Nikolay Goldobin returns, Vancouver Canucks continue road trip in St. Louis (canucks)

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Nikolay Goldobin returns, Vancouver Canucks continue road trip in St. Louis

By Carol Schram

Mar 23, 2017 • 2:18 pm

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Thursday March 23 - Vancouver Canucks at St. Louis Blues - 5 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific

Vancouver Canucks: 72 GP, 29-34-9, 67 pts, sixth in Pacific Division St. Louis Blues: 72 GP, 39-28-5, 83 pts, third in Central Division

The Vancouver Canucks have never been in danger of finishing in the league basement this year, but it did take them five tries to finally move beyond that 65-point benchmark that was predicted by Kevin Allen of USA Today at the beginning of the season.

If you'd care to revisit his thinking from when the prediction was made last October:

The Canucks hit the 65-point mark with their overtime loss to the New York Islanders in Game 67 on March 9. They went on to lose four straight games before finally leaving it behind with their unlikely win over the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center two nights ago.

Including tonight's game against the St. Louis Blues, the Canucks have 10 games to go. Six of those are on the road and seven are against playoff teams. In April, Vancouver will finish up with home-and-homes against San Jose and Edmonton—both still jockeying for position in the Pacific Division standings.

Sandwiched in between is the game that might be the most important of all. On April 6, the Canucks visit Glendale for what might turn out to be a battle for 29th place against the Arizona Coyotes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Coming off the big win, it's time to set the stage for tonight's game in St. Louis.

Lost in all the excitement over beating Chicago was the news that, yes, two more players were injured in that game.

So, here's the latest line configuration from Wednesday's practice in St. Louis.

Joe LaBate returns after being scratched against Chicago. Alex Biega continues his tenure at forward. And Nikolay Goldobin draws back into the lineup.

Goldobin seems to be almost as much fun to follow off the ice as on. He served up some great quotes to Jason Botchford in The Province a couple of days ago.

Goldobin says he lost 16 pounds while he was sick. “Yeah, it’s legit. I was 195 and then I was 179 or something like that...I felt I got skinnier but I didn’t know it was that much weight. I was ‘wow.’ I was shocked.…

He says the key to getting stronger is working out and drinking plenty of protein shakes. We'll see how that looks on the ice.

Speaking of looks, Goldobin has a strong commitment to his hair game.

“Ya, well obviously me and Cramarossa have the best hair,… he told Botchford. “I think hair is important.…

How long has hair been important?

“Just a couple years.…

Botchford also mentions that "Some Canucks are speculating food poisoning is what got Goldy too, believe it or not." Chris Tanev and Markus Granlund have already been down that road, and food poisoning is currently what has been keeping Jacob Markstrom home.

Sounds like he's flying east today.

I wonder if this bout of food poisoning that has gone through the Canucks has been related to the current norovirus outbreak associated with B.C. oysters? People can become ill from eating contaminated oysters but can also be infected by others—the virus is highly contagious.

Markus Granlund was one of the food poisoning victims. Now, he's on his way to wrist surgery.

Tommi also reports that Granlund's surgery is scheduled for Friday in New York—the same place as Gudbranson. I'm guessing the same surgeon?

From December:

Gudbranson has just hit the three-month mark on his recovery. He has been skating for a few weeks, but there hasn't been any real indication whether or not he'll be able to get back into game action before the end of the season.

As for tonight's opponent, the Blues—they've bounced back nicely under Mike Yeo after being out of the playoff picture earlier this year. With 83 points, they're still tied with the Nashville Predators, so they're fighting it out for third place in the Central Division.

The Blues were 24-21-5 when Ken Hitchcock was relieved of his duties behind the bench on February 1. Under Yeo, they've gone 15-7-0.

Tonight's game will be the first back home for the Blues after a five-game Western road trip where they went 4-1-0 and gave up just six goals in total. St. Louis is also coming into tonight's action riding a three-game winning streak.

The Blues are missing four key forwards up front. Paul Stastny is the most worrisome—he played just 3:51 against Colorado on Tuesday and is now being listed as "week-to-week" with an upper body injury. Robby Fabbri is out for the season with an ACL injury, while Jori Lehtera and Dmitrij Jaskin are both listed as day-to-day.

Jake Allen will get the start in net for the Blues, while it's Ryan Miller once again for Vancouver after he faced 44 shots on Tuesday in Chicago.

Enjoy the game!

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