Thursday November 9 - Vancouver Canucks at Anaheim Ducks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet 650, Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 15 GP, 8-5-2, 18 pts, third in Pacific Division Anaheim Ducks: 15 GP, 6-6-3, 15 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks continue their four-game Pacific Division road trip with a visit to Orange County to take on the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
They'll be looking for their fifth-straight road win—something that hasn't happened since the Presidents' Trophy years:
#Canucks go searching for their 5th straight road win tonight. Last time they won 5 straight games away from Vancouver came Nov.23-Dec.10/11.
— Joey Kenward (@kenwardskorner) November 9, 2017
The big story surrounding the Ducks this season has been their litany of injuries. Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen are back after their offseason surgeries, but Ryan Kesler still has yet to play this year after hip surgery. UFA signing Patrick Eaves was recently hospitalized with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Cam Fowler is sidelined with a knee problem. Ryan Getzlaf is expected to be out for two months after surgery to repair a broken bone in his face and Jared Boll will be out of the lineup tonight with a lower-body problem.
Goaltender John Gibson and forward Ondrej Kase also suffered hits to the head during the Ducks' last game—an intense 4-3 overtime loss to their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings. They passed the concussion protocol, but their status for tonight is still unclear.
Regardless of Gibson's health, our old pal Ryan Miller will be making his third start of the year tonight. He started the season on the shelf with a wrist problem, but has appeared in three of the Ducks' last five games, including taking over for Gibson in the third period against the Kings on Tuesday. So far, he's 1-0-2 with a 2.13 goals-against average and .946 save percentage.
Tonight's game is a meaningful start for Miller, who is finally in his preferred setting with his wife and son in Southern California but maintains an emotional connection to the Canucks.
“I guess if you’re ranking emotional connection, it’s hard to beat Buffalo and what the city meant to me,… Miller told Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register on Wednesday. “(But) there’s a lot of guys on that team there (Vancouver) who I consider guys I went to battle with and guys that I really liked to be around and they’re my friends.
“There’s that element that’s always going to be there. Even with Buffalo, I think I know maybe two guys on the team. They’ve made some trades. I know more guys now on this team than really going back to Buffalo.…
Miller will be seeing some new faces in Canucks colours tonight—Thomas Vanek, Sam Gagner and Alex Burmistrov up front, as well as Michael Del Zotto and—possibly—Derrick Pouliot on the blue line.
Miller knows Vanek well from their eight-plus years together in Buffalo—both were stars on the Sabres who were traded away during the 2013-14 season.
Kevin Bieksa's now back in the lineup after missing four games with a hand injury following his infamous "Superman Punch" on the Philadelphia Flyers' Radko Gudas back in late October. His injury time happened to coincide with Halloween, which gave him the perfect opportunity to go undercover and drive his teammates crazy once again.
Last year, he was Shovel Boy. This year, it’s @HondaCenter security.@KBieksa3 is back in disguise in the award-winning Undercover Duck. pic.twitter.com/elIOeOv8Xe
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) November 9, 2017
The Canucks enjoyed some time at the beach during their off day on Wednesday.
The boys had quite the day at Newport Beach. 🌞🚲 pic.twitter.com/Uz5aFwhHoP
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 9, 2017
For tonight, Markus Granlund and Alex Edler are both present and accounted for:
California dreamin’. pic.twitter.com/TPBfJ5AJwm
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 9, 2017
It's going to be interesting to see what lineup decisions the team makes as players continue to get healthy.
Edler may play tonight—which would probably bump Derrick Pouliot out of the lineup. Green has leaned hard on Ben Hutton and Del Zotto on the left side during Edler's absence so even though Pouliot has played well, I think he's still the low man on the totem pole.
Travis Green seemed to like what he saw from Brendan Gaunce in his season debut in Calgary on Tuesday—he played 16:54 against the Flames. Granlund is taking the morning skate and it's said that he'll be a game-time decision tonight.
Optional #Canucks skate, Granlund is skating, no Horvat, Sutter, Vanek, Dorsett, Boeser, Del Zotto or Tanev. pic.twitter.com/d52SFL8YHB
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 9, 2017
Two games after hit hat-trick performance, Brock Boeser played a season-low 13:34 against the Flames.
#Canucks Green: "Brock was a little tired tonight. Gave him some time off in the 2nd period and I thought he responded."
— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) November 8, 2017
Jake Virtanen got an assist on Henrik's goal against Calgary on Tuesday, but only played 7:19. He's not playing badly but his waiver-exempt status could put him in a precarious position if the team needs to free up roster space.
Jacob Markstrom is expected to make his sixth-straight start tonight, but Thatcher Demko's San Diego-based family is said to be making the trip up to Anaheim for tonight's game. I'm sure even seeing Thatcher take warmup and serve as a backup in an NHL game is another huge milestone for his parents.
Hope Demko makes the most of these moments—it sound like he'll be headed back to Utica soon.
sounds like #Canucks are no longer on baby watch. Apparently all went well and Nilsson will join team on the road
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) November 9, 2017
Enjoy the game!