Saturday December 10 - Vancouver Canucks at Florida Panthers - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet
Vancouver Canucks: 27 GP, 12-13-2, 26 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Florida Panthers: 28 GP, 12-12-4, 28 pts, sixth in Atlantic Division
The Vancouver Canucks will take another shot at improving their record to .500—and winning two games in a row on the road for the first time this season—when they visit the Florida Panthers in Sunrise today.
Lots of storylines here. The earth shook from this news on Friday night:
Have learned the #Canucks have called up goalie Thatcher Demko.
Ryan Miller left Thursday's game against Tampa Bay with a little more than six minutes to play with what's being referred to as "lower-body tightness."
Ryan Miller is not on the ice as skate begins. Panthers practice goalie Bobby Segin filling in. pic.twitter.com/hKJw3BJlk8
Demko played for Utica on Friday night, dropping a 4-3 decision on the road in Binghamton. The Canucks have not yet made an official announcement, but he is listed as a call-up today on the CapFriendly website and he arrived in Sunrise in the middle of the morning skate. He did not get to practice and may not even even get to back up tonight!
#Canucks Miller skated after the team got off the ice and will be reevaluated ahead of the game. #CanucksOn1040
Getting ahead of myself...if Miller isn't ready to go tomorrow, I'd assume the team will lean toward starting Markstrom back to back, assuming everything goes reasonably well tonight. After that, the team's games are quite well spaced out over the next couple of weeks—the next back-to-backs aren't till just before Christmas, on December 22nd and 23rd.
Iain MacIntyre spoke with Demko on Friday, before the callup, about working with goalie coach Rollie Melanson.
I wonder if jitters about the possible call-up affected Demko's game on Friday? It's the first time he has given up more than two goals since taking over as the Comets starter when Richard Bachman was injured in mid-November.
Tonight's game will also be a head-to-head matchup of two goalies who were traded for each other, with Markstrom facing off against Roberto Luongo. Markstrom, memorably, faced the last two shooters in the shootout after Ryan Miller abruptly left last year's matchup in Sunrise, then Markstrom got the overtime win a couple of weeks later in Vancouver—the game that featured the mini-brawl at the end after Henrik Sedin taunted the Panthers' bench after some earlier trash talk.
It's hard to see where Erik Gudbranson appears from, but he's tall and helmetless—pretty easy to spot once he gets into the middle of the scrum.
There's another story to watch—Gudbranson's first game back against the team that drafted him. He's coming off his best offensive night of the year in Tampa, where he scored his first goal as a Canuck and had his first two-point night.
"This was the first game I looked for on the schedule. I'm excited to see some old friends, but you know me, I won't hold back" - @Guddy44
Jannik Hansen has missed 15 games since suffering broken ribs in that violent game in Toronto back on November 4. Doesn't sound like he'll be inserted into the lineup tonight.
Hansen practiced today and feels good, he's preparing to play Sunday in Washington.
Now, the Panthers. They're a .500 hockey club, but have undergone some upheaval as they move to their more analytics-based structure as advocated by new owner Vinnie Viola. That has led to some personnel changes—and to a coaching change a couple of weeks ago, with Gerard Gallant being replaced behind the bench by general manager Tom Rowe.
Considering the reputation that surrounds the Panthers as being run by execs who do not have hockey backgrounds, I was a bit surprised when I realized that Rowe did play 357 games in the NHL in the 1970s and early 80s, mostly with the Washington Capitals. He also has three years of NHL assistant coaching experience with the Carolina Hurricanes, and was a head coach in the AHL and the KHL before quickly moving up the Panthers' managerial ranks last year.
Since Rowe took over behind the bench, the Panthers are a less-than-spectacular 1-2-3. Scoring has been an issue—the Panthers have managed just nine goals in those six games—but one area where they have quickly improved is on the penalty kill. Florida has given up just one goal on the power play since Rowe took over behind the bench, in 23 opportunities. That has moved the Panthers from 19th in the league on the P.K. all the way up to sixth overall, with an 85 percent success rate.
The Canucks' penalty killing also warrants a mention. After dropping to 17th in the league at 81.1 percent last season, Vancouver's currently tied for seventh with the New York Rangers at 84.9 percent, just behind Florida. Vancouver has given up two power play goals in a single game just once all year—in that ugly 7-2 blowout against the Rangers—and has surrendered just three power-play goals in the 10 games since that night.
Vancouver is also a pretty well-disciplined team this year. The Canucks are eighth overall in penalty minutes per game but those numbers are spiked by some majors and misconducts, which don't really affect manpower. Looking at minor penalties only, Vancouver's tied for 27th in the league with just 80 minors, an average of just less than three minors per game. Florida, FYI, is 13th overall with 100 minors.
Two other notes on Panthers' players to close out today:
• Ex-Canuck Jared McCann was assigned to the AHL on November 21 after going 1-2-3 in 17 games with the Panthers this season. He averaged 10:07 of ice time per game while he was in Florida and is 2-2-4, with 19 penalty minutes, in seven games so far with the Springfield Thunderbirds.
• Jason Botchford caught up with ex-Canuck Roberto Luongo on Friday for a lengthy Q&A session. Well worth a read!
Luongo Q&A: Opening up about the game, how carey price pushes him, his place in hockey history … and Vegas https://t.co/CPtfsw1cPc
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»