Canucks At Coyotes Game Preview: Ferrivorous Direction And Drive

CANUCKS		COYOTES
	AT

TIME:	Thu. 7:00 PM PST	TV	Sportsnet Pacific
SEASON SERIES:	1-0 Coyotes	LAST MEETING	4-2 Coyotes, Feb. 26/13
THE ENEMY	Five For Howling	SCORING LEADERS	H. Sedin: 8-20-28 Boedker: 6-13-19

COYOTES	CATEGORY	CANUCKS
13-13-4	SEASON RECORD	14-9-6
30	POINTS	34
9th	CONFERENCE POSITION	6th
Lost 4	STREAK	Won 1
4-5-1	LAST 10	4-4-2
3-8-3	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	8-5-3
2.53 (21)	GOALS PER GAVE AVERAGE	2.69 (14)
2.73 (16)	GOALS AGAINST PER GAME AVERAGE	2.66 (14)
0.90 (20)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	1.08 (11)
14.7 (24)	POWER PLAY %	13.8 (28)
82.4 (12)	PENALTY KILL %	81.0 (16)
52.6 (4)	FACEOFF WINS %	47.2 (27)
766 (7)	HITS	607 (21)
451 (11)	BLOCKED SHOTS	332 (28)
116 (16)	MINOR PENALTIES TAKEN	119 (21)
NHL.COM

Cory Schneider told The Province today:

"When you’ve got 20 games left is kind of equivalent to the stretch run in a regular season. It’s not like in years past where we’ve comfortably had a lead in our division. We’re in a dogfight, and it seems like every game coming up is against a team that’s within a few points of us either way. So we have to get this mentality of scratching and clawing for every game and I think last night was a good start."

Let's hope he's right. The win against St. Louis was a blast to watch and it was good to see the boys bag 3. But you can still see the underlying problems with the team...the 2 big ones: the power play and the team defence.

The power play had its moments last game but mostly looked abysmal again. Phoenix isn't easy to score on with a man advantage.

The team D also had several good stints and several bad ones. This current D squad reminds me of the Jovo-Sopel days. Lots of flash and dash there, but god damn, the opposing teams' quality chances against are too good and too frequent. It makes me miss the simplicity and stability of Salo and Rome. The only way the Canucks didn't really suck on defence was when they had the puck in the Blues' zone for the huge majority of the second period. But that kind of zone possession isn't maintained for an entire game, and these guys need to tighten up in their own zone as a 5-man unit.

The Canucks need to get on a roll. The Coyotes are beatable: losers of 4 straight and have only scored 2 goals in their last 4 games. Sure, this game is bound to be boring but I give no shits about style points. Just get it done, Canucks.

PROJECTED ROSTERS

Schneider

Sedin - Sedin - Burrows

Raymond- Schroeder - Hansen

Higgins - Lapierre - Kassian Ebbett

Weise - Lapierre - Sestito

Edler - Bieksa

Hamhuis - Garrison

Ballard - Tanev

FOR THE DOGS:

Smith

Korpikoski - Vermette - Moss

Sullivan - Hanzal - Boedker

Torres - Lombardi - Doan

Chipchura - Gordon - Bissonnette

Ekman-Larsson - Klesla

Yandle - Morris

Schlemko - Stone

TRENDS

• Canucks are 8-2 in their last 10 Thursday games.
• Canucks are 4-10 in their last 14 vs. Pacific.
• Canucks are 1-4 in their last 5 road games.
• Canucks are 1-4 in their last 5 in the fourth game of a 4-in-6 situation.
• Canucks are 1-5 in their last 6 after allowing 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Coyotes are 4-1 in their last 5 home games.
• Coyotes are 1-4 in their last 5 games playing on 1 days rest.
• Coyotes are 1-5 in their last 6 after scoring 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Coyotes are 0-4 in their last 4 when their opponent allows 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Coyotes are 0-7 in their last 7 Thursday games. KACHING!
• More at Covers.com.
• A crazy stat: Canucks are 3-0-3 in their last 6 played in Phoenix. Not so crazy, really.
  

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

A new leader emerges! Several people got points last game, but Bobby Canuck gets kudos for taking over top spot.

Bobby Canuck: 9

Twin Terror: 8

patrik e: 7

andrew21nz: 6

raincity: 6

FormerHab: 5

Meat Mayos: 4

Nathaniel Perlow: 4

gmonk33: 3

marcness52: 3

PeaceJo: 3

westy99: 3

acg515: 2

ChuckinNux: 2

DeathdogIGBL: 2

EvianBubble: 2

Pheenster: 2

Sean Zandberg: 2

seedvt: 2

YorkAveOrca: 2

beardstache: 1

BW79: 1

dshaps: 1

Geordie Nuck: 1

Kent Basky: 1

KYCanuck: 1

missy: 1

NS_Cix: 1

nucksandpucks: 1

radepalma: 1

Smoboy41: 1

Tangent: 1

Thursday: 1

Twitchy2010: 1

vancitydan: 1

Vancouverguy: 1

VIDEO

Not gonna lie: I miss Kesler:

Yep, I do:

The title of this game preview post has been brought to you by Clonazepam and probably my fave Soundgarden song:

GO CANUCKS GO!