GAME DAY PREVIEW- GAME TWENTY-NINE: Canucks vs Carolina- Dec 12, 2021

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (11-15-2) vs CAROLINA HURRICANES (19-6-1)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

7:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: CANES COUNTRY

And so the Canucks find themselves heading into a tough part of their schedule, even if they’re almost all at Rogers Arena, with seven games over the next twelve nights, and they’ve got some pretty tough opponents coming up in this stretch, starting with one of the league’s best right now, the Carolina Hurricanes.

After starting December with a 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators at home, the Canes have rattled off four straight wins, as they look to sweep their Western Canadian tour following victories over the Calgary Flames Thursday night and the Edmonton Oilers last night. But with this being their third game in four nights, going up against a well rested Canucks team could work out in favour of the host team.

The Canucks have been able to string together three wins, but needed the shootout to achieve two of them, so it’s not like we can say with any degree of confidence that they’ve turned a corner under Bruce Boudreau. A win tonight however could change that. Again we remind you that the Canucks are looking at astronomical odds of making the playoffs this season, and we’re still officially in ‘lost season’ mode in these parts. Until they show us they’re gonna do a St Louis Blues worst to first, then we’ll believe we are what we think they are. It certainly doesn’t hurt their chances that teams like the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Anaheim Ducks are all tumbling back to earth this month.

LINEUPS

Hurricanes projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter — Sebastian Aho — Teuvo Teravainen

Seth Jarvis — Vincent Trocheck — Martin Necas

Andrei Svechnikov — Jordan Staal — Jesper Fast

Steven Lorentz — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Derek Stepan

Jaccob Slavin — Ethan Bear

Brady Skjei — Ian Cole

Brendan Smith — Jalen Chatfield

Antti Raanta

Frederik Andersen

Scratched: Maxime Lajoie

Injured: Jordan Martinook (ankle)

COVID-19 protocol: Tony DeAngelo, Brett Pesce

Canucks projected lineup

Tanner Pearson — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser

Jason Dickinson — Bo Horvat — Nils Hoglander

Vasily Podkolzin — Elias Pettersson — Conor Garland

Tyler Motte — Juho Lammikko — Alex Chiasson

Quinn Hughes — Luke Schenn

Tucker Poolman — Tyler Myers

Brad Hunt — Kyle Burroughs

Thatcher Demko

Jaroslav Halak

Scratched: Justin Dowling, Noah Juulsen

Injured: Travis Hamonic (lower body), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (undisclosed), Matthew Highmore (upper body), Brandon Sutter (illness), Brady Keeper (leg)

GAME DAY CHATTER

Getting prepped, Gabby style.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

In honour of Elias Pettersson’s shootout winner the other night, I give you ESKIMO CALLBOY with ‘We Got The Moves’, so I suppose I should either say I’m sorry or you’re welcome?

A bizarre mix of metalcore and EDM, they’re becoming a thing and they’re so ridiculous, it’s hard to ignore them. They’ve even started a campaign to be Germany’s representative at the annual Eurovision Song Contest. And before you write them off, remember that Finland’s LORDI won it in 2006 dressed as monsters, so anything’s possible.

Enjoy the game, Go Canucks Go and Go TiCats Go!