Canucks At Ducks Preview: No Way, Punk!

Time	Sunday, 5:00 PST	TV	Sportsnet Pacific
Season Series	2012-13: 1-1	Last Meeting	3-1 Ducks, Apr. 25/13
The Enemy	Anaheim Calling, Battle Of California	Scoring Leaders	H. Sedin: 3-17-20 Getzlaf: 10-12-22

CANUCKS	CATEGORY	DUCKS
11-6-2	SEASON RECORD	14-3-1
24	POINTS	29
8th	CONFERENCE POSITION	1st
Lost  1	STREAK	Won 4
6-3-1	LAST 10	7-2-1
7-3-2	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	7-0-0
2.74 (15)	GOALS PER GAME AVERAGE	3.44 (3)
2.58 (14)	GOALS AGAINST PER GAME AVERAGE	2.39 (9)
1.08 (12)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	1.92 (1)
10.0 (27)	POWER PLAY %	12.1 (25)
89.1 (1)	PENALTY KILL %	75.9 (28)
51.5 (11)	FACEOFF WINS %	51.0 (14)
367 (17)	HITS	377 (15)
274 (4)	BLOCKED SHOTS	270 (5)
71 (18)	MINOR PENALTIES TAKEN	65 (13)
NHL.COM

What an annoying loss to the Kings last night. I didn't like how the Kings won the battles behind the net in the Canucks' defensive zone and kept putting one-timer passes out front. I thought it was going to be a spirited affair with special teams coming into play. Well, there was some spirit in the hitting department but the game generally lacked the emotion I was expecting. The Canucks DID reclaim top spot in the NHL in the penalty killing department however.

And speaking of that, enter the Ducks. The top team in the NHL by a 3 point margin over the Avalanche. Look at the stats above. They are not special teams gurus by any margin, being in the basement level on both the power play and penalty kill. But they are tops in the League 5 on 5. Something had to give. So watch for that to figure in tonight, but expect the unexpected.

Maybe, just maybe the Canucks were looking ahead to this game and will produce a better output than what we saw against the Kings.

DUCKS ROSTER

Penner - Getzlaf - Perry

Smith-Pelly - Perrault - Salami

Etem - Bonino - Palmieri

Rickard Rakell - Cogliano - Winnik

Hampus Lindholm - Beauchemin

Fowler - Lovejoy

Allen - Sbisa

Hiller

Wow, there are some names there I don't even recognize. That's what I get for not paying attention.

Getzlaf and Perry are doing the majority of the damage, of course. But if you check out the Ducks stats, the acquisition of center Mathieu Perreault is paying huge dividends. You could see his potential in Washington and now it's coming to fruition in Anaheim.

JACKASSES

But why am I being nice to Anaheim? It's another damned Californian team that I don't like. I hate the Ducks. You hate the Ducks. Why? I'll give you a few reasons:

Playoff elimination

Because Getzlaf.

Because Corey Perry.

Couple of jackasses hey? They are awesome players though. Respect. Maybe.

YOU MADE MY SHITLIST

Anybody not named Eddie Lack. Done.

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

Not today. The list will be updated tonight.

Eddie Lack will get the start for the Canucks. I think there is a lot of caution out there about the Canucks' chances in this one. The Ducks are 7-0-0 at home but the Canucks don't give a shit. The Canucks have rebounded very well after losses this season.

The title of this preview post has been brought to you by Pantera:

GO CANUCKS GO!