GAME DAY PREVIEW- GAME TEN: Canucks vs New York Rangers- Nov 2, 2021

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (3-5-1) vs NEW YORK RANGERS (6-2-1)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

7:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET ONE. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: BLUESHIRT BANTER

Yes, it’s early, and there’s a lot of hockey to be played, but if the Canucks don’t find a way to rattle off some wins here pretty damn quickly, this is going to be another wasted season. If they hope to change things, they need to start scoring some goals, and this is probably the most damning stat so far this season:

It’s just not good enough, constantly trailing in games. And with four of their six losses by just one goal, a lot of their problems can be fixed by a) not constantly giving up the first goal in the game they’re playing and b) scoring at a pace that a team with this talent level should be.

They’re taking on a New York Rangers team that is one of the more surprising stories so far this season. After cleaning house and making some off-season moves that didn’t seem to make sense (apart from attempting to fire Tony DeAngelo into the sun, only to have him land in Carolina), yet somehow they’re making it work. Even more surprising, is they’ve been doing it without a ton of contributions from Artemi Panarin, who’s had a very Elias Pettersson-like start to his season. Sure, he has eight points, but just one goal from one of the league’s more prolific scorers is surprising.

What they have been getting is a torrid start from Chris Kreider, and Adam “I just signed a gigantic new contract extension” Fox, as well as solid goaltending from Igor Shesterkin, who will start in goal for the Rangers tonight. They’re coming off a win over the Kraken in Seattle, where Shesterkin quite literally stole two points for the Rangers, in a game they were badly outplayed by the Kraken.

Something to keep in mind tonight:

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, this is a somewhat accurate portrayal of what you’ll see tonight:

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Barclay Goodrow

Artemi Panarin — Ryan Strome — Kaapo Kakko

Alexis Lafreniere — Filip Chytil — Sammy Blais

Dryden Hunt — Greg McKegg — Kevin Rooney

Ryan Lindgren — Adam Fox

K’Andre Miller — Jacob Trouba

Patrik Nemeth — Jarred Tinordi

Igor Shesterkin

Alexandar Georgiev

Scratched: Julien Gauthier, Libor Hajek, Nils Lundkvist

Injured: Ryan Reaves (lower body)

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Nils Hoglander

Vasily Podkolzin — Jason Dickinson — Conor Garland

Justin Bailey — Juho Lammikko — Alex Chiasson

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes — Tucker Poolman

Luke Schenn — Travis Hamonic

Thatcher Demko

Jaroslav Halak

Scratched: Nic Petan, Brad Hunt, Kyle Burroughs

Injured: Matthew Highmore (upper body), Justin Dowling (undisclosed), Brandon Sutter (illness), Brady Keeper (leg), Tyler Motte (upper body)

Just one injury for the Rangers right now, as Ryan Reaves is still out, meaning the stupid quotient for this game will be at tolerable levels. While we’re still waiting for official confirmation, it looks like Travis Hamonic will make his season debut for the Canucks tonight, paired up with Luke Schenn. I do wonder if we don’t see Nic Petan at some point to try and shuffle things up a little bit though, as the Canucks desperately look to get back in the win column and avoid getting buried in the basement of the Pacific Division.

GAME DAY CHATTER

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Heading back to the 90’s and one of the more underrated bands from that decade: The Gathering. Based in the Netherlands, they turned heads with their third release, Mandylion, introducing the world to vocalist Anneke Van Giersbergen. Her soulful vocals laid over the doomy song structures work so damn well, as you’ll hear on this track from Mandylion: In Motion #1.

Enjoy the game, Go Canucks Go!