Wednesday January 29 - Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks - 7:30 - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 50 GP, 28-18-4, 60 pts, first in Pacific Division
San Jose Sharks: 51 GP, 22-25-4, 48 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks will look to extend their three-game winning streak and expand their cushion atop the Pacific Division when they kick off their five-game road trip on Wednesday night at the Shark Tank.
The Calgary Flames moved within two after their shootout loss against St. Louis on Tuesday — and you might have heard mention that they're facing the Oilers tonight. The Canucks do hold a game in hand on the Flames, and are also now well ahead in the regulation win tiebreaker, so it's guaranteed that they'll still wake up in first place on Thursday morning. But it's also guaranteed that at least two points — and possibly three — will be split between the Flames and Oilers on Wednesday night, and again on Saturday, in the rematch. So Vancouver needs to take every point it can get — especially before heading east for back-to-back day games this weekend.
Currently sitting in 26th place in the league, the Sharks are the weakest team that the Canucks will face on this trip. San Jose did come out of its break well, with a solid 4-2 home win over Anaheim on Monday night. Since parting ways with Peter DeBoer and installing Bob Boughner as coach, the Sharks have continued to struggle. They were one game below .500 at 15-16-2 when DeBoer was let go on December 11; under Boughner, they've gone 7-9-2.
The Sharks did beat Vancouver last time the two teams met in San Jose, though — a 4-2 win for the home team in Boughner's second game, on December 14. Overall, Vancouver holds a 2-1 edge in the season series so far, winning 5-2 in San Jose back in early November and cruising to a 4-1 win at Rogers Arena just before bye week, on January 18th.
Aaron Dell got the nod in net for the Sharks in all three of those games. On Wednesday, Boughner is turning to Martin Jones, who has been used sparingly by the new regime.
Jones has played just twice this month, giving up five goals in an overtime loss in Washington on January 5 and four in a shutout loss in Colorado on January 16. After his play started to drop off last season, his numbers are even more worrisome this year. He's 13-16-2 with a 3.22 goals-against average and .891 save percentage. Even when he backstopped the Sharks to the Western Conference Final last season, he was at a not-great 3.02 and .898 during those 20 postseason games.
For the most part, the Sharks are healthy. Brent Burns has been dealing with something undisclosed and has been listed as day-to-day at times, but hasn't missed any games, while new captain Logan Couture is on the shelf after breaking his ankle earlier in January.
As for the Canucks, nothing has changed on their injured list. There was some chatter before the break that Micheal Ferland might soon be ready to re-join the team, but that hasn't happened.
Dan Murphy has a new
mailbag column up at Sportsnet.ca, where he says that the Canucks will look at sending Ferland to Utica for a conditioning stint when he's ready to return to the lineup — but that everyone needs to be very careful with his status, given the concussion issues he's dealing with.
Murph also adds this:
Ferland was signed to play in the top-six with Vancouver and if he is unable to return and contribute then GM Jim Benning will no doubt be looking for someone to fill his shoes on deadline day.
Murphy's article also includes an interview with one-time Canuck Kellen Lain, whose claim to fame was being part of that crazy line brawl against Calgary in his first-ever NHL game. After all this time, we're learning that Lain was actually the catalyst for the whole incident, as Flames coach Bob Hartley was looking for revenge for an incident in the minors, where Lain had jumped Blair Jones, then of the Flames' farm team, the Abbotsford Heat.
We just passed the six-year anniversary of that game, which took place on January 18, 2014.
Elliotte Friedman's new
31 Thoughts is also up, with plenty of notes from All-Star weekend. He mentions that Jacob Markstrom used the anthem of the Swedish soccer team that his late father played for as his intro music at the skills competition, and has an interesting tidbit on Quinn Hughes' passing on the Canucks' power play.
“Elias likes a certain spin, and I’ve been working on getting it right,” he said.
Pettersson deadpanned that “(Hughes) still hasn’t figured it out.”
What does he want?
“I like it flat along the ice, outside the foot.”
Something new to watch for against the Sharks!
During his weekly radio hit on Sportsnet 650 on Tuesday, Friedman also added fuel to the rumours that some kind of rift has developed between Canucks management and director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett, who has received a good deal of the credit for the Canucks' drafting success over the past few years.
I'm hesitant to jump to conclusions, but this does look like a story to watch, going forward.
To finish off, the lineup notes for Wednesday's game. Not surprisingly, no changes — and Jacob Markstrom's back in goal.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»