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| Time | Thursday, 7:00 PST |
TV | Sportsnet Pacific |
| Season Series | 1-0 Canucks |
Last Meeting |
3-1 Canucks Dec. 3/13 |
| The Enemy | On The Forecheck | Scoring Leaders | D. Sedin: 13-27-40 Legwand: 8-27-35 |
PREDS |
CATEGORY |
CANUCKS |
| 22-22-7 | SEASON RECORD | 26-16-9 |
| 51 | POINTS | 61 |
| 11th | CONFERENCE POSITION | 7th |
| Won 1 |
STREAK | Won 2 |
| 4-4-2 | LAST 10 | 3-5-2 |
| 9-11-3 | ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD | 13-6-5 |
| -27 |
GOALS FOR/AGAINST DIFF. | +1 |
| 0.75 (27) |
5 ON 5 GF / GA | 1.02 (12) |
| 21.0 (7) | POWER PLAY % | 14.7 (24) |
| 81.0 (16) | PENALTY KILL % | 86.5 (2) |
| 1010 (24) | HITS |
1000 (26) |
| 16-1-1 (5) |
RECORD: LEADING AFTER 1 |
12-4-1 (21) |
| 1-16-2 (30) |
RECORD: TRAILING AFTER 1 |
4-9-5 (19) |
| 513 (7) | PENALTY MINUTES |
774 (29) |
| NHL.COM |
So far so good. The Canucks got their asses out of California (and Arizona) and have now won 2 in a row, both games against bottom-feeders. Convincing wins? Not at all. It's really all about being bloody thankful that we have Roberto Luongo in net. The Canucks have not scored more than 2 goals in regulation in 6 straight. Does it really matter right now? Well, it feeds Tony Gallagher's evil mind, but as long as they win I really don't care right now.
The Canucks are 4-1 in their last 5 against Nashville. This is another game they have to win against a "lesser" team in the standings. But watch out though, the Predators are 3-1 in their last 4 games.
#FreeTorts
Please tell me this is just a bunch of Canucks fans having fun. I hope no fan out there really believes Torts didn't get what he deserved.
PROJECTED CANUCKS LINES
Sedin-Kesler-Burrows
Higgins-Dalpe-Hansen
Booth-Richardson-Kassian
Sestito-Lain-Weise
Hamhuis-Tanev
Edler-Garrison
Bieksa-Stanton
Luongo
YOU MADE MY SHITLIST
-David Booth: 1 assist in his last 9 games. 2 assists in his last 12. Close the fucking book on this guy.
-Alexandre Burrows: 0 points in his last 10 games. 1 assist in his last 13 games.
-Dan Hamhuis: 1 assist in his last 10 games. This is not acceptable for a guy that chugs up THAT much icetime.
-Jannik Hansen: 1 assist in his last 10 games.
-Brad Richardson: There was a time when Brad seemed like a Gillis jackpot signing, now he only has 1 goal and no assists in his last 12 games, and 2 goals and no assists in his last 16.
Off the list: Daniel Sedin and Dale Weise each registered an assist against the Coilers. But you Dank, especially are on a short leash. (Notice the difference in Daniel's game without Hank being there? I saw a lot more....everything from him.)
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
I would like to quote an excerpt from a post by On The Forecheck's Dirk Hoag called "'The Predator Way' Needs A New Direction":
Now in their 15th NHL season, the apex of Predators hockey has merely been to "be competitive". Despite an impressive seven playoff appearances in eight seasons from 2004-2012, this franchise has yet to achieve anything worthy of a banner to hang from the rafters at Bridgestone Arena. For a long time, one could excuse that gap in their record since at least there was an impression that the team was headed in the right direction, but events since the summer of 2012 have the franchise spiraling into mediocrity, with no turnaround in sight.
In short, this team doesn't appear to be on the path towards Stanley Cup contention any time soon, and the roster/salary situation presents serious obstacles to getting on that path given the organization's operating philosophy, which has become more deeply entrenched in the so-called "Predator Way" over the last 18 months.
Click on the link above to read the rest of the post. From a distant outsider's perspective, I get that the nobody drafts defencemen and goaltenders like Nashville does. But goal-scoring has been their problem for years. Yea yea, I know, they do spread their scoring out over 4 lines.
So the Preds did just trade long-time mate Kevin Klein to the Rangers in exchange for AV doghouse guy Michael Del Zotto. Hoag likes the trade because the Preds needed another guy on the left side, AND a guy with potential to put up more points, especially on the power play. Their PP is much better than ours overall, ranking 7th in the NHL.
PROJECTED PREDS ROSTER
Wilson - Fisher - Hornqvist
Spaling - Legwand - Smith
Bourque - Cullen - Nystrom
Clune - Gaustad - Stalberg
Josi - Weber
Del Zotto - Jones
Ekholm - Ellis
In goal: Carter Hutton? I don't think Pekka Rinne is back from hip surgery yet. But I think he is close. Also, Barry Trotz is saying Devan Dubnyk still has bad habits from his time in Edmonton. Yes, he actually said that.
Predators Scoring Leaders. See sow spread out it is? All 4 Canucks lines gotta play their asses off.
VIDEO
The last meeting between these teams:
Oh look! Another Roberto Luongo show!
And the Ryan Kesler show! Speaking of Kesler:
It never gets old.
Eminem is 2-0 now. So he gets props for the game preview post title once again:
SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS LIST UPDATE
A few picked Kassian to score the winner against Edmonton, but only Puckhead1 called a 2-1 Canucks win for 2 points!
Zanstorm: 16
Bobby Canuck: 14
marcness52: 14
Passive Voice: 14
gmonk33: 13
FormerHab: 12
Nathaniel Perlow: 12
Coach Ryan: 11
Geordie Nuck: 11
nucksandpucks: 11
Tengeresz: 10
Twitchy2010: 10
seedvt: 9
Azzy Mahmood: 8
vancitydan: 8
westy99: 8
itsahardknocklife: 7
jwolf0: 6
Nathan k: 6
Nose_Face: 6
BigPDog: 5
hookedoncanuck: 5
kiwinuck: 4
Tim Burke: 4
AK_nuk: 3
canuck89: 3
ChuckinNux: 3
Puckhead1: 3
Brock: 2
bygfeete: 2
John Carroll: 2
prairienucker: 2
Smoboy41: 2
Vancouverguy: 2
CombattlerV: 1
Kent Basky: 1
thesporteditor: 1