Saturday December 5 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Boston Bruins - 7:00 p.m. - CBC, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 27 GP, 9-10-8, 26 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Boston Bruins: 24 GP, 13-8-3, 29 pts, fifth in Atlantic Division
The coach pulled no punches about the importance of tonight's meeting with the Boston Bruins during his postgame comments after Thursday's loss to Dallas.
From Jason Botchford's
Provies:
“Boston’s a must game, we have to see a good performance against Boston,” the coach said.
“We have to see it.”
Last season, the Canucks romped over the Bruins with a 5-2 win at Rogers Arena on February 13th—the game that features Shawn Matthias' hat trick and the accompanying garbage can full of hats.
The season before, the home win against Boston on December 14th was the high-water mark of Torts' tenure in Vancouver. The team was riding a six-game winning streak, and the coach used a second-period time out with the score tied 1-1 to shake his team out of complacency as they cruised to a 6-2 win.
That's also the night Milan Lucic got into his postgame scrap on Granville St. and subsequently disowned the City of Vancouver.
Things do get interesting when Boston comes to town. Brad Marchand's still bound to inspire some sour feelings even if Lucic has moved on.
The Bruins are arriving for the second half of a back-to-back after losing in overtime last night in Calgary. That game was a see-saw affair, amped up by the emotion of the team's first encounter with their old pal Dougie Hamilton. Boston's only lead came when Marchand scored on a shorthanded penalty shot after an error on the power play by Hamilton to make the score 4-3 with 1:04 left in the third period.
But Jiri Hudler tied the game for the Flames with 1.2 seconds remaining, then Hamilton atoned for his mistake when he fed Johnny Gaudreau for the game-winner—and his second NHL hat trick—at 3:20 of overtime.
Will the Bs be amped up or deflated after such a hard-fought game? That's what we'll have to wait and see.
The same is true for the Canucks. Daniel Sedin's usually a pretty even-keeled guy—and he may not be aware that .500 hasn't been a good benchmark since the loser point was introduced—but he's advocating for a little extra from the boys tonight:
My latest piece for Canucks Army, which you can find
here, looks at the impact that the Canucks' tough schedule is having on the team, but I also discovered that Vancouver's not making the most of its easier opportunities. They're just 1-3-0 at Rogers Arena this season against opponents who are coming into town on a back-to-back, like Boston is tonight.
Here's the group on the ice for this morning's optional skate:
Prust and Hamhuis both missed practice yesterday but are now back with the group, so this suggests they'll probably be available tonight.
The game-day preview at
Canucks.com suggests that Ben Hutton and Chris Higgins will also be back in the lineup, though Luca Sbisa will likely remain sidelined.
Sbisa and Jared McCann spent time at Rogers Arena with 80 minor hockey players last night as part of the First Strides Hockey Camp initiative. Can you get a read on the condition of Sbisa's hand from these photos?
Jacob Markstrom is now confirmed to be starting:
A couple of other notes about the opposition:
• The Bruins have been a streaky team this year. After losing their first three games of the year, they've put together a couple of solid streaks—unbeaten in regulation in seven games through the second half of October and currently unbeaten in regulation in seven games since November 19, though they've lost in overtime in both games of their Western Canadian road trip so far.
• The power play has been a key tool—tops in the league with a mind-boggling 31.2 percent success rate. Boston's penalty killing has been weak—ranked 24th in the league, just below Vancouver.
• Boston's also third overall with 31.2 shots on goal per game. After managing just 16 shots on goal in each of their last two games, the Canucks now rank 15th at 29.6—a number that will continue to drop rapidly if the team continues to struggle at getting pucks on net.
• Tuukka Rask will most likely get the start tonight, even though he took the loss in Calgary after stepping in to relieve Jonas Gustavsson when the Flames took a 3-2 lead in the game early in the second period.
With that, you're up to date. I'm crossing my fingers for a good game tonight!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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