Tuesday March 29 - San Jose Sharks at Vancouver Canucks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 75 GP, 27-35-13, 67 pts, sixth in Pacific Division San Jose Sharks: 76 GP, 42-28-6, 90 pts, third in Pacific Division
Remember this? When the Vancouver Canucks started their bunched-together season series with the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 28, 10 points separated the two teams.
In the subsequent four weeks, the Sharks have gone 10-6-0. On Monday night, they clinched a playoff spot in Peter DeBoer's first year behind the bench after missing the dance last season, thanks to an emotional 5-2 road win over the Los Angeles Kings.
During that same period of time, the Vancouver Canucks fell to 23 points behind San Jose, thanks to a 3-11-1 record. One of those wins did come against the Sharks, but that was on the road back on March 5. The Canucks haven't beaten San Jose at Rogers Arena since a 4-3 win on January 21, 2012, when Roberto Luongo picked up the "W" and Cody Hodgson scored the game-winning goal.
A lifetime ago!
Tonight, Markus Granlund is expected to return to the Vancouver lineup after missing the last seven games with an upper-body injury. Based on Monday's practice lines, he'll slot in with Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen, while Bo Horvat will drop to a third-line role with Higgins and Etem. It looks like Linden Vey could find himself in the press box as a healthy scratch for the first time since December 22. He also missed two games in February with an undisclosed injury.
Vey's last goal came against the Sharks in the win in San Jose on March 5. He had gone nine games without a point before assisting on the Alex Burrows tally on Sunday against Chicago.
For Granlund, the stakes got a little higher after the player he was traded for, Hunter Shinkaruk, picked up his first NHL point in Calgary's 5-2 win over Arizona on Monday.
Hunter Shinkaruk grew up cheering for the #Flames. Tonight, he picked up his 1st @NHL point with his hometown team.https://t.co/O5p88lbJt0
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) March 29, 2016
Shinkaruk drew the second assist on T.J. Brodie's power-play goal.
Chris Tanev has missed Vancouver's last five games. He's getting close to being able to return, but it's more likely that he'll see action in the Shark Tank on Thursday than that he'll get into the lineup tonight.
Optional #Canucks skate features 13 skaters, including Tanev & Granlund, and Miller. pic.twitter.com/8xkbhBfCWi
— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) March 29, 2016
After returning from a five-game absence to play against St. Louis last week, Derek Dorsett is back on the sidelines. He didn't play Sunday against Chicago and isn't expected to be in the lineup tonight.
Willie Desjardins also updated Luca Sbisa's status on Monday:
"I don't know if we'll get him back, he'll be real late in the year if we do" - Desjardins, on Sbisa #Canucks
— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) March 28, 2016
The Canucks' injured list is long, but they're not alone among the non-playoff teams:
11 of the 15 most injured NHL teams are out of the playoffs. 12 of the 15 least injured teams are in the playoffs pic.twitter.com/ZIgLXVW7IB
— Man-Games Lost NHL (@ManGamesLostNHL) March 26, 2016
I put together this piece for Bleacher Report over the weekend, looking at each high lottery team's injury situation and schedule down the stretch. Having three defensemen on the sidelines is pretty standard for the teams that are gunning for that first-overall pick.
The article goes into some detail about exactly how this year's three-lottery system will work, and I take my best shot at projecting where teams will finish in the overall standings. Based on their recent record, I think the Canucks do have a legitimate shot at 30th overall but even if they finish last, I wouldn't rush out to buy an Auston Matthews jersey until the ping-pong balls are drawn. That last-place finish only guarantees a 20 percent chance of receiving the No. 1 pick—and yes, there would be a likelihood of a little less than 40 percent that the team could pick as low as fourth.
Still, the lower they finish, the better their chances of picking as early as possible. At this point in the season, that's the bottom line.
The Canucks didn't move down on Monday—both Toronto and Edmonton lost their games. The Oilers only have three games left, but two of those games are the last two of the season, against the Canucks. That could set the table from some fascinating #TankNation storylines.
Expect to see Jacob Markstrom in goal for Vancouver tonight, while the Sharks will likely go with James Reimer after Martin Jones picked up the win against the Kings on Monday.
There will be a couple of holes in San Jose's defence: Matt Tennyson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic have been sidelined.
Keep an eye on Joe Thornton tonight. With his 18th goal of the year on Monday against Los Angeles, the 36-year-old is now tied for fifth place in the NHL scoring race with 73 points. One of the players he's tied with is his teammate—and frequent linemate—Joe Pavelski, who's now tied for fourth in the league with 36 goals. And Brent Burns and his big ol' beard has 15 points in 14 games so far in March. He's 10th overall in NHL scoring with an amazing 26 goals and 69 points and is only seven points behind Erik Karlsson for the league lead among defensemen. Could he catch EK65 before the season is done?
Willie's Summer Job
Sounds like Willie Desjardins is taking advantage of the long summer ahead of him to launch a new venture that will allow him to get back to his roots in player development:
#Canucks WD branching out into a side venture of player development https://t.co/gbvpVhCYbp
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) March 29, 2016
Enjoy the game!