Kings At Canucks Preview: On And On South Of Heaven

UPDATE:

@FarhanLaljiTSN: AV says if the morning skate is an indication, he expects @kbieksa3 to play tonight. Officially game time decision. #canucks

DICKS		HEROES
	AT

Time	Sat. 7:00 PM PST	TV	CBC, NHLN-US
Season Series	1-0 Kings	Last Meeting	3-2 Kings Jan. 28/13
The Enemy	Jewels From The Crown	Scoring Leaders	D. Sedin: 7-13-20 Kopitar: 6-11-17

Kings	Category	Canucks
10-6-2	Season Record	10-5-4
22	Points	24
5th	Conference Position	3rd
Won 5	Streak	Lost 2
7-3-0	Last 10	5-3-2
5-5-1	< Road Record / Home Record >	5-3-2
2.56 (20)	Goals Per Game Average	2.74 (16)
2.28 (6)	Goals Against Per Game Average	2.53 (11)
1.19 (8)	5 On 5 GF/GA	1.17 (10)
15.5 (22)	Power Play %	17.7 (14)
81.6 (16)	Penalty Kill %	79.7 (20)
51.3 (8)	Faceoffs %	49.2 (21)
516 (4)	Hits	418 (19)
170 (30)	Blocked Shots	222 (27)
79 (11)	Minor Penalties Taken	84 (15)
NHL.com

Why not come back from a 3 day break and play the Stanley Cup champions? Why the hell not. And without Ryan Kesler (and probably Kevin Bieksa) too. No problem! Losers of 2 straight facing a red hot team that has won 5 straight? PFFFFFFT! We got this one. The Kings are on the rise in almost every statistical category while the Canucks are dropping. It doesn't matter! The Kings are dead, you hear me? They are fucking dead!

The Canucks were already hot before Kesler returned from shoulder surgery. Jordan Schroeder, Mason Raymond and Jannik Hansen had formed a good secondary punch. We'll see where Booth and Higgins will figure in to all of this.

The Vancouver defence....jeeziz. They really need to get their shit together. I think Ballard and Tanev remain the most reliable defencemen at this point. I hate seeing Cory Schneider stand in front of the media and say he's not playing well enough and the damned media putting so much focus on our goaltending like that. Let's get 4 of the top D in front of the mic and hear them say the same thing.

By the way, here we thought the Northwest was a lock....

Good thing Minny lost to Anaheim Friday night. But at least we have a legit race now. Maybe it's time the Canucks fall down the standings for a while, you know, to remind them that they are not necessarily the best right now. To remind them that they are going to have to work for the Holy Cup and that even a spot in the playoffs isn't a given. But with a massively busy March coming up, it would be sweet to kick it off with a win over the wing ding Kings.

PROJECTED LINES / ROSTERS

Schneider

Sedin - Sedin - Burrows

Higgins - Raymond - Hansen

Booth - Schroeder - Kassian

Sestito? - Lapierre - Weise

Edler - Tanev

Hamhuis - Ballard

Alberts - Garrison

____________________________________________________

Quick

Williams - Kopitar - Brown

Lewis - Richards - Carter

Penner - Stoll - King

Clifford - Fraser - Nolan

Jake Muzzin - Dick Doughty

Scuderi - Voynov

Ellerby - Drewiske

TRENDS

• Kings are 4-0 in their last 4 vs. Northwest.
• Kings are 30-10 in their last 40 after allowing 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Kings are 19-7 in their last 26 when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Kings are 24-9 in their last 33 games following a win.
• Kings are 18-7 in their last 25 vs. a team with a winning record.
• Kings are 15-7 in their last 22 road games.
• Canucks are 20-6 in their last 26 games playing on 3 or more days rest.
• Canucks are 16-5 in their last 21 Saturday games.
• Canucks are 2-5 in their last 7 overall.
• Canucks are 1-4 in their last 5 vs. Pacific.
• 51% of the pros at Covers.com have the Canucks winning this one.

YOU MADE MY SHITLIST

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Zaaaaaaack..Where aaare you?

The Kassquatch had 5 goals in 7 games in January, and no goals and 3 assists in 12 games in February. He is now on the 4th line. Fuck February, right Zack? He's staying positive though, as is his coach:

"Zack is a 22-year-old young man," Vigneault said, "and, yes, he had a few turnovers Tuesday. I look back at certain players and where they were at that age. I mean, Zack is in the NHL right now and every day he is on the ice with us, he’s learning through his teammates and through practices. I’m confident that he’s going to continue to get better."

More on that at the Vancouver Sun.

Believe me, I may put him on my shitlist, and it sounds harsh, but I will be patient with him too. Perhaps I should put the majority of the Canucks' D on here....

I LOVE YOU, MAN

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I don't know what Henrik's thought process was over the long off season but he is a stronger player because of it. He hits guys now. He is stronger on his feet.

2 goals and 9 assists in his last 9 games. Hank's a beauty. Strangely, only 2 of those points (assists) have come on the power play.

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS LEADERBOARD UPDATE

Once again, patrik e is the only person to not only get points, but also brave the numbskull mountain pass.

Twin Terror: 8

Bobby Canuck: 6

patrik e: 5

andrew21nz: 4

FormerHab: 4

Meat Mayos: 4

raincity: 4

marcness52: 3

westy99: 3

ChuckinNux: 2

EvianBubble: 2

gmonk33: 2

Nathaniel Perlow: 2

PeaceJo: 2

Sean Zandberg: 2

seedvt: 2

YorkAveOrca: 2

beardstache: 1

dshaps: 1

Geordie Nuck: 1

Kent Basky: 1

KYCanuck: 1

NS_Cix: 1

radepalma: 1

Tangent: 1

Thursday: 1

Twitchy2010: 1

vancitydan: 1

Vancouverguy: 1

VIDEO

Kopitar ends Detroit with this beauty in the Kings' last game:

The Canucks' loss to the Kings in January came in a muddafuggin shootout:

I can watch Luongo stone Ryan Smyth over and over and over again:

The title of this game preview post has been brought to you by..who else?

GET IT DONE CANUCKS!