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Canucks Army GDT #45 – Canucks @ Lightning
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Rhys Jessop
Jan 20, 2015, 14:17 ESTUpdated:
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Less than 24 hours after disposing of the Florida Panthers, the Canucks remain in the south to do battle with the other, shinier Florida team: the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts are in contention for the President’s Trophy this season, and look to be a legitimate contender in the East, and they’re also close to unbeatable on home ice. It’ll be a tough test for a Canucks team looking to win their fourth straight game and their second in as many nights.
Read past the jump for a preview.

Broadcast Info

Puck Drop: 4:30 PM PST
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Radio: TSN 1040

Lineups

Courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com
Defensive Pairings
 
Alexander Edler
 
Chris Tanev
 
Ryan Stanton
 
Kevin Bieksa
 
Dan Hamhuis
 
Luca Sbisa
Vancouver is expected to ice the same lineup as they did last night, as Brad Richardson will sit due to a leg injury. Ryan Miller is expected to play his second game in as many nights.
Defensive Pairings
 
Victor Hedman
 
Andrej Sustr
 
Jason Garrison
 
Anton Stralman
 
Luke Witkowski
 
Nikita Nesterov
Matt Carle is out and will miss 6-8 weeks recovering from surgery. Radko Gudas is out with a major knee injury. Luke Witkowski (who led all AHL rookies in PIMs last season) will make his NHL debut. Ben Bishop will start in goal.

Head to Head

Storylines

  • Back in the Saddle – If there’s one thing that the whole analytics community can agree on, it’s that starting a goaltender in both games of a back-to-back is a bad idea, since a different guy playing the second game tends to stop more pucks than the same guy playing the second game. Still, this rule still makes a couple of underlying assumptions; most notably that both goalies are close to average talent (like the Canucks’ are) and both otherwise able to perform to 100% of their capacity. With rumours that Eddie Lack is still sick and Ryan Miller playing some great hockey, tonight may be one of the few instances that makes benching Lack in this situation make sense.
  • Balanced Attack – Everyone knows about Steven Stamkos. He’s a legitimate superstar and once again among the NHL leaders in goals, while on pace for 45 this season. But Tampa Bay’s real strength is their second line of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, and 21-year old sophomore Nikita Kucherov. The undrafted Johnson is leading the Bolts in scoring with 48 points in 46 games, while Palat and Kucherov have 37 and 43 respectively. The core of those unbelievably good Crunch/Admirals teams is all grown up, and are doing to the NHL what they did to the AHL.
  • Home Ice Advantage – A road back-to-back is tough enough to handle on its own, but Vancouver has the misfortune of going up against one of the NHL’s best home teams tonight as well. The Bolts are an Eastern conference leading 18-4-1 in front of their home fans, and are a nightmare to play on most nights in Tampa Bay. Vancouver will either need Ryan Miller to be virtually flawless or Ben Bishop to melt down to come away with two points this evening.

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