| SHARKS |
CANUCKS | ||||
 |
AT |
 |
|||
| Time | Sun. 5:00 PM PST |
TV | CBC, Versus, RDS |
| Season Series | 3-0-1 Canucks |
Last Meeting |
5-4 Canucks |
| The Enemy | Fear The Fin, Battle Of California | Scoring Leaders |
Kesler: 5-10-15 Clowe: 4-9-13 |
| Sharks |
Category | Canucks |
| Won 1 |
Streak | Won 1 |
| 4-2 |
< Road Record / Home Record > |
4-3 |
| 0 |
Goals For / Against +/- | -3 |
| 2.92 (7) |
Goals Per Game | 2.31 (14) |
| 2.92 (10) |
Goals Against Per Game | 2.54 (5) |
| 1.04 (7) |
5 On 5 GF/GA | 0.86 (10) |
| 13.7 (13) |
Power Play % |
22.2 (5) |
| 82.7 (7) |
Penalty Kill % |
86.0 (5) |
| 36.5 (2) |
Shots Per Game | 31.5 (8) |
| 32.0 (9) |
Shots Against Per Game | 29.2 (3) |
| 75.0 |
Winning % When Scoring First | 75.0 |
| 3-1 |
Record When Leading After 1 | 4-2 |
| 2-3 |
Record When Trailing After 1 | 2-1 |
| 4-1 |
Record When Leading After 2 | 6-1 |
| 363 (2) |
Hits | 436 (1) |
| 241 (1) |
Blocked Shots |
164 (7) |
| 53.7 (1) |
Faceoffs % | 51.2 (5) |
| 13.5 (11) |
PIM's Per Game Average |
13.7 (12) |
| NHL.com |
It's. About. Time. Much too long of a wait between series for us fans. This series is projected to be a beauty and I agree. Lots of aggression. The teams are ranked 1 and 2 in the playoffs in that category. Lots of goals? That remains to be seen. I get the feeling that these games will be more low-scoring and close. Do the Sharks focus more on Ryan Kesler and thus give the Sedins more room? How will San Jose's obvious edge in forward depth stack up against the Canucks' superior depth on defence? The Preds' forwards were rolling in the Anaheim series and then nearly all of them (except for Joel Ward) dried up against the checking Canucks. The Canucks have potted a lot of goals against Antti Niemi over the past 2 seasons plus the playoffs last season. Let's see if they can continue that. First thing that comes to my mind is "thank god he's no Pekka Rinne". The Sharks are still stinking of game action and the Canucks have had 5 days off. Does that play a roll? It looked didn't look like it in Boston Saturday night.
Roberto Luongo is going to see a lot more shots against San Jose than he did against Nashville, and that's just fine by him. He may just need to steal this game early until the Canucks get their legs going. Maybe not.
A surprising stat on the table above is the Sharks' futility on the power play. Wow. I like the Canucks' success in that category, and their PK dominance. Look at the Sharks' blocked shots totals. Tops in the League in these playoffs. We'll see how that plays out. This series is going the distance, so get your alcohol or whatever else you do/use to soothe your fraying nerves ready. I honestly don't know who is going to win this series. I do know that there are several Canucks that need to start scoring more (ahem Dank, Raymond, Burrows, Hansen and even Lapierre). Secondary and tertiary scoring. Get it done. No way the KesLord keeps up the pace like he did against the Predators.
For anyone new here, we have a little score-predicting competition going on. In the comments section of this post (only in game preview posts) you can predict the score of the game, the winning team and the game winning goal scorer. See the lower left sidebar on our main page for the leaderboard. If you are unsure of how the points system works feel free to ask in the comments section.
LINKS
-The Kurtenbloggers ask the guys from Fear The Fin a few questions about the Sharks.
-Yankee Canucks previews the Sharks.
-Vancouver's Mayor announces on Twitter: @MayorGregor: Just confirmed @CBCVancouver & City showing #Canucks games on big screen downtown for rest of playoffs @ Georgia/Hamilton!
-Welly The Weasel. Kevin Bieksa serves up some more gold. (The Province)
-Wellwood eats crow..kinda. (Globe and Mail)
-Looks like Oreskovich in and Tambellini out for Game 1. (Vancouver Sun) Sweet! Oreo is a beast.
-Sharks Run Deep (Globe and Mail)
-Puck Daddy crew make their predictions for Round 3. All of them pick the Canucks. Most people are.
-Joe Thornton leading the charge (Fear The Fin).
PROJECTED FORWARDS DRESSED
CANUCKS
Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Alexandre Burrows
Mason Raymond-Ryan Kesler-Christopher Higgins
Raffi Torres-Maxim Lapierre-Jannik Hansen
Victor Oreskovich-Cody Hodgson-Tanner Glass
SHARKS
Patrick Marleau-Joe Thornton-Devin Setoguchi
Ryane Clowe-Logan Couture-Dany Heatley
Torrey Mitchell-Joe Pavelski-Sir Finebark of the Woodshire
Ben Eager-Scott Nichol-Benn Ferrioro/Jamal Mayers
STARTING GOALTENDERS
Roberto Luongo
#1 / Goalie / Vancouver Canucks
6-3
217
Apr 04, 1979
Profile: Ass-kicker, critic-silencer
Antti Niemi
#31 / Goalie / San Jose Sharks
6-2
210
Aug 29, 1983
Profile: Ex Blackhawk so he's dead to me. Bury this bitch.
WHO IS HOT / COLD
CANUCKS
HOT
-Ryan Kesler: 5 goals and 6 assists in his last 5. Beast mode.
-Mason Raymond: 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 2. Maybe he's about to break out.
-Henrik Sedin: 1 goal and 3 assists in his last 3.
COLD
-Maxim Lapierre: 1 assist in his last 23 games.
-Tanner Glass: 0 points in his last 24.
-Alex Burrows: 1 assist in his last 4.
-Jannik Hansen: 1 assist in his last 11 games
SHARKS
HOT
-Logan Couture: 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 4 games.
-Dan Boyle: 2 goals and 4 assists in his last 5 games.
-Devin Setoguchi: 1 goal and 1 assist in Game 7 vs Detroit.
COLD
INJURIES
CANUCKS
-F Manny Malhotra: eye, out for playoffs
-F Mikael Samuelsson: lower body. Will not play in game 1.
SHARKS
-D Kent Huskins: upper body. Out since Feb. 22
VIDEO
The last meeting...a beauty...if you enjoy watching the Canucks blowing leads:
The title of this post is brought to you by Metallica "Battery". Yes, I'm going back to Metallica because they kick ass.
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