Sharks At Canucks Preview: Perhaps You Had Better Start From the Beginning

GAME TIME: 7:00 PST

TV: TSN

And so it begins!  Gone is the stale team under Alain Vigneault, bless his heart he did a damn fine job. This season has me feeling a bit more stoked than the last 2 with a few different faces in the lineup, but mostly behind the bench. Wanna play stupid? John Tortorella ain't gonna put up with it. The foot-in-ass coach I have been waiting for. Let's see how well this plays out. I am feeling positive, even if the players need time to adjust.

Usually I put up a bunch of stats at the beginning of game preview posts. Not today. It's a new season with new faces and right now the past stats are in the past. How was that preseason?  Don't care. The coach has about finalized his lines and it was not the Canucks' farm depth that made the cut. It was free agent acquisitions like Mike Santorelli and Brad Richardson that made the cut. Welcome to Vancouver Mr. Stanton and Mr. Dalpe. It is what it is. Just kick some ass, damn it!

PROJECTED ROSTERS

CANUCKS

Sedin - Sedin - Burrows

Hansen - Kesler - Higgins

Booth - Richardson - Santorelli

Sestito - Dalpe - Weiss

Hamhuis - Bieksa

Edler - Garrison

Tanev - Stanton

Luongo

John Tortorella is going to make life "difficult" in regards to releasing his lines but that's ok. I respect that. Dale Weise just back from suspension and Zack Kassian out for several more game yet.

SHARKS

Hertl - Thornton - Burns

Couture - Marleau - Kennedy

Nieto - Pavelski - Wingels

Sheppard - Desjardins - Pelech

Boyle - Irwin

Vlasic - Braun

Demers - Hannan

Niemi

Some look at that roster and scoff. Perhaps they don't know some of those players. Well, they are good players. Better than most think.

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS

For a few years now, we at Nucks Miconduct have a season-long score-predicting competition. If you want to play, here are the rules:

Pick the final score of the game and the correct winning team and you get 2 points. Get one of those wrong and you get a big fat ol' zero. Harsh I know. I may change that.

Also, pick the correct game-winning goal scorer and you get 1 point. You can be wrong with the score and winning team but you'll still get a point for picking the correct GWG guy.

I will be keeping track of the point totals and posting them regularly. Good luck!

Are you ready for this?

The title of this unusually quick game preview post (still on holidays) has been brought to you by White Zombie:

Hell yea!

GO CANUCKS GO!