Thursday December 20 - Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 37 GP, 16-17-4, 36 pts, sixth in Pacific Division St. Louis Blues: 32 GP, 13-15-4, 30 pts, seventh in Central Division
Less than two weeks after they were crushed at home by the Vancouver Canucks on December 9, the St. Louis Blues make their only visit of the year to Rogers Arena on Thursday night.
Despite their poor performance in that 6-1 defeat, they're not a team that should be taken lightly. They've gone 3-1-0 since the last time they took on the Canucks, while Vancouver is 3-1-1. Though they remain mired near the bottom of the league standings, St. Louis is among the teams with the fewest games played while Vancouver, once again, is right at the top.
For the season so far, the Canucks rank 23rd with a points percentage of .486 while the Blues are 26th at .469.
Not so different, although St. Louis remains both inconsistent and unpredictable. They're coming into Vancouver after a decisive 4-1 win over Edmonton on Tuesday and also beat the tough Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in overtime last week but in between, they got hammered by Calgary by a score of 7-2. With the Canucks, even when they lose they've generally been in the game. Their last true beatdown came nearly a month ago—that 4-0 loss to the Sharks in San Jose.
It'll be interesting to see how the Canucks come out against the Blues after such an emotional game against Tampa Bay in their last outing. Will they be galvanized, or look a bit flat?
The vibe was decidedly more congenial at Rogers Arena on Wednesday, when the team took to the ice with spouses and kids for the annual holiday skate—including a gender reveal.
Big news from @SvenBaertschi & Laura: IT’S A BOY!! 👶 pic.twitter.com/CtFvBIlHUz
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) December 20, 2018
As for Sven Baertschi's health, sounds like he's still at least a week away from getting back into the lineup.
#Canucks Baertschi says he’s targeting the other side of the Christmas break for a return. First time he’s put a time frame on things. Says progressing every day. Still wants a few more full practices
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) December 19, 2018
As for Troy Stecher—this news is probably about as good as could be expected.
Troy Stecher in concussion protocol, Green says he’s feeling better today. #Canucks
— JAY JANOWER (@JayJanower) December 19, 2018
General manager Jim Benning didn't make a roster move to cover for Stecher—or do anything else—ahead of Wednesday night's holiday roster freeze. No trades at all around the league; the most noteworthy moves were a couple of players assigned to their respective World Junior teams and Buffalo's Patrik Berglund placed on waivers for purposes of terminating his contract after he failed to report to the team over the weekend. That's a weird one—if he has bigger issues at play, I hope he's getting the support and guidance that he needs.
The Canucks are holding an optional morning skate on Thursday, so we probably won't get many more lineup details until closer to gametime.
Meanwhile: pre-tournament games are starting to roll around the province ahead of this year's World Junior Championship.
In Victoria on Wednesday, it wasn't a great night for Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro in net for Canada's 5-3 win over Switzerland. DiPietro faced just 17 shots, most of which were pretty harmless, and looked especially shaky on two second-period markers for the Swiss.
Every player/coach from Team 🇨🇦 post game echoed the same thing. They wanted their first game to be their worst one of the tournament. It wasn’t pretty, but they got it done. Comtois best player on ice by far. DiPietro says he’s got to stay more mentally focused.
— Irfaan Gaffar (@sportsnetirf) December 20, 2018
Ian Scott is scheduled to get the start for Canada's next game, Friday night against Slovakia. Coach Tim Hunter has said he's going to wait to decide which goalie he'll play to wrap up pre-tournament action on Sunday against Finland at Rogers Arena.
Quinn Hughes is also getting the night off on Thursday in Kamloops, as Team USA takes on Russia.
#Breaking: USA World Juniors GM John Vanbiesbrouck tells @RadioNLNews that @canucks 7th overall pick Quinn Hughes will NOT be playing in an exhibition game in #Kamloops tonight. Says decision is because they’re carrying 29 players right now and need to give other players a look.
— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) December 20, 2018
Quinn's brother Jack Hughes is expected to play on Thursday. He skated on a line with Canucks prospect Tyler Madden and Noah Cates in Team USA's scrimmage on Tuesday. Perhaps coach Mike Hastings will keep that trio together against Russia?
Out in the Valley on Wednesday, Toni Utunen's Finns downed Denmark by a score of 7-0, with at least one notable spectator on hand:
Spotted @Canucks GM Jim Benning in attendance at @LangleyEvents for @HC_WJC exhibition between Finland and Denmark #WorldJuniors #lordcoroadtoworldjuniors
— Gary Ahuja (@garyahuja1) December 20, 2018
Utunen didn't pick up any points, but did wear the C for the Finns:
Suomi-Tanska at Langley Event Centre 05.00 Suomen aikaa.
— Tommi Seppà¤lठ(@TommiSeppala) December 20, 2018
Suomi:
Lindberg
(Lehtinen)
Klemetti-Kupari-Heponiemi (A)
Nyman-Lundell-Kakko
Puustinen-Virtanen-Ylönen
Moilanen-Vainionpà¤à¤-Ranta
Kokkonen-Laaksonen
Kaskinen-Honka
Utunen (C) - Latvala (A)
Riekkinen-Thomson pic.twitter.com/vvNF2BSEeY
To wrap up today—lots of Canucks content once again on this year's Spengler Cup team. The roster was released Thursday morning and includes Max Lapierre and Andrew Ebbett as well as short-term Canucks Adam Cracknell, Zac Dalpe and Patrick Wiercioch and one longtimer — now 37-year-old Kevin Bieksa.
Team Canada's 2018 Spengler Cup roster 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/bLYRv1tnVm
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 20, 2018
As usual, the tournament kicks off on Boxing Day in Davos, Switzerland.
With that, you're up to date. Enjoy the game!