Canucks Game Day: Canucks look to play spoiler again as road trip wraps up in Anaheim
The Vancouver Canucks (23-48-8) play their 80th game of the season tonight when they visit the Anaheim Ducks (42-32-5) at Honda Center. The game has a 5pm PT start time.What we know
With the quick turnaround plus travel following the game in San Jose, the Canucks did not hold a morning skate. So it will be closer to game time to know what changes Adam Foote has in store for his hockey club.
On Saturday, the Canucks registered their second-highest shot total of the season (41) and snapped a four-game losing skid with their win in the Bay Area. Marco Rossi, Jake DeBrusk and Teddy Blueger scored the team’s goals in the run of play, while DeBrusk and Linus Karlsson tallied in the shootout. Kevin Lankinen stopped five of six San Jose shootout efforts and has now stopped 22 of 23 attempts, winning all five of his shootouts this season.
DeBrusk has six goals in his last 10 games – all on the power play – and reached the 20-goal mark for the second straight season as a Canuck. Incredibly, 17 of his 20 goals have come with the man-advantage.
Filip Hronek logged a career-high 30:55 of ice time last night, including 3:21 of the five-minute overtime session.
Tonight is the completion of the team’s final back-to-back set of games of the season. The Canucks have compiled a 4-4-4 record in the second half of those sets.
The Opponent
With the earlier-than-usual start, the Ducks did not hold a morning skate. This is how they lined up at practice on Saturday.
Ducks practice lines (4/11):
Kreider-Carlsson-Terry
Killorn-Granlund-Sennecke
Viel-McTavish-Gauthier/Vatrano
Washe-Poehling-Moore
LaCombe-Trouba
Mintyukov-Carlson
Hinds-Helleson
Zellweger-Gudas
Dostál | Husso
It looks like leading goal scorer Cuttier Gauthier will return to action after missing xx games with an upper body injury. The Ducks are led in scoring by three players all under the age of 23. Gauthier leads the team with 38 goals and shares the team lead of 65 points with Leo Carlsson. Bennett Sennecke has 60 points and trails Montreal’s Ivan Demidov by a single point in the NHL rookie scoring race and is tied with the Islanders Matthew Schaefer for the freshman goal-scoring lead with 23.
Anaheim can clinch a playoff spot with a victory tonight and ensure its first postseason berth since 2018. However, the Ducks are still very much in the thick of the Pacific Division title chase. They trail Vegas by two points in the race for the division lead and are one point back of Edmonton. Tonight is their game in hand on both of those teams they are chasing.
The Ducks and Buffalo were the only idle teams on a 15-game Saturday in the NHL. Anaheim has been off since a 6-1 home ice win over San Jose on Thursday night. The victory snapped a six-game losing streak (0-5-1). Veteran blueliner John Carlsson notched the first hat trick of his 17-year career to lead the offensive charge. Carlsson now has four goals and 12 points in 13 games since being acquired from Washington at the trade deadline.
John Carlson became the third defenseman in NHL history to score a hat trick at age 36 or older, following Mathieu Schneider (Oct. 11, 2006 & Nov. 26, 2005) and Nicklas Lidstrom (Dec. 15, 2010).
#NHLStats: media.nhl.com/public/live-up…
Lukas Dostal is expected to get the start in goal tonight.
On Friday, the hockey club announced a multi-year extension for General Manager Pat Verbeek.
News and notes
The Canucks have taken two of the first three meetings between these clubs this season including a 5-4 victory on November 26th in their only game in Anaheim. The clubs split their two contests in Vancouver.
The referees for tonight’s game are Kelly Sutherland and Brian Pochmara. Pochmara was one half of the referee tandem last night in San Jose.
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