Saturday March 17 - Vancouver Canucks vs. San Jose Sharks - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 71 GP, 25-37-9, 59 pts, 29th overall San Jose Sharks: 71 GP, 39-23-9, 87 pts, second in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks' losing streak has extended to five games since Brock Boeser was injured, and the goalless streak is now up to 212 minutes and 9 seconds. According to this article from Fox Sports, they'll set a new franchise record tonight if they go another 23 minutes or so without lighting the lamp.
There's a bigger record not far out of reach, too:
Per @SNStats (must follow Twitter account), 1967/68 Oakland Seals were the last NHL team to be shutout in four straight games. By my math, that Seals' goal drought was 276:15. The #Canucks are at 212:09 right now.
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) March 15, 2018
And guess what? The Canucks are expected to face stingy Aaron Dell tonight, after Martin Jones got the win for the San Jose Sharks on Friday night in Calgary. In three career games against the Canucks, Dell has given up a total of five goals, with a .949 save percentage. This season, he was in net for a 5-0 shutout in San Jose on November 11 and a 5-4 overtime win for the Sharks on December 21.
So—it could be a record-breaking night. But it's not all doom and gloom.
“I’m in.… - Tanev pic.twitter.com/dhTvTGjMsr
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) March 17, 2018
Tanev's back in the lineup after suffering a broken leg on February 8 in Tampa Bay, just over five weeks ago. If you want to read all the gruesome details, Jeff Paterson has you covered:
story here on #Canucks Tanev, another injury-riddled season & playing through the pain of a broken leg in Tampa last month https://t.co/KBz465OrEK
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) March 17, 2018
You may recall, Tanev came back and finished that game in Tampa Bay after initially leaving when he was hit by Victor Hedman's rocket of a shot.
“I felt it right away, but I went in and saw the doc and he thought I was fine,… Tanev told Paterson. “I ended up playing the rest of the game, woke up and couldn’t really walk and we figured out something was wrong at that point.…
We've had too many opportunities to marvel at Tanev's pain threshold. I remain impressed by how his injuries don't drag on and in this case, how he wants to get back into action even when all is pretty much lost for this season.
Here's how the combos looked at practice on Friday:
Forward lines & D pairs at #Canucks practice:
— Joey Kenward (@kenwardskorner) March 16, 2018
Sedin-Sedin-Gagner
Leipsic-Horvat-Virtanen
Archibald-Sutter-Motte
Boucher/Jokinen-Dowd-Goldobin
Edler-Tanev
Del Zotto-Stecher
Pouliot/Hutton-Biega
Ben Hutton is scratched tonight, apparently with a foot infection.
Jacob Markstrom will start again after taking the loss in Anaheim on Wednesday.
Speaking of resilience, he looks a bit like Bambi here but it's still reassuring that Brock Boeser was able to get upright and into his skates for Friday's team photo session:
A few familiar faces back on the ice for the #Canucks this morning! ðŸ˜ðŸ“¸ pic.twitter.com/hLGXOEVemO
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) March 16, 2018
Friday marked just 11 days since Boeser was hurt—though it's been a long 11 days for the Canucks and their fans. With three weeks left in the season, I wonder if we'll see Brock back in the lineup before the end of the year?
We're coming up on the anniversary of Boeser's NHL debut, which happened on March 25, 2017 in Minnesota. The question now—will we see Adam Gaudette follow a similar timeline?
Gaudette had one assist on Friday in Northeastern's 3-2 overtime loss to Providence, which knocked them out of the Hockey East tournament in the semifinal.
But that doesn't mean his season is over quite yet. Tomorrow is Selection Sunday, where the 16-team national tournament bracket will be revealed by noon ET. Northeastern is currently ranked seventh in the country, so it's expected that the Huskies will receive a berth.
Regional action takes place next weekend—March 23-25. That's when Boeser's North Dakota team was eliminated last year so if Northeastern loses, Gaudette could become available to the Canucks by the time they return home for their final five-game homestand that kicks off on March 27. If they win, they'll move onto the Frozen Four, which runs in tandem with the final weekend of the NHL regular season, April 5-7. If that happens, we won't see Gaudette this season.
The other noteworthy item for tonight's game: the Sharks arrive at Rogers Arena after a breakout game from their bargain trade-deadline acquisition.
You may remember—there's a certain mythology that surrounds San Jose players who score four goals in a game? Now Evander Kane is part of that club:
The power of teal @evanderkane_9 💪 pic.twitter.com/y8ECusmMqW
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) March 17, 2018
Too bad injured Jumbo Joe wasn't on hand to celebrate with him:
Took me 9 years in the @NHL but was worth the wait. Happy I was able to get my first 🎩 trick with this group of guys! @SanJoseSharks Huge win! pic.twitter.com/sqW6UtwAvL
— Evander Kane (@evanderkane_9) March 17, 2018
Before Friday, Kane had scored just once in his first seven games with the Sharks. Now he's suddenly an impressive 5-5-10 in eight games and looking like a genius acquisition by Doug Wilson. It'll be interesting to see what he can do tonight.
Happy St. Patrick's Day ☘ï¸. Enjoy the game!