Friday February 23 - Vancouver Canucks at Vegas Golden Knights - 7:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 60 GP, 23-30-7, 53 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
Vegas Golden Knights: 60 GP, 40-16-4, 84 pts, first in Pacific Division
Remember back in preseason, when the Vegas Golden Knights spanked the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 9-4 at Rogers Arena? Seemed like an anomaly at the time, but that game was actually a strong harbinger of what was to come this year for both teams.
Going into their first-ever game at T-Mobile Arena, the Canucks have slid back down to 28th in the overall NHL standings while Vegas is one point behind Tampa Bay in second place overall—one point ahead of Nashville for top spot in the Western Conference.
Remember when we thought it was over-optimistic when Vegas owner Bill Foley said he wanted his team to make the playoffs by its third season? I have to admit, at this point I'm dead curious to see what this Vegas team can do in the postseason.
All that chatter about acquiring players that could be flipped at the trade deadline to gather more future assets has gone out the window. There isn't a single Vegas player currently on
TSN's Trade Bait List. There's even talk that they could be buyers, but bringing in new players at this stage of their storybook season could end up disrupting the special us-against-the-world chemistry that has fueled the Golden Knights all year long.
James Neal, who was presumed to be Vegas' best trade-deadline asset, has missed the team's last two games with an illness and is said to be a game-time decision tonight. Defenseman Shea Theodore is also ill, while forwards William Carrier and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare are out with injuries.
But Marc-Andre Fleury is healthy and expected to get the start tonight, and our old pal Luca Sbisa has been back in the lineup for the last three games. He has played just 27 games this year thanks to three separate stints on the injured list—most recently missing 16 games after injuring his hand in a fight in his first game back after missing the nine games before that with a lower-body injury.
Sbisa is expected to skate on Vegas' top pairing tonight, with Deryk Engelland. That's not a sentence that feels like it should go side-by-side with "Vegas is the best team in the Western Conference," is it?
As for the Canucks, the big news is defenseman Philip Holm, who will make his NHL debut tonight.
Holm has shown tremendous patience through his transition to North American hockey after he was signed as a free agent by the Canucks last spring. A late cut in training camp because he didn't require waivers, Holm's 11 goals with Utica this season are third-best by a defenseman in the AHL. He's fourth overall in team scoring with the Comets, with 29 points in 42 games.
Expect to see Holm on the third pair with Derrick Pouliot, with Alex Biega and Ben Hutton scratched.
Sam Gagner also looks like he's set to return after missing the last seven games with a sprained ankle. He'll likely sub in for Nic Dowd if the line combos from Thursday's practice are any indication.
Anders Nilsson is expected to make his fifth-straight start in net, but it looks like Jacob Markstrom is healthy enough to back up tonight.
The Golden Knights have lost in regulation just five times all year at T-Mobile Arena but the Canucks have delivered some of their best efforts in the most unlikely circumstances. Should be an interesting game!
On the trade front, we are starting to see some movement around the league—and the Ottawa Senators became the first team this year to acquire a first-round draft pick when they dealt Derrick Brassard to the Pittsburgh Penguins today.
This looks like a pretty solid rundown of the current Canucks situation:
More on Tanev:
Tanev's situation might depend on what happens with Ryan McDonagh, who fits a similar mold as a reliable defensive presence and could command a very high price. A team that misses out on McDonagh might be willing to entertain Tanev as a consolation prize.
Thanks for all your responses to my request for trade suggestions in the last blog. I'll comb through those tomorrow.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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