The Vancouver Canucks continue their long homestand with the Nashville Predators coming to town on Thursday for the third and final meeting between the two teams this season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each of the\u00a0previous\u00a0two games between these teams has been a one-goal game, with each team picking up a victory this season. The Preds won 2-1\u00a0on October\u00a023rd,\u00a0and the Canucks won 5-4 in\u00a0overtime on November 3rd.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elias Pettersson has 22 points (11g-11a) in 19 career games against the Predators. Brock Boeser has eight goals in 20 games.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quick Hits on the Competition\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Preds hit the halfway mark of their five-game road trip with Thursday\u2019s stop in Vancouver. They have picked up a 4-2 win over the Seattle Kraken and fell 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0a tight race for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference, and the Predators are one point out of the final playoff spot with their 29-27-8 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nashville has struggled in first periods on the road this season. They have been outscored 40-22 in the opening frame on the road, while outscoring their opponents 64-63 in the final 40 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Preds are in the top half of the league on both special teams units. Their penalty kill sits 11th\u00a0in the league and is killing off 80.6% of their penalties. On the power play, they rank 10th\u00a0with a 22.9% conversion rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryan O\u2019Reilly leads his club with 61 points (22g-39a) in 63 games. He is currently skating on a line with\u00a0Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stamkos has 31 goals this season, which gives him his\u00a010th\u00a0NHL season with 30 or more goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roman Josi continues to be a top defenceman in the NHL, even at the age of 35. He is averaging 24:34 of ice time per game. Josi has 11 goals and 32 assists for 43 points this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Story:\u00a0Jake\u2019s Take\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jake DeBrusk spoke to the media on Wednesday morning after the team\u2019s practice. He began by discussing positive takeaways from their last two games and a couple of days of practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a good practice today, there was some video that we watched, all these things that we can improve,\u201d said DeBrusk. \u201cIt\u2019s just about putting it to work, and I think we had a good practice today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeBrusk skated on a line with Aatu R\u00e4ty and Curtis Douglas on Wednesday. He spoke about having the new, 6\u20199\u201d forward, Douglas, as a linemate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s great. He\u2019s a funny guy, and it\u2019s nice to have another Canadian on the roster,\u201d said DeBrusk with a smile. \u201cHe seems really excited to be here for a chance, and I\u2019m actually playing with him, so hopefully we can find some chemistry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canucks\u2019 Top Performers over the Last Five Games\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jake DeBrusk: 1g-3a-4p\u00a0
Linus Karlsson 1g-3a-4p\u00a0
Filip Hronek: 1g-3a-4p\u00a0
Brock Boeser: 3g-0a-3p\u00a0
Max Sasson: 1g-2a-3p\u00a0
Marco Rossi: 1g-2a-3p\u00a0
Teddy Blueger: 1g-2a-3p\u00a0<\/p>\n
When and Where to Watch\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s game is at\u00a07:00 p.m. PT, and you can watch the game on\u00a0Sportsnet\u00a0or listen to Brendan Batchelor\u2019s radio call on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Canucks continue their long homestand with the Nashville Predators coming to town on Thursday for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-530197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}