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Vancouver Canucks at Minnesota Wild - Tuesday December 18 - 5:00 pm - Sportsnet Pacific, Fox Sports North
Vancouver Canucks: 20-10-5 fourth in Pacific Division Minnesota Wild: 19-11-5 fourth in Central Division
The Vancouver Canucks will look to extend their league-leading winning streak to eight games when they face the Minnesota Wild for the first time this season on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center.
The game kicks off a tough stretch of four games in six nights for Vancouver before a well-deserved Christmas break.
The Canucks are coming off one of their biggest wins of the season after beating Boston 6-2 on Saturday night and have found their groove in all parts of their game. After a hot start, the Wild have been up-and-down in December, with a record of 4-3.
Expect a low-scoring affair. The Wild and Canucks are both in the top ten in the league in goals-against, but Minnesota struggles to score. Vancouver is now 9th in the league with 98 goals, but Minnesota sits in 23rd place, with just 81.
Despite his past woes in Minnesota, Roberto Luongo will be getting the start for Vancouver. He's 3-9-2 in his career at Xcel, with a 3.56 goals-against and an .873 save percentage. He hasn't started in Minnesota since October 19, 2010—the third straight time he was pulled there.
I'm not surprised that John Tortorella is ready to leave the pattern in the past. According to Ed Willes from The Province, “I’ve heard about that,… said Canucks head coach John Tortorella. “I haven’t paid much attention to it.…
For his part, Luongo is riding one of his hottest streaks in quite some time. He has a 1.20 goals-against and .962 save percentage in his last five games and is up for the challenge: “It’s been a while but it’s a hockey building like every other one. I’m actually looking forward to it.…
As well as Luongo has been playing, the Wild have a formidable weapon of their own at the other end of the ice. Josh Harding has come out of nowhere to be the NHL's best netminder so far in 2013-14. He leads the league with a 1.49 goals-against and is second with a .939 save percentage. He also boasts a 13-1-0 record at Xcel so far this season, including three shutouts.
The rivalry between the two teams means more to the Wild than it does to the Canucks. Sitting just two points behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings, expect another scrappy game. Here's Minnesota coach Mike Yeo on Wild.com:
Normally by this point in the year we’ve had a healthy dose of them. I don’t think it will take too long before some of those hostilities are renewed and we remember what a great rivalry it’s been.
As well as Josh Harding, there are a few players I'll be keeping an eye on during our first look at the Wild this season:
Keith Ballard
As mentioned yesterday, the ex-Canuck has been a steady regular since signing a free-agent deal to return to his home state last summer. He had some injuries issues earlier in the season, but is now averaging 14:39 of ice time and has appeared in 19 games.
The Canucks certainly don't miss Ballard or—more importantly—his $4.2 million salary. He was essentially replaced by league-minimum players Ryan Stanton and Yannick Weber. Ballard is making $1.5 million with the Wild this year. Ballard was never a fit with Alain Vigneault; I wonder if things would have been different for him with Torts?
Parise and Suter
Like always, Minnesota struggles to score goals. Their big-money acquisitions of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in the summer of 2012 have improved the team's fortunes a bit, yet their fundamental identity somehow still remains the same. Parise leads the team in scoring with 14 goals and 26 points, while Suter is on the ice for literally half the game—he's averaging a league-leading 29:32 a game. The pair *should* be noticeable tonight.
Matt Cooke
Former Canuck Matt Cooke has lived through a lifetime of drama since he left Vancouver in 2008. Wild fans were outraged when Cooke was signed as a free agent last summer, but he has kept his head down and been a good boy so far this season and has earned the trust of the Minnesota fans and media. Cooke is averaging 15 minutes of ice time and is a plus-7, with 12 points and just 20 penalty minutes this season.
Dany Heatley
The former 50-goal scorer has been on a long decline and is a shell of his former self this season. Last year, Heatley managed 21 points in 36 games. This season, he has just 10 points in 35 games and is one of the only Wild players on the negative side defensively, with a team-leading minus-10. Heatley's in the last year of a contract with a $7.5 million cap hit and could be playing out his final NHL season.
Canuck Notes:
Tom Sestito is expected to draw back into the lineup on Tuesday after missing three games with an undisclosed injury. I haven't seen any updates on Edler, Burrows or Schroeder—Torts hates talking about injuries.
I was happy to see Burrows didn't have his jaw wired shut when he appeared at the Dice and Ice benefit last week. Maybe it won't be too long before he's back.
You'll love this. Jason Botchford of The Province has some interesting thoughts here about the possibilities of the Canucks trading Alex Edler. Here are Botch's nuts and bolts:
Management has long been reluctant to trade core players, no-trade clauses or not. Edler does have a NTC and there are those who claim the Canucks will never consider asking a player to waive one. That’s never been my understanding. I’ve always been told the Canucks internally believe “we can trade anyone.… But even if the Canucks were to start down a “trade Edler… path, they’d have to find the right team with the right impact forward at the right age at the right price to make it worth giving up a top-two defenceman who is signed at a bargain $5 million per year. Oh, and it would have to be a city he’s willing to play in. That’s not an easy equation.
Let the speculation continue!
Meanwhile, enjoy the game tonight. I'll be back tomorrow with a recap.