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Anders Nilsson likely starter as Vancouver Canucks look to rebound in L.A. |
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Tuesday November 14 - Vancouver Canucks at Los Angeles Kings - 7:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 17 GP, 8-7-2, 18 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Los Angeles Kings: 11-4-2, 24 pts, first in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks have a tough challenge ahead of them as they look to wrap up their four-game Pacific Division road trip with a .500 record. Currently 1-2-0 and riding a two-game losing streak, they're at Staples Center tonight to take on the division-leading Los Angeles Kings.
Unable to make many personnel changes over the summer due to salary-cap restraints, the Kings elected to remove general manager Dean Lombardi and coach Darryl Sutter and promote Rob Blake and John Stevens from within.
Early returns on the move have been great—the Kings showed plenty of life and lots of their usual snarl when they lined up against the Canucks for those two preseason games in China and have continued to roll in the regular season. Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are scoring again and have pushed the usually goal-starved Kings up among the league's better offensive teams. Jonathan Quick's also healthy and in top form—he has played 14 of the Kings' 17 games and posted a .933 save percentage, 2.27 goals-against average and two shutouts so far.
Like the Canucks, the Kings are currently in their first slump of the season. They pulled out a hard-fought road win in overtime against Anaheim a week ago, then started a five-game homestand by getting hammered 5-0 by Tampa Bay last Thursday and dropping a 2-1 decision to San Jose on Sunday.
Injury-wise, the Kings are missing Jeff Carter, who suffered a nasty skate cut to his ankle in late October, and Kyle Clifford, who has an upper-body injury. Marian Gaborik is skating after offseason knee surgery but has not yet been activated.
Keep an eye out for rookie Adrian Kempe. The brawny 21-year-old Swede is tied for second in rookie scoring with seven goals and isn't afraid to play a physical game.
With their power play struggling, the Canucks come up against the NHL's best penalty kill tonight in L.A. The Kings have given up just five power-play goals against all season, on 62 times shorthanded, good for a 91.9 percent kill rate. By contrast, the Canucks have allowed 14 power-play goals on 64 times shorthanded.
Travis Green did shake up his PP units a bit at practice on Tuesday—setting up three different forward groups.
The twins are still together and will work with Loui Eriksson at net front. The second unit is the familiar Boeser-Horvat-Baertschi combination and the third is the new-guy group that sees Thomas Vanek and Sam Gagner working with holdover Markus Granlund.
I like the idea of giving Gagner a chance to get off the point and work lower down, perhaps where he had success last year in Columbus. And I like the idea of going back to two defensemen on the points. Perhaps that'll help with the shorthanded goal problem.
Granlund has also been moved back into the middle between Vanek and Gagner at 5-on-5, so Brendan Gaunce returns to the checking line and Alex Burmistrov returns to the press box. That means Jake Virtanen is also likely to sit for the second straight game.
I'm still holding out hope that Loui Eriksson will find his groove as a Canuck. He had a pretty good game in his return to action in San Jose, generating five shots on goal in a total of 18:16 of ice time.
Speaking of returning Swedes, all signs point to Anders Nilsson getting back into action tonight. His last game was the 6-2 win over Washington back on October 26. All told, he's 3-1-0 this season with a 1.89 GAA and .943 save percentage—and both his shutouts came on the road.
A couple of other notes to finish off today:
• The Canucks did appeal Derek Dorsett's instigator penalty for his fight against Josh Manson last week in Anaheim. No dice.
• Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro stopped 23 of 25 shots as the OHL defeated the Russian Selects 4-2 in Sudbury on Monday night.
Jonah Gadjovich also played, now recovered from his wrist injury. He led the OHL team with six shots on goal but failed to get on the score sheet.
The series now moves to Quebec for two games, starting tonight with the QMJHL team facing the Russians in Charlottetown.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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