GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 42: Canucks vs New York Rangers

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs NEW YORK RANGERS

7:00PM PST ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

TV: SPORTSNET, SN1, SN360, CITY, CBC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: BLUESHIRT BANTER

So, it’s another themed night for this 50th Anniversary season, and if you were hoping that perhaps it might be something that gives the guys a little extra oompf to try and get that 7th straight win, this just might be the thing. They’re paying tribute to the teams of the 90’s tonight and that means a focus on that magical 94 Cup run as they take on their opponents in what still stands up as an all time classic Stanley Cup final, the New York Rangers.

These teams met early in the season back in October, and after a strong first period where the Canucks jumped out to a 3 goal lead, Jacob Markstrom was outstanding, and willed them to a 3-2 win at MSG. The Rangers have lost 2 straight and 6 of their last 10, and you can bet they will come out hard and try to spoil the party tonight.

LINEUPS:

Courtesy of nhl.com here’s what we can expect from these teams tonight:

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich

Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast

Brett Howden -- Filip Chytil -- Kaapo Kakko

Brendan Smith -- Greg McKegg -- Micheal Haley

Brady Skjei -- Jacob Trouba

Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo

Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox

Alexandar Georgiev

Henrik Lundqvist

Scratched: Steven Fogarty

Injured: Libor Hajek (knee), Brendan Lemieux (hand)

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson -- Bo Horvat -- Loui Eriksson

Antoine Roussel -- Adam Gaudette -- Jake Virtanen

Tyler Motte -- Jay Beagle -- Tim Schaller

Quinn Hughes -- Christopher Tanev

Alexander Edler -- Troy Stecher

Oscar Fantenberg -- Tyler Myers

Jacob Markstrom

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Zack MacEwen, Jordie Benn

Injured: Josh Leivo (fractured kneecap), Brandon Sutter (upper body), Micheal Ferland (upper body), Tyler Graovac (lower body)

Markstrom (that would be All Star goalie Jacob Markstrom) will be getting the start tonight, while we should see Alexandar Georgiev for the Rangers.

GAME DAY CHATTER:

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

There was a lot of good metal that came out in 1994, though much of the world’s attention was focused on the whole Nirvana/Pearl Jam/Soundgarden scene happening at the time. Black metal bands from Norway and other countries continued to become a bigger part of the underground, and the Swedish melodic death metal scene saw bands like In Flames and At The Gates release important albums. Canada’s metal scene was struggling a bit, but Cryptopsy was leading a Quebec death metal scene that would explode a few years later, and in Toronto, a band that mixed thrash, industrial and a touch of hiphop made waves across North America. Monster Voodoo Machine were a pretty underrated band in their home country, but they managed to get on the first Ozzfest tour before calling it a day. From their 1994 album Suffersystem, here’s ‘Bastard Is As Bastard Does’.