Ducks At Canucks Preview: You May Fire When Ready

Time	Monday 7:00 PM	TV	Sportsnet Pacific
Season Series	4-0 Ducks	Last Meeting	5-1 Ducks Mar.29/14
The Enemy	Anaheim Calling	Scoring Leaders	H. Sedin: 10-37-47 Getzlaf: 31-54-85

DUCKS	CATEGORY	CANUCKS
50-20-8	SEASON RECORD	35-32-11
108	POINTS	81
2nd	CONFERENCE POSITION	11th
Lost 2	STREAK	Won 1
5-4-1	LAST 10	5-4-1
23-12-4	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	19-13-6
1.38 (2)	5 ON 5 GF / GA DIFF.	0.94 (20)
16.6 (22)	POWER PLAY %	14.9 (27)
81.3 (19)	PENALTY KILL %	83.2 (10)
249 (2)	GOALS SCORED	182 (28)
196 (10)	GOALS AGAINST	203 (12)

One demon was exorcised by the Canucks on Saturday night: the Los Angeles Kings who, like the damned Ducks held a 4-0 record against the Canucks this season. The Canucks played with confidence and tenacity against the Kings, which means two things probably:

1. The can beat the Ducks on Monday night.

2. They have not tuned out John Tortorella and are not throwing in the white towel.

A tiny glimmer of light remains on the Canucks' chances to make the playoffs as the Dallas Stars lost to Roberto Luongo and the Florida Panthers on Sunday afternoon. Luongo, after a month of Twitter silence tweeted this post game:

You're welcome @VanCanucks ! Glad I could help! #stillonpayroll #15%

— Strombone (@strombone1) April 7, 2014

But there is no sense for Canucks to get their hopes up. The Canucks are still 6 points behind the 8th place Stars and have only 4 games remaining. So they must win all of those games and hope the the Stars lose all of their remaining 4 games.

#TankNation is still alive and well, as the Canucks would currently hold the 9th pick in the Entry Draft. That's cute and all, but the players will fight regardless as long as there is hope.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

-The Ducks have outscored the Canucks 21-6 in their 4 victories.

-The last time the Canucks beat the Ducks was January 25, 2013:

5 straight losses to the Ducks since then.

-What does Anaheim have to fight for at this point? Lots. They only trail the top spot Blues by 3 points. The Avalanche and Sharks are only 1 point behind them. Chicago trails them by 3 points. It's really all about positioning for the playoffs (seed placement).

-The Ducks were 5-0-1 and now have lost 2 in a row. They lost 4-2 to the Oilers on Sunday night.

-Versus the Canucks this season, Getzlaf has 4 assists in 3 games, Perry has 5 goals and 9 points in 4 games (!), Selanne has 2 goals and 1 assist in 3 games, as does Matt Beleskey. Saku Koivu, the adorable little weasel, has 2 goals and 4 points in 3 games.

INJURED QUACKS: Cam Fowler, Sheldon Souray (big whoop), Tim Jackman, oh hey and Canuck - killer goaltender Frederik Andersen is out. The Ducks have been resting both Selanne and Koivu lately because they are old.

AS FOR YOUR VANCOUVER CANUCKS...

So much excitement for the Canucks' 3rd line, and rightfully so. The Booth-Richardson-Kassian "RBK" line is deadly. Booth may have no points in his last 3 games but he is an integral part of that line. Richardson stuck a dagger into his former team last game and has 3 goals and 2 assists in his last 6 games. The Kasssquatch is becoming quite popular is this neck of the woods because he has 2 goals and 6 assists in his last 6 games! The hands on that guy. In a world of shit, I can watch this happy stuff all day:

YOU MADE MY SHITLIST

-Ryan Kesler has 3 goals and no assists in his last 12 games. C'mon man, beef up that trade value with some points!

-Jason Garrison: 0 points in his last 10 games.

-Alex Burrows: he was rolling for a while, but now has 0 points in his last 6 games.

-Chris Higgins: Say it ain't so! Higgy has only 1 assist in his last 9 games.

-Jannik Hansen: 1 assist in his last 7 games and decreased ice time. Poor Beaker.

-Kevin Bieksa: 0 points in 6 games.

INJURED CANUCKS

Besides Santorelli, Tanev and Alberts....Yannick Weber missed last game because he took a puck off his hand / finger, so Frankie Corrado took his spot. Not sure of Weber's status for this one.

Speaking of Weber, it appears he is dating Carey Price's sister. See? See?

Anyway...

The title of this preview post has been brought to you by a sweet home-made version of the trench run in Star Wars: A New Hope:

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

Geordie Nuck was the only playah to get anything right last game, predicting a 2-1 Canucks win for da 2 points and vaulting himself up in the standings:

Bobby Canuck: 22

Zanstorm: 21

Geordie Nuck: 18

marcness52: 18

Nathaniel Perlow: 18

Passive Voice: 15

FormerHab: 14

Coach Ryan: 13

gmonk33: 13

Tengeresz: 12

The list in its entirety can be viewed here.

GO CANUCKS GO! EXORCISE THE CALIFORNIAN DEMONS! FIGHT!