Canucks Game Preview

Canucks At Avalanche: Givin' No Slack

By Zanstorm Apr 12, 2013, 10:40pm PDT

CANUCKS		FORE!
	AT

TIME:

Sat. 12:00 PM PST

Sportsnet Pacific

SEASON SERIES:

3-0 Canucks

LAST MEETING

4-1 Canucks Mar. 28 /13

THE ENEMY

Mile High Hockey

SCORING LEADERS

H. Sedin: 11-27-38

Parenteau: 15-24-39

CANUCKS	CATEGORY	AVALANCHE
23-11-6	SEASON RECORD	13-22-6
52	POINTS	32
3rd	CONFERENCE POSITION	15th
Won 4	STREAK	Lost 1
8-2-0	LAST 10	2-6-2
10-6-3	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	10-7-2
2.62 (15)	GOALS PER GAVE AVERAGE	2.32 (28)
2.28 (4)	GOALS AGAINST PER GAME AVERAGE	3.07 (26)
1.21 (6)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	0.82 (26)
13.8 (27)	POWER PLAY %	14.2 (25)
83.2 (10)	PENALTY KILL %	80.5 (20)
47.2 (27)	FACEOFF WINS %	51.0 (10)
396 (25)	ROAD HITS / HOME HITS	444 (20)
464 (28)	BLOCKED SHOTS	679 (1)
158 (21)	MINOR PENALTIES TAKEN	172 (28)
NHL.COM

The Canucks have dominated the Avalanche this season, going 3-0 and outscoring them 10-3. The have also beaten them 9 times in a row. This is the final meeting between these 2 teams. Will the Avs show any pride at all against Vancouver? I say...yes. Quite possibly. Perhaps. Maybe. Probably not. Not at all, they are fucked!

After Roberto Luongo sat for a long time as Cory Schneider was playing lights-out, he most likely finds himself sitting again in this one, because of Schneider gets over the flu he will play. The Canucks will continue to Ride The Schneid. Unfortunate for Luongo, however the Canucks do play back to back games Monday and Tuesday. I look further ahead with this scenario. IF Schneider would falter in the playoffs, you know Luongo will take the ball and run with it. You know that it doesn't seem to matter how long he sits, he comes ready to play this season. He HAS to. He has to sell himself if he's ever gonna get out of here in the off season.

The big news for the Canucks forwards is that after benching Jannik Hansen for the second half of the 3rd period, Alain Vigneault will play Beaker with the Sedins on Saturday. I see what he is up to. A solid motivational tactic. That moves Alexandre Burrows down to line 2 with Ryan Kesler and Zack Kassian, which I look forward to seeing, and Mason Raymond down to line 3 with Derek Roy and Dale Weise. Now, Weise is Weise, but it will be fun to watch Roy and Raymond hopefully connect. Of course, now that I say that it will probably be Weise that bags 2. Hey, you never know. All I know is that AV is going for versatility in the lineup before the playoffs and it is a wise thing to do.

As Jannik Hansen put it:

"We’re all pretty confident jumping around in the lineup and not ruining any chemistry."

PROJECTED LINES

FOR THE CANUCKS

FOR THE AVALANCHE. No Milan Hejduk and probably no Shane O'Brien either (aww..I wanted him to give us more power plays!)

TRENDS

Canucks are 4-1 in their last 5 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.
Canucks are 47-16 in their last 63 vs. Northwest.
Canucks are 19-7 in their last 26 Saturday games.
Canucks are 5-2 in their last 7 road games.
Avalanche are 2-6 in their last 8 home games.
Avalanche are 2-8 in their last 10 home games vs. a team with a winning road record.
Avalanche are 1-5 in their last 6 after scoring 2 goals or less in their previous game.
Avalanche are 1-5 in their last 6 Saturday games.
Avalanche are 1-5 in their last 6 in the third game of a 3-in-4 situation.
Avalanche are 1-8 in their last 9 in the fourth game of a 4-in-6 situation.
The Avs suck.
More at Covers.com

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

We have a 3-way tie for first place right now, as Nathaniel Perlow jumped up 2 points last game. One of you win this. I don't have an idea for a tie-breaker.

Bobby Canuck: 11

Nathaniel Perlow: 11

Twin Terror: 11

FormerHab: 10

gmonk33: 10

patrik e: 9

andrew21nz: 6

EvianBubble: 6

Meat Mayos: 6

PeaceJo: 6

raincity: 6

Sean Zandberg: 5

acg515: 4

Geordie Nuck: 4

team pinnelli: 4

vancitydan: 4

Vancouverguy: 4

BW79: 3

ChuckinNux: 3

DeathdogIGBL: 3

ktownfan: 3

marcness52: 3

pheenster: 3

Twitchy2010: 3

westy99: 3

jwolf0: 2

Sandwich76: 2

seedvt: 2

Tengeresz: 2

YorkAveOrca: 2

beardstache: 1

bygfeete: 1

Coach Ryan: 1

dshaps: 1

Herculoid: 1

Kent Basky: 1

KYCanuck: 1

missy: 1

NS_Cix: 1

nucksandpucks: 1

radepalma: 1

Smoboy41: 1

Soundergarden: 1

Tangent: 1

Thursday: 1

ZeeTee: 1

VIDEO

AV talks about the lineup changes:

The last meeting between these 2 teams was beautiful:

The title of this game preview post has been brought to you by Zantac and Sir Mix A Lot:

"Met Clint Eastwood, slapped his momma!"

Ah, I love old school rap.

Canucks At Avalanche: Givin' No Slack