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CANUCKS ARMY GDT# 44 – CANUCKS @ CAPITALS
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Always90four
Jan 14, 2016, 15:00 ESTUpdated:
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The Canucks begin their six game road trip in the wonderful city of Washington, D.C. Coming off a pretty big win against the now streakless Panthers, the Canucks are building #moralvictory momentum and are getting back some key pieces in Ryan Miller, Luca Sbisa and Brandon Sutter…not all tonight, though. These Caps have some guy named Ovechkin who I hear is pretty legit, might be good one day. Lets do this?
BROADCAST INFO
TV: SN360
RADIO: TSN 1040
PUCK DROP: 4PM
LINE COMBOS
Seeing Derek Dorsett on the first line brings many a thing to mind and none of it makes sense. The impetus? Part 42990 in an effort to #stealthtank. Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi and Radim Vrbata are still keeping it *100 emoji*. Luca Sbisa may just play, you know he’ll play… crutches, maybe not, though. Emerson Etem is in game two of his second tenure with the Medicine Hat Canucks. Good times coming!
Ryan Miller is back in the net and I’m not gonna lie, I kind of missed him. Not like miss-missed him, but you know, he’s a Canuck so we kind of have to be happy he’s back; you know, trade value and so on.
Vancouver Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
Defensive Pairings
 
Alexander Edler
 
Chris Tanev
 
Ben Hutton
 
Yannick Weber
 
Matt Bartkowski
 
Alex Biega
Bad boy Marcus Johansson is back after a two-game suspension – must be buddies with Matt Hendricks. Alex Ovechkin scored goals 500 and 501 against the Senators a few evenings ago so there’s no pressure for him to score tonight. The Canucks have played Washington pretty well in the past, so this one should be exciting. No other big news out of the Caps hanger.
Brayden Holtby will start because he’s crazy good. Washington’s also won five straight so having the second best GAA in the league is a safe bet.
Washington Capitals lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
REASONS TO WATCH THIS GAME…BESIDES OVI
  • Miller makes his first start since December 20th when he left in a shootout. Sounds like something Cory Schneider would do. He’s playing a familiar foe from his Eastern conference days so hopefully, he remembers how to not let in goals from Ovechkin.
  • Daniel Sedin is ONE goal away from becoming the Canucks all-time goal leader passing Markus Naslund, he of the same hometown of Orksk… small Swedish town. That could happen. Daniel is only 155 goals behind Ovechkin….SERIOUSLY, OK I’ll stop.
  • Jake Virtanen got a HUGE monkey off his back last game by scoring a big goal against Roberto Luongo which helped end the Panthers win streak at 12 games. It’s not the beginning of a hall of fame career just yet, but Virtanen will see important minutes tonight and might get a chance to go toe to toe with the Capitals top Russian forward if the hit presents itself. Is this Ovi guy THAT polarizing? This is a Canucks gamer, right?
  • A win puts the Canucks in 7th place in the West which isn’t totally important this early in the season but keeping pace is important as I don’t believe they will be missing the playoffs this year so you might as well play for a fluke chance at beating the Coyotes in round one.
  • Bo Horvat is on some kind of run right now; 5 points in his last 5GP is evidence that the floodgates may very well be opening. Henrik better watch out, Bo’s gunning for his spot. Too soon?
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
MY TAKE
A hot Capitals team meets a recovering Canucks team. It’s East meets West and putting up two wins in a row against two streaking teams would be news. Washington is a tough customer so I’m going with them, just don’t think Miller is going to be 100%, and I don’t think he has been 100%. Caps in OT.
WHAT’D I MISS?
Canucks are 40-41-9 all-time against the Capitals. That’s pretty close. Can’t imagine this series will deviate too much anytime soon. 

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