Vancouver Canucks Game Day: Dec 7 vs. Buffalo Sabres ft. West Coast Express (brendan morrison)

brendan morrison

Vancouver Canucks Game Day: Dec 7 vs. Buffalo Sabres ft. West Coast Express

By Carol Schram

Dec 7, 2015 • 2:36 pm

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Monday December 7 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Buffalo Sabres - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040

Vancouver Canucks: 28 GP, 9-11-8, 26 pts, fifth in Pacific Division Buffalo Sabres: 27 GP, 11-13-3, 25 pts, seventh in Atlantic Division

Will Brandon Prust's Saturday night spear on Brad Marchand serve as a rallying point for the Vancouver Canucks?

To my surprise, 57 percent of you said you loved the spear in my poll question on yesterday's blog. Prust certainly didn't back away from what he did when he spoke to the media after practice on Sunday.

Even Marchand said it was no big deal, according to DJ Bean on the WEEI blog:

"It happens all the time. If you’€™re down by a few goals or you’€™re having a bad game and someone takes a shot at you, someone says the wrong thing, then guys get upset and they take shots at guys,… he said. “It’€™s just human nature and there’€™s a lot of good players that take jabs at guys. People can say whatever they want. I’€™m not overly upset about what happened. It’€™s part of the game; I’€™ve done it and I’€™m sure he’€™s done it before. I’€™m sure it won’€™t be the last. It won’€™t be the last time I do it. It is what it is and it’€™s part of hockey."

If the Canucks see the spear as revenge for the indignities that Marchand has rained down on them over the years, maybe it will turn out to be just what the team needs to get back on track tonight against Buffalo?

I, for one, am looking forward to the game tonight.

Jack Eichel will make his first NHL appearance at Rogers Arena—I liked what I saw from him in Prague last spring with Team USA at the World Championships. I liked Ryan O'Reilly a lot in that tournament too, so I'm keen to see how the new, young Sabres look firsthand.

There's even a chance that O'Reilly's brother, former Utica Comets captain Cal O'Reilly, will get into the lineup tonight. He was called up by the Sabres on Saturday but didn't play last night in Edmonton. I imagine we'll see a big cheering section on hand for West Vancouver's Sam Reinhart, who will also be playing his first game as a pro in Vancouver.

Even without their No. 1 goaltender Robin Lehner, who was injured during his first game of the season, the new Sabres are showing promise:

I did Stats yesterday for their 4-2 loss in Edmonton. Overall, Buffalo played a pretty decent game, though the Oilers' young guns also looked good. Edmonton did an excellent job of locking down the lead in the third period (and are now two points behind the Canucks in the Pacific Division standings.)

So—I don't expect this game to be a cakewalk by any stretch. And, of course, we'll have Ryan Miller back in net, trying to avenge his late-game meltdown when the Canucks lost 3-2 in Buffalo exactly one month ago.

I wonder if Bertuzzi, Naslund and Morrison would be able to snap Vancouver's scoring woes if they laced 'em up tonight?

I'm happy to see this group back together—especially considering that the last time we saw Morrison, he was finishing his career with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012. Bertuzzi hung 'em up as a Detroit Red Wing after the 2013-14 season.

Markus Naslund spent one season with the New York Rangers before he retired, but he has been back to Rogers Arena since then, when his number was retired by the Canucks in December of 2010. The former captain was a member of the team from 1996-2008, so he suffered through that terrible downward spiral during the Mike Keenan years in the late '90s before teaming up with Bertuzzi and Morrison to form one of the most exciting lines in Canucks history. He also played a huge role in helping to develop the Sedins, so his visit could be timely in terms of sending a good message to the team to help them get out of this funk:

Here's what's happening on the ice this morning:

Jake Virtanen's back with the team, just a week after suffering that hip pointer injury at the hands of Ryan Getzlaf last Monday. That's good news!

It sounds like we'll see a change on the blue line tonight:

As much as I'd prefer not to mention this, I noticed that Jared McCann played a career-high 16:40 on Saturday against Boston—and was a minus-3. McCann started the game with Vrbata and Higgins, who were on the ice for the first two goals against, then was playing with Burrows and Higgins when Tyler Randell wrapped up the scoring in the third period.

With no lead to protect, Willie rolled his top three lines pretty evenly on Saturday. McCann's ice time was just 10 seconds below Bo Horvat's and 22 seconds below Henrik Sedin's.

My hope is that the Canucks heed Henrik's advice tonight and get their game back to basics. I think having Biega in the lineup should help to cut down on mistakes. One shift at a time!

One more note—if you missed it, I was on TSN1260 from Edmonton this morning, talking Canucks.

My segment starts around the 31 minute mark:

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