Saturday December 28 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet, CityTV, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 38 GP, 19-15-4, 42 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Los Angeles Kings: 40 GP, 16-20-4, 36 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
With a win and some help, the Vancouver Canucks could move back into a playoff spot if they can knock off the Los Angeles Kings when they get back to work after the Christmas break at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.
After a no-show on home ice against the Flames on Friday, the Edmonton Oilers have dropped into the second wild-card spot. They've also made some roster adjustments on Saturday, including putting ex-Canuck Markus Granlund on waivers. In 31 games, Granlund had three goals and one assist for Edmonton, averaging 11 minutes of ice time per game.
The Canucks go into Saturday's game two points behind Edmonton, with games in hand. But, they currently sit 11th in the Western Conference, behind Minnesota and Nashville.
The Oilers and the Wild are idle on Saturday. Nashville has played one fewer game than the Canucks, so they could spoil Vancouver's party if they win in Pittsburgh.
The Canucks are now 6-4-0 in their last 10 games. The only teams in the Western Conference with better records over that time are Nashville and Calgary, at 6-3-1.
Saturday's opponent, the Los Angeles Kings, also has 12 points in its last 10 games, off a 5-3-2 record. On Friday, the Kings came back from a 2-0 deficit on the road to beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 in overtime, leaving San Jose alone in the Pacific Division basement.
Newly recalled from the AHL, Martin Frk scored both third-period goals to force overtime, then Jeff Carter finished things off with his 12th of the year — his franchise-leading 11th career overtime goal for L.A.
Frk was inserted onto a line with Carter and Nikolai Prokhorkin, so expect that group to stay together against the Canucks. According to
Zach Dooley, who's filling in on Kings' Insider duties during the holiday season, Dustin Brown is missing this road trip due to illness and Trevor Lewis is out with an injury, so here's how the lines shook out in San Jose:
Iafallo – Kopitar – Toffoli
Prokhorkin – Carter – Frk
Kempe – Lizotte – Wagner
Clifford – Amadio – Luff
Ryan – Doughty
Hutton – Roy
MacDermid – Walker
Ex-Canuck Ben Hutton has been steady on the Kings' blue line this season. He has dressed for every game and has an even plus-minus, averaging 18:03 per game. Hutton has a goal and five assists so far this year.
Jack Campbell got the win on Friday, so Jonathan Quick is expected to start against the Canucks. Quick is 10-14-2 for the year and has lost his last two starts, but has settled down significantly since his rough start to the season. In the month of December, he's 3-4-1 but has a solid .917 save percentage and 2.36 goals-against average.
As for the Canucks, they're taking an optional skate before Saturday's game, so we won't get any specific lineup details. Just a hunch — after three wins in a row, I wouldn't expect any changes from the lines that rolled out against Edmonton last Monday.
If Markstrom starts his ninth-straight game on Saturday, I'd expect Thatcher Demko to take the second half of the back-to-back on Sunday in Calgary — dependent, of course, on how Markstrom's game goes on Saturday.
Meanwhile, at World Juniors...
Nils Hoglander is getting the GIF treatment again after this slick assist on Sweden's second goal of the game against Switzerland, by linemate Samuel Fagemo.
Fagemo had both goals for Sweden in the first period. By the way, he was taken 10 spots after Hoglander at the draft last June and is one of nine Los Angeles Kings prospects at World Juniors this year. That's the most of any team in the last five years, although one man is already down. Rasmus Kupari, the 2018 first-rounder who has been playing with the Ontario Reign this season, suffered a serious knee injury in Finland's opening game against Sweden, and is expected to keep him out for several months.
Hoglander followed up with his second goal of the tournament on a second-period power play, to put Sweden up 3-0.
Swedish coach Tomas Monten is suitably impressed by Hoglander.
Also after one period, Vasily Podkolzin has played 6:38 and took six of Russia's 17 shots, but didn't make it onto the scoresheet as Russia has taken a 3-0 lead over Canada.
In Saturday's early games, Toni Utunen and one shot on goal and was a plus-two but didn't pick up any points as Finland dispatched Slovakia 8-1. And Karel Plasek did get activated as an injury replacement player for the Czechs. He played 11:06, had one shot on goal, and got charged with a roughing penalty as time expired in the Czechs' 4-3 loss to Germany.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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