SHARKS		CANUCKS
	AT

For the 3rd time in a row...a Pacific Division team waltzes into Roger's Arena to face our head-scratching Canucks. The Sharks are 7-2-1 in their 10 games in January. The Canucks are 4-2-2 in their 8 January games even though, given their inconsistency lately, is an impressive record. Maybe an early game against a new rival will change things. You know, get the juices flowing. Maybe this will be a feisty affair. It is the 4th and final meeting of the season between the 2 teams.

Let's take a look at some Canucks futility shall we?

-Daniel Sedin has 1 goal and 2 assists in his last 5 games. He has been held pointless in 3 of those games.

-Henrik Sedin has

only 3 assists in his last 5, and like his bro, has been held pointless in 3 of them.

-Can't pick on Alexandre Burrows. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 3.

-Ryan Kesler: 1 goal and 0 assists in his last 5 games. Ack!

-Chris Higgins: 1 assist in his last 8! Sweet Aunt Jemima!

-Mason Raymond: 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 9 games.

-Jannik Hansen has cooled off and has 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 7.

-Kevin Bieksa: 1 assist in his last 5.

-Dan Hamhuis? M'eh.

-How about the Kid Cody Hodgson? 3 goals and 4 assists in his last 8. Good job.

-Alexander Edler: 1 goal and 3 assists in his last 4. Solid.

There's the top guys. Not exactly impressive on the scoresheet lately with the exception of Hodgson and Edler. But there's just enough there to have that 4-2-2 record in January. Depth, baby. But even more impressive? THE GOALTENDING. Bottom line. This could have been ugly. We are so spoiled right now don't you think?

Even though the Canucks, who have played 47 games, remain mostly idle to end January while the other teams catch up, they still hold the top spot in the Northwest. The closest team to them in this crap division are the Colorado Avalanche (8 points back, 48 games played). They have been heating up. San Jose has 3 games in hand and is 3 points back of the Canucks in the Western race.

The Canucks have been so good generally in recent weeks that the Wings have now won 5 games in a row but only have a 3 point lead over Vancouver in the West and have played the same amount of games.

Bottom line though...the Canucks need a convincing win over the Sharks on Saturday afternoon. The top forwards need to get going again. And they will. The defence needs to take care of business in their own end instead of getting hemmed in. And they will.

-Good to see Sami Salo practicing with the team again. He could be ready next game vs the Oilers.

PROJECTED ROSTERS

Chris "The Professor" Higgins - KesLORD - David Booooth

MayRay - Cody "Chinook" Hodgson -Jannik "Beaker" Hansen

Maxim "Lappy" Lapierre - Money Mo Malhotra - Dale Weiser

Dan "The Hammer" Hamhuis - Kevin "Juice" Bieksa

Alex "E-Money Edler" - Aaron "God" Rome

Chris "Cigarette" Tanev - Aaron "God" Rome

If I was Coach McLellan I'd start Greiss, who has been solid recently. But I'm not sure what he's planning yet.

Andrew Desjardins - Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski

Patrick Marleau - Logan Couture - Benn Ferriero

Jamie McGinn - Michal Handzus - Torrey Mitchell

Brad Winchester -????? - Andrew Murray

Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Dan Boyle

Douglas Murray - Brent Burns

Jason Demers - Justin Braun

INJURIES

-For both teams via TSN. Ryan Clowe has a facial fracture and may miss this one. I think he also pulled a face muscle from crying so much. Imagine how much better the Sharks could be with Martin Havlat, who has been out since mid-December after injuring himself on a line change.

TRENDS

• Sharks are 5-1 in their last 6 games playing on 1 days rest.
• Sharks are 40-13 in their last 53 games following a loss of 3 or more goals.
• Sharks are 5-2 in their last 7 vs. Western Conference.
• Sharks are 63-29 in their last 92 Saturday games.
• Sharks are 15-7 in their last 22 when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Canucks are 8-1 in their last 9 Saturday games.
• Canucks are 7-1 in their last 8 vs. a team with a winning record.
• Canucks are 23-5 in their last 28 games playing on 3 or more days rest.
• Canucks are 0-4 in their last 4 vs. Pacific. DOOOOOOOMED!!!!
• More at Covers.com

VIDEO

I swear, I'll never stop showing this:

Not this season anyway. Here are the highlights of the last meeting between these two teams:

(Jan 19) Alain Vigneault talks about the Tanev call up helping on the right side, the struggles of his D to move the puck up the ice, and an update on Salo:

Sharks finally get some form of revenge. The title of this post...well you all know what band sings that tune:

Classic! I mean, it's fitting, right? We hate the Sharks. They hate us. It's a beautiful thang.

PREDICTIONS

• PS3 Sim Says: 3-2 Sharks, Marleau.
  
• Zandberg says: 3-2 Canucks, Kesler.
  

SCORE - PREDICTING WIZARDS (feel free to join in!)

(Updated January 19)

HockeyFanInColorado: 19
jabraham: 13
kiyotok: 13
Twitchy2010: 13
beardstache: 12
Shand: 11
andrew21nz: 10
BW79: 10
nucklord: 10
PK Sube: 10
raincity: 10
vancitydan: 9
mechanixfetch: 8
Sean Zandberg: 8
Canuckles: 7
Canucks1619: 7
Chuckles Canuckles: 7
jwolf0: 7
chance_a_lot: 6
cyxj: 6
eightyseven: 6
Krag72: 6
Lingyis: 6
nucksandpucks: 6
westy99: 6
Bobby Canuck: 5
JJ Canuck: 5
marcness52: 5
seedvt: 5
Semi_Colon: 5
spriteofice: 5
thegreek: 5
Beantown Canuck: 4
canuck94: 4
Diehardnuck: 4
splnwezel: 4
AK_nuck: 3
Chocolate: 3
Exand: 3
Jevant: 3
mhsilver: 3
Nux4Ever: 3
wyoming: 3
51dimes: 2
Jafane: 2
Kieran gunn: 2
patrick e: 2
Smoboy41: 2
Temujin: 2
trapperfox: 2
Vancouverguy: 2
Waymundo: 2
cyclone's ghost: 1
Daoust501: 1
east_van_joe: 1
FormerHab: 1
Geodetic: 1
GoodKeith: 1
Linden4Evah: 1
PeaceJo: 1
RogerFenway: 1
Tina Poole: 1

A SHARK JOKE

Two great white sharks swimming in the ocean spied survivors of a sunken ship. “Follow me, son” the father shark said to the son shark and they swam to the mass of people.

“First we swim around them a few times with just the tip of our fins showing.” And they did.

“Well done, son! Now we swim around them a few times with all of our fins showing.” And they did.

“Now we eat everybody.” And they did.

When they were both gorged, the son asked, “Dad, why didn’t we just eat them all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?”

His wise father replied, “Because they taste better without the shit inside!”

ANYWAY, GO CANUCKS GO!