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| Time | Thursday 7:00 PM |
TV | Sportsnet Pacific |
| Season Series | 1-0-1 Canucks |
Last Meeting |
3-2 Avs Mar.27/14 |
| The Enemy | Mile High Hockey | Scoring Leaders | H. Sedin: 10-37-47 Duchene: 23-47-70 |
First of all: Welcome home, Trevor Linden! Congrats on the new job! Secondly (and I will have more on Linden soon enough):
Finally! No more talk about the Canucks' playoff chances! The focus (for game preview sakes) now shifts entirely on the final 3 games of the season against Colorado, Edmonton and Calgary. How will the team play now that management is having a makeover due to their shit season? How will they play now knowing they are eliminated from playoff contention? How much pride is left? Does John Tortorella still have any voice in the locker room?
A big topic that I found to be silly when the Canucks still had a chance was that the Canucks should tank the rest of the way to get a higher draft pick and increase their lottery odds. If the season ended now they would pick 7th. If things go south for the final 3 games they get pick as high as 4th if the teams below them all win out, or so. I saw a funny tweet today:
Flames now 4 back of #Canucks. Sunday could be fun. Both teams trying to let the other win
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) April 10, 2014
Not likely gonna happen but still a funny thought. At least Henrik would get more assists passing it to Cammalleri.
I hate to do this but...(no I don't)
YOU MADE MY SHITLIST
-Ryan Kesler has 3 goals and no assists in his last 13 games.
-Jason Garrison: 0 points in his last 11 games.
-Alex Burrows: has 0 points in his last 7 games.
-Chris Higgins: Higgy has only 1 assist in his last 10 games. He's always been streaky though. But right around now he breaks out. You'll see.
-Jannik Hansen: 1 assist in his last 8 games and decreased ice time.
-Kevin Bieksa: 0 points in 7 games.
CANUCKS MISC
Do we finally see Jacob Markstrom get a start for your Vancouver Canucks? Hell, he should start all 3 of the remaining games. The Canucks need to see where he is at before season's end.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
-a 7-1-2 record in their last 10 games.
-2 points out of top spot in the West (behind Anaheim and St. Louis).
-yea, they are likely going to bring their A-game here. They have a lot to fight for.
-know what I like about the Avalanche? Nothing.
-am I happy for them that they have a playoff spot after missing the playoffs for 3 straight years? Nope. Who would have thought that losing Hejduk and hiring a wife-beating coach would work so well for them? I am just kidding about the wife-beating part. He didn't beat her, he just choked her out and then threw a water bottle. Kidding again. Just seeing of you're still reading. In all honesty, Patrick Roy is f***ing awesome. I was a big fan of his growing up, especially after he left the Habs because I hate the Habs.
One of my fave Patrick Roy moments was in Games 3 and 4 of the 1996 Cup Finals: Panthers vs Avs. When Ray Sheppard and Rob Niedermayer scored the 2 goals for the Panthers (Game 3, in a losing cause) the Cats fans threw hundreds of rats on the ice and at Roy himself. Goaltenders in previous series' ducked into their nets to hide from the raining rats. Not Patrick Roy. Roy stood there and took it. I believe he even said after that game that in Game 4 those f*cking fans wouldn't be throwing any more rats. The Avs won Game 4 1-0 in quadruple overtime. Yea. How badass is that? That was the best 1-0 game I have ever seen, by the way. If you get a chance to somehow pirate find it, I encourage you do so and witness the ultimate display in goaltending (Beezer vs Roy).
And since I really don't want to talk about how good the Avalanche team is...here's more on Roy:
-Nathan MacKinnon deserves the Calder Trophy. Yes, he does. (NHL.com)
| AVALANCHE | CATEGORY | CANUCKS |
| 51-21-7 | SEASON RECORD | 35-33-11 |
| 109 | POINTS | 81 |
| 3rd | CONFERENCE POSITION | 11th |
| Won 1 |
STREAK | Lost 1 |
| 7-1-2 | LAST 10 | 5-4-1 |
| 25-10-3 | ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD | 19-14-6 |
| 1.14 (8) | 5 ON 5 GF / GA DIFF. | 0.92 (21) |
| 20.0 (7) | POWER PLAY % | 14.7 (27) |
| 80.4 (24) | PENALTY KILL % | 83.3 (10) |
| 238 (4) | GOALS SCORED | 182 (28) |
| 206 (14) | GOALS AGAINST | 206 (13) |
The title of this preview post has been brought to you by Metallica:
SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE
Nobody called 3-0 Ducks with Winnik scoring the winner last game. No change!
Bobby Canuck: 22
Zanstorm: 21
Geordie Nuck: 18
marcness52: 18
Nathaniel Perlow: 18
Passive Voice: 15
FormerHab: 14
Coach Ryan: 13
gmonk33: 13
The leaderboard can be seen in its entirety here.