Monday January 19 - Vancouver Canucks at Florida Panthers - 4:30 p.m. - Sportsnet, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 25-15-3 53 points third in Pacific Division Florida Panthers: 20-13-10 50 points fifth in Atlantic Division
If you're looking for an early-morning Monday hockey fix, it's Martin Luther King Day in the U.S., so the Islanders and Flyers are duking it out on Sportsnet right now.
Our Canucks game will be on the full national network starting at 4:30, as the boys face Roberto Luongo for the second time in less than 10 days.
While Vancouver will go on to play Tampa Bay tomorrow night, this is the last game for Florida before the All-Star Break. Luongo will not be enjoying the time off in the Sunshine State with his wife and kids, as he'll be traveling to Columbus as one of five goalies selected to participate in the game.
This is the fourth time that Luongo has been chosen to appear in the All-Star Game. Most memorably, he skipped the festivities as a Canuck in 2008 in order to fly to Florida to spend time with his pregnant wife.
One of the reasons why Luongo earned that selection back in 2008-09 was the team-record shutout streak he established in November of that year. He posted three straight goose-eggs at home in games against Nashville, Phoenix and Minnesota, going a total of 242:36 without allowing a goal.
That's the record that Ryan Miller will be chasing as he enters tonight's game riding back-to-back shutout wins last weekend. According to the Sabres website, as of 2010 Miller's longest shutout sequence was 157.13 minutes, early in 2009.
Miller's last goal against was Jonathan Huberdeau's second goal of the game in the 3-1 loss to Florida on January 8, at the 16:43 mark of the second period. So, he has currently gone clean for more than seven periods: 143:17, to be exact.
He'd need two more games to pass Luongo, but one more period should earn him a new personal record if that 2009 stretch has stood up over the past five years.
One other Luongo note: the Canucks announced today that they'd be auctioning off Roberto's equipment from the Heritage Classic as part of a fundraiser for the Canucks for Kids fund.
Not surprisingly, @Strombone1 couldn't resist jumping into the conversation:
@VanCanucks @Canucksforkids great deal here for a great cause! Plus they're like brand new, never been used.......
— Strombone (@strombone1) January 19, 2015Once tonight's game is over, I think it'll be good for the Canucks to close the book on Luo for the season and focus once again on going about their own business. With the shutout streak on the line, I'll be rooting for Miller to win tonight's goaltending duel. I love a good record!
Up front, it sounds like Zack Kassian will get another chance to show what he can do. Brad Richardson's unlikely to play tonight.
Desjardins on Richardson: he was pretty sore today and club will have to wait and see. Sounds like Kassian would get in #Canucks #TSN1040
— Jon Abbott (@HockeyAbbs) January 18, 2015Luca Sbisa is also expected to slot back in for Frank Corrado on the blue line.
On the Panthers side, they're planning on re-inserting Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri into their forward mix. Scottie Upshall and Sean Bergenheim will sit.
After winning the first three games of their Canadian road trip when they passed through Vancouver, the Panthers lost an 8-2 blowout in Winnipeg last week before heading home, and have yet to get back on track. The Jets game was followed by a loss to Colorado, then a shootout loss to Edmonton on Saturday—where Nail Yakupov scored the winning goal.
As Boston has pushed its way back into the playoff mix, the Panthers have now dropped to four points back. SportsClubStats.com is currently projecting just a 23.5 chance that the Panthers make the playoffs.
For those of you who are still hoping that the Canucks will be sellers at the trade deadline, their postseason odds are currently a solid 91.2 percent. Time to start saving your pennies for playoff tickets—and probably coming to terms with the fact that Benning and company aren't going to make any major adjustments to this roster until they see what this group can do for the rest of the year.
All around the league, it's so tough for general managers to get any sort of fair value back for quality assets that they are willing to move.
For a hot minute last week, Benning might have had a chance to move Eddie Lack to Minnesota, but look what's happened since the Wild gave up only a third-round draft pick for Devan Dubnyk: he has stepped in with two wins and given up just one goal in his first two starts.
Problem solved for them. Meanwhile, Detroit's third and fourth-stringers have gone 4-0 since Jimmy Howard was hurt a week ago. And no, Carey Price's injury does not appear to be long-term in Montreal. Word is that he could be back in the lineup as early as Tuesday.
If Benning can't get more than a third-rounder for Lack, he may has well hang onto him and hope there's a shift in the market down the road.
This year's trade deadline is Monday, March 2. The action could heat up after the All-Star break.