GAME DAY PREVIEW- Game 63: Canucks @ Ottawa

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs OTTAWA SENATORS

4:30PM PST CANADIAN TIRE CENTRE, OTTAWA, ON

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650.

OPPOSITION BLOG: SILVER SEVEN SENS

As this team heads towards clinching a playoff spot for the first time in half a decade, it’s pretty likely that there will be certain games they look back on as momentous victories should they succeed. The Boston stomping? Absolutely. And you can add Tuesday’s win over the Montreal Canadiens to that list.

After struggling to start the game, a time out called by Travis Green seemed to have the desired effect, and they battled back, erasing 2-0 and 3-2 leads to force OT, then absolutely dominated the Habs in the extra frame, sealing the deal on Tyler Toffoli’s GWG. Tonight they take on the Ottawa Senators in a game that the Canucks need to make sure they aren’t guilty of playing down to their opponent’s level.

The Sens are in the midst of a rebuild that, should they not screw things up, could leave them as an absolute beast in a couple years time. With 3(!!!) first round picks in this year’s draft, plus a ton of others from dealing away players over the last couple seasons, they’re going to put together a really nice core of prospects to surround Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot with. In the meantime, they’re still a pretty bad team, and there’s not really much excuse for the Canucks to lose to them.

LINEUPS:

The Canucks should roll with the same lineup as we saw on Tuesday. Tyler Myers missed practice yesterday with an illness, but should be good to go this afternoon.

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Tyler Toffoli

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Loui Eriksson

Antoine Roussel — Adam Gaudette — Jake Virtanen

Tyler Motte — Jay Beagle — Brandon Sutter

Quinn Hughes — Christopher Tanev

Alexander Edler — Troy Stecher

Oscar Fantenberg — Tyler Myers

Thatcher Demko

Louis Domingue

Scratched: Zack MacEwen, Jordie Benn

Injured: Jacob Markstrom (lower body), Brock Boeser (ribs), Josh Leivo (kneecap), Micheal Ferland (concussion symptoms), Tyler Graovac (lower body)

Senators projected lineup

Brady Tkachuk — Josh Norris — Bobby Ryan

Rudolfs Balcers — Chris Tierney — Connor Brown

Mikkel Boedker — Matthew Peca — Scott Sabourin

Nick Paul — Artem Anisimov — Jayce Hawryluk

Thomas Chabot — Ron Hainsey

Mike Reilly — Nikita Zaitsev

Andreas Englund — Christian Jaros

Marcus Hogberg

Craig Anderson

Scratched: None

Injured: Anders Nilsson (concussion), Mark Borowiecki (high ankle sprain), Colin White (undisclosed), Anthony Duclair (lower body).

GAME DAY CHATTER:

ICYMI yesterday:

Is this gonna become a thing? Not sure my doctor would approve, but if this is what it takes to get them into the playoffs, pass the syrup...

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN:

ICE T’s metal band BODY COUNT have a new album dropping next week, and damn it this is a catchy AF ripper from them. The album is called ‘Carnivore’, so check out ‘Bum Rush’. Enjoy the game!