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Canucks Army GDT #65 – Canucks @ Sharks

By J.D. Burke

Mar 7, 2015, 17:29 ESTUpdated:

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Losers in three of their last four contests, the Vancouver Canucks will look to return to the win column with a trip to the SAP Center against the resurgent San Jose Sharks. While February was a rough month for the Sharks, they’ve turned the corner in March with consecutive victories over the Montreal Canadiens and most recently Vancouver, with a combined score of 10-2. Vancouver currently has a four-point lead on San Jose, and with a victory tonight they could all but place the Sharks in the furthest reaches of their rear view mirror with a victory tonight.

Read past the jump for a preview of tonight’s game.

Broadcast Info

Puck Drop: 7:00 PM PST

TV: CBC

Radio: TSN 1040 AM

Lineups

LW	C	RW
Daniel Sedin	Henrik Sedin	Zack Kassian
Chris Higgins	Shawn Matthias	Alexandre Burrows
Derek Dorsett	Nick Bonino	Radim Vrbata
Ronalds Kenins	Bo Horvat	Jannik Hansen

Defensive Pairings
Alexander Edler	Yannick Weber
Dan Hamhuis	Luca Sbisa
Ryan Stanton	Adam Clendening

Looks as though the Canucks will hold the course, using the same lineup from Thursday night’s contest with the Arizona Coyotes. If it ain’t broke, don’t… Ah forget it. Not to be hard on the new guy, but I’m surprised that Adam Clendening has been able to maintain a spot within Vancouver’s lineup. With Frankie Corrado healthy, well, it seems kind of obvious who should be the odd man out here.

LW	C	RW
Melker Karlsson	Joe Thornton	Joe Pavelski
Patrick Marleau	Logan Couture	Matthew Nieto
Tommy Wingels	Ben Smith	Tomas Hertl
John Scott	Chris Tierney	Barclay Goodrow

Defensive Pairings
Marc-Edouard Vlasic	Justin Braun
Scott Hannan	Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon	Mirco Mueller

Looks as though the Sharks will ice the same lineup they pummeled Vancouver with on Tuesday. Something quite odd about seeing ~~CANUCKS ARMY FAVOURITE~~ Brenden Dillon on the third pairing, while Scott Hannan patrols the second. Then again, that pales in comparison to John Scott having a roster spot, so I guess there’s that.

Head to Head

Storylines

Out of the infirmary and into the fire: Now, I’m certainly not making excuses for the Canucks blowing a scheduled victory against the lowly Arizona Coyotes… By that same token, a sizable chunk of their lineup was playing in their first game back from injury and or illness. Their timing was bound to be more than a little bit off. I’m not entirely convinced that some of these pieces are 100% healthy either. It seems as though any time a puck grazes Nick Bonino’s injured foot he’s subject to excruciating pain. Zack Kassian is pale as a ghost and apparently dealing with a nasty flu bug – no, not Roxy flu.
Lack attack: The only reason that Vancouver is escaped Gila Rivers Arena with so much as a point, would be the performance of one, Eddie Lack. The Canucks will need a similar performance from Lack facing off against the suddenly potent Sharks attack.
Roster rumblings: With Bonino missing practice Friday (see above) the Canucks were doing line rushes with Ronalds Kenins as the odd man out and Linden Vey returning to play center. DailyFaceoff.com indicates that reports of Kenins demise were vastly overstated. Frankly, putting Vey in for Kenins seems like a very counter intuitive decision for a team that lauds its depth. Having Kenins in raises the possession play of their fourth line considerably, while Vey has proven to be a complete anchor at evens. While I’ve long maintained that Shawn Matthias is best suited to duty on the wing, in extenuating circumstances like these, I’d rather he play center. In short: please be correct, DailyFaceoff.com.