Canucks Playoffs 2013

Sharks At Canucks Game 1 Preview: Seek And Destroy!

This series is gonna be super tough. Not gonna lie.

By Zanstorm Apr 30, 2013, 11:08pm PDT

SHARKS		CANUCKS
	AT

TIME:

Wed. 7:30 PM PST

TSN, NBCSN, RDS,

CSN-CA

SEASON SERIES:

3-0 Sharks

LAST MEETING

3-2 Sharks Mar. 5/13

THE ENEMY

Fear The Fin

Battle Of California

SCORING LEADERS

H. Sedin: 11-34-45

Thornton: 7-33-40

SHARKS	CATEGORY	CANUCKS
25-16-7	SEASON RECORD	26-15-7
57	POINTS	59
6th	CONFERENCE POSITION	3rd
Lost 2	STREAK	Lost 2
5-5-0	LAST 10	5-4-1
8-14-2	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	15-6-3
2.42 (24)	GOALS PER GAVE AVERAGE	2.54 (19)
2.33 (6)	GOALS AGAINST PER GAME AVERAGE	2.40 (10)
1.00 (18)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	1.02 (16)
20.1 (7)	POWER PLAY %	15.8 (22)
85.0 (6)	PENALTY KILL %	84.0 (8)
53.4 (2)	FACEOFF WINS %	47.6 (25)
506 (21)	ROAD HITS / HOME HITS	508 (25)
800 (2)	BLOCKED SHOTS	566 (27)
164 (9)	MINOR PENALTIES TAKEN	195 (24)

I know, I know. I usually say 'regular season stats be damned once the playoffs start" and I do mostly think that way. But, I just wanted to give you a bit of a visual of what happened with these 2 teams this season. At the same time, there are some alarming stats there that may apply in the playoffs and that may negatively affect the Canucks in Round 1. Look at the Sharks' faceoff winning percentage. Now look at the Canucks' faceoff winning percentage. Teams can win games without being stellar in the faceoff circle, but if this trend continues, the Canucks will have to work hard to take possession away from the Sharks after a faceoff...a lot.

I am a bit surprised the Sharks took that few minor penalties.

Look at all of San Jose's blocked shots! Wow. Get used to seeing a lot of Sharks blocking shooting lanes on the PK, which means Edler is going to pass a lot instead of shooting.

We know that their power play is lethal. Let's hope the Canucks can continue to keep theirs going and shut the Sharks' PP down.

The Sharks had an 8-14-2 road record this season. That's lousy. May that lousiness continue!

PROJECTED ROSTERS

Schneider? Luongo?

Sedin - Sedin - Burrows

Higgins - Kesler - Kassian

Raymond - Roy - Hansen

Ebbett - Lapierre - Weise

Hamhuis - Garrison

Edler - Bieksa

Ballard - Barker? Or Corrado - Alberts (yes please)

FOR THE SHARKS:

Niemi

Marleau - Couture - Havlat

Galiardi - Thornton - Burns

Torres - Pavelski - Wingels

Desjardins - Sheppard - Burish

Irwin - Boyle

Stuart - Tennyson

Vlasic - Braun

NEWS FROM ENEMY HEADQUARTERS

Sharks talk playoffs:

-Mike Chen from Fear The Fin previews the Vancouver Canucks.

-How the Sharks can beat the Canucks. (Fear The Fin)

-Brent Burns is Sharks' X-Factor in series vs Canucks. (I agree) (San Jose Mercury News)

-Sharks' bad memories could serve them well (San Jose Mercury News). Agreed again. Lots for them to draw motivation from.

-Raffi Torres has 2 goals and 4 assists in his first 11 games as a Shark. Look for him to be a big factor.

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS LIST UPDATE

There are going to be a lot of new faces in these parts so I just want to give the new peeps a heads up on how we do this little competition. We generally post winning team + score + game-winning goal scorer predictions in the comments thread in these game preview posts (here only). Here is how to get points:

2 points for correctly guessing the correct score and winning team. But you have to get both right. There's no points for getting one right and not the other.