks owning this one tonight, well look no further than the Coyotes GA/GM: 3.24/gm is good for 29th as well. The Canucks look like the 80’s Oilers compared to that sad sack crew.
  • So Sven Baertschi is doing OK these days? 11 points in his last 10 games (there was a lull in between, to be honest) has Sven sitting 4th in points on the Canucks and is a multi-point game away from sole possession of 3rd. Although I said Henrik was going to get 4 points as would Daniel, so he’ll have to settle for staying the same. 
  • I think Brandon Sutter might not be leaving the first power play unit. He is getting enough points to warrant his presence there. I’m sorry everyone, we tried.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Forgot those couple of beauty losing streaks Jeff.
MY TAKE
If Willie Desjardins is serious about giving Bo Horvat more ice time down the stretch then Jim Benning is going to have to address the need for this team to get better “on the fly.” It seems like they’ve done that anyways so their crazy operation they’re running up at the top might work.
FIVE-O, FIVE-O?
Arizona is a dreadful mess right now and even though this would be a typical Canucks trap game, I believe they can pull it off and get that much closer to challenging for a playoff spot. Feels weird to say they actually could do that.

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