Friday March 31 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Los Angeles Kings - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 76 GP, 30-37-9, 69 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Los Angeles Kings: 76 GP, 36-33-7, 79 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
The Vancouver Canucks will welcome yet another new player to their lineup, and are looking to get a couple back from the infirmary, when they face off against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night at Rogers Arena.
Griffen Molino is expected make his NHL debut, fresh off signing his two-year entry-level contract with the Canucks on Tuesday.
Molino will wear Nick Bonino's old No. 13 jersey. He was part of a small group to hit the ice at Friday's optional game-day skate.
Here's how the lines looked at practice on Thursday:
Molino's slotted into a fourth-line role with Drew Shore and Alex Biega. Loui Eriksson's expected to return action after missing 11 games with that knee injury, although that'll be a game-night decision.
If Eriksson does play, he'll slot in where Nikolay Goldobin has been playing, with Brandon Sutter and Reid Boucher. That would make Goldobin the odd man out.
I know Goldy's supposed to be this dazzling offensive talent, but I don't really have a problem with him being scratched at this point in the season. My guess is that he's still not feeling 100 percent either, after having dropped all that weight while he was sick.
In the four games since Goldobin returned to the lineup, he has averaged 11:06 per game, virtually all at even strength. That's the third-lowest average on the team over that span, ahead only of Drew Shore and Joe LaBate, who has now been returned to Utica. Goldobin has managed just two shots on goal over the course of those four games, so it doesn't appear that his offense would be missed at this point.
I don't mind Alex Biega as a fourth-line winger at all. He plays with tenacity and, despite his small stature, is one of the few Canucks that's willing to use his body.
Biega played in three of the four games since Goldobin's return to the lineup. Not only did he lead the Canucks with an average of 3.7 hits per game, he's also third on the team with an average of 2.7 shots per game—behind only Alex Edler (3.3) and Brock Boeser (3.0).
It's not bad for Willie Desjardins to have a versatile seventh defenseman in the lineup, who can take a shift or two on the blue line if needed.
Also on the blue line, Troy Stecher returns to the lineup tonight after missing one game with an upper-body injury. That'll knock Philip Larsen back into the press box.
Ryan Miller gets the start.
On Thursday, it was confirmed that Jacob Markstrom will have knee surgery after being injured at the SuperSkills competition in late February.
Not sure if it's the same knee, but Markstrom also had meniscus surgery in January of 2012, when he was with the Florida Panthers. At that time, he was sidelined for just over a month.
Following in the footsteps of the Granlunds and the Tanevs, we'll see another brother battle on the ice tonight, as Drew Shore goes head-to-head against his younger brother Nick.
The Canucks are finishing off a month of March where they have gone 4-8-2 so far, with all four wins coming on the road.
The Kings have gone 6-6-1 in March, which has not been nearly good enough to keep them in contention for a playoff spot, despite the acquisition of Ben Bishop and Jarome Iginla at the trade deadline.
Bishop is 2-2-2 with the Kings, with a 2.23 goals-against average and .923 save percentage, while Iginla is a pretty solid 5-2-7 in 13 games. Three of his goals have been game winners, including on Wednesday when the Kings beat the Flames 4-1 in an emotional game in Calgary.
But with six games left on their schedule, the Kings are 10 points behind the Predators, who currently occupy the second wild-card spot. The Preds are idle tonight, so L.A. is not quite mathematically eliminated yet, but
SportsClubStats currently lists their playoff odds at four-tenths of one percent.
The Kings were fired up to take revenge on Matthew Tkachuk and the Flames on Wednesday, so we might see a flat effort against the Canucks tonight, even as their season hangs in the balance.
Tonight's game also serves as a preview for the matchup that the NHL has announced will take place in China during the preseason next September.
I'm hopeful that this Asian initiative means that we don't have to give up on the prospect of NHL players at the Olympics in South Korea next February. Crossing my fingers that the sides will find a way to bridge their impasse over the next month!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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