GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 33: Canucks @ San Jose

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs CAROLINA HURRICANES

7:00PM PST ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

TV: SPORTSNET, SN ONE, SN360, CBC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: FEAR THE FIN

If there’s one thing that the Canucks have been lacking (sorry, Eddie!) since Roberto Luongo left, it’s been a goalie that could flat out steal a game for them. They got that from Jacob Markstrom on Thursday night in a 1-0 OT win over the Carolina Hurricanes. And let’s be honest, they had no business winning that game at all. They were able to because a) Markstrom delivered one of the greatest regular season performances the Canucks have ever gotten from one of their keepers and b) it was simply not possible for this team to continue on this season without winning a game in OT. And was that not an incredible goal by Elias Pettersson? Never mind the fact that it came :40 into OT AND it was his 100th career point. Timing truly is everything.

This weekend they have a couple of big divisional games that they’re going to want to get points from. They’re in Vegas tomorrow night, where if things go right tonight, could see them vault past the Golden Knights into that final wild card slot, but they will have to deal with the San Jose Sharks first.

The struggling Sharks pulled the plug on head coach Pete DeBoer and nearly the entire coaching staff this week, and named Bob Boughner the interim head coach. While some of the teams that have made coaching changes this season have responded immediately with wins, the Sharks dropped one to the New York Rangers, so while time will tell, it’s probable that they’re not gonna get an easy fix to their issues with this move.

LINEUPS:

Make of these what you will, whether it’s an attempt by Travis Green to get certain players going, simply to shake things up, or maybe throw the Sharks game plan off. This certainly looks like Brandon Sutter will return tonight, though.

They sent Jalen Chatfield back to Utica, but called up Guillaume Brisebois to be a spare Dman for this trip. And with Thatcher Demko out, it’s going to be Markstrom in the back to back, barring some type of injury or illness. I am sure Micheal DiPietro would like a little more distance between now and the last time he saw the San Jose Sharks.

This is what the Sharks went with against the Rangers:

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

An early Xmas present from Decibel Magazine and Nuclear Blast Records today, as they’ve released the track that will be the January 2020 issue’s Flexi: A new CARCASS song! Really digging this track, a nice mix of their more modern output with a nice nod to their grind roots. Check out “Under The Scalpel Blade”, and enjoy the game!