Game Day Preview: Bieksa takes morning skate as Canucks & Ducks “battle”

You know what rhymes with Duck and Canuck?

Of course you know....and you can bet so do players and staff on each team.

So far this season, members of the Ducks and Canucks might lead the league in F-bombs per-60.

If it wasn’t for one of the greatest defencemen in Canucks history being honoured, this would be a forgettable Thursday night tilt.

We knew this day was coming, but today it became official. Kevin Bieksa has signed a one-day contract to retire as a Vancouver Canuck.

Not only that, but he stepped onto the ice for the morning skate.

Bieksa was undoubtedly one of the best blueliners in team history. He came up in so many clutch moments for the franchise and in his prime, he was tough, defensively responsible blueliner who could also put up points.

He ranks sixth all-time among Canucks blueliners in points (both regular season and playoffs). What impresses me most though, is that he averaged 25:01 of ice time per game in 71 playoff contests for the franchise.

We all know about some of the big moments, but here’s a look at one underrated moment, courtesy of CanuckSkate on Twitter.

Love it. Juice will always be a legend, and we should all be excited that he gets his moment to be celebrated tonight.

ANAHEIM DUCKS (3-6-1) vs. VANCOUVER CANUCKS (2-6-2)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER BC. 7:00 PM PST

TV: SN PACIFIC. RADIO: SN650

PROJECTED LINES

VANCOUVER

Forwards

JT Miller — Bo Horvat — Conor Garland

Andrei Kuzmenko — Elias Pettersson — Ilya Mikheyev

Tanner Pearson — Sheldon Dries — Vasily Podkolzin

Dakota Joshua — Nils Aman — Jack Studnicka

Defence

Quinn Hughes — Luke Schenn

Riley Stillman — Tyler Myers

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Ethan Bear

Starting Goalie: Spencer Martin (confirmed)

Backup: Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Jack Rathbone, Kyle Burroughs, Nils Hoglander

Injured: Tucker Poolman (undisclosed), Travis Dermott (concussion), Brock Boeser (undisclosed), Curtis Lazar (undisclosed)

Based on lines from today’s morning skate, it looks like Podkolzin receives a little bump up the lineup, while Nils Hoglander sits in the press box.

Hoglander isn’t scoring, but his effort level is there. He’s easily one of the Canucks’ 12 best forwards and for that reason, it’s a tough look to see him scratched.

ANAHEIM

Forwards

Adam Henrique — Trevor Zegras — Frank Vatrano

Max Comtois — Ryan Strome — Troy Terry

Derek Grant — Isac Lundestrom — Jakob Silfverberg

Max Jones — Mason McTavish — Brett Leason

Defence

Dmitri Kulikov — John Klingberg

Simon Benoit — Cam Fowler

Nathan Beaulieu — Kevin Shattenkirk

Starting Goaltender: John Gibson (expected)

Backup: Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: Glenn Gawdin,

Injured: John Moore (undisclosed), Urho Vaakanainen (undisclosed), Jamie Drysdale (shoulder)

Really sucks for the Ducks that they lost Jamie Drysdale, the 6th overall pick in 2020, for 4-6 months due to a torn labrum.

Up front, it’s been Troy Terry (12 points in 10 games), Trevor Zegras (6 goals in 10 games) and not much else. John Klingberg has struggled mightily early on (three asissts in 10 games, averaging 23:03 per night).

How They Stack Up

Thanks to the loser point, only 10 teams are below .500 so far this season.

Of course, the two teams “battling” tonight fall into that category.

Goals for/game

• Anaheim: 2.5 (30th)
• Vancouver: 3 (T-19th)

Goals against/game

• Anaheim: 4.3 (31st)
• Vancouver: 4 (T-29th)

Shots for/game

• Anaheim: 28.9 (24th)
• Vancouver: 27.4 (28th)

Shots against/game

• Anaheim: 37.9 (32nd)
• Vancouver: 33 (T-21st)

Power play

• Anaheim: 6.7% (31st)
• Vancouver: 27.8% (T-4th)

Penalty kill

• Anaheim: 63.9% (31st)
• Vancouver: 60% (32nd)

Yeesh...

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

Won’t sit here and tell you this is an all-time fav, but I’m doing it in honour of Juice (who probably doesn’t like this song either).