Saturday March 7 - Vancouver Canucks at San Jose Sharks - 7:00 p.m. - CBC, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 36-24-4, 76 points, second in Pacific Division
San Jose Sharks: 32-25-8, 72 points, fifth in Pacific Division
The cushion is gone and the Flames don't look like they miss Mark Giordano at all. Calgary bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Detroit 5-2 on Friday night. That's their third straight win on their Eastern road trip, and ties them with Vancouver at 76 points in the Pacific Division.
The Canucks have one game in hand, which they'll play tonight in San Jose. In my book, that qualifies as a must-win.
The only bit of good news in the standings is that the Winnipeg Jets have stalled out in recent weeks. They're also at 76 points, so the possibility is open that the Canucks could land in a wild card spot if they continue to sputter down the stretch.
According to
Sports Club Stats, Vancouver still has a reasonably comfortable 86.2 percent chance of making it to the postseason, but the trend has been going in the wrong direction over the last 10 days or so. Dating back to the loss in Buffalo, the Canucks have picked up just three of a possible eight points over their past four games.
After Friday's practice in San Jose, Willie Desjardins talked about getting the team into a playoff mindset and finding a way to give 100 percent for every game.
He also offered a suggestion for how to get away from that horrible turnover-fest we saw against the Coyotes on Thursday:
To that end, we'll see a couple of lineup changes as Vancouver sets out to try to snap its first two-game winless skid since the All-Star break.
Ronalds Kenins will be replaced by Linden Vey, and it looks like Adam Clendening will be subbed out for Frank Corrado.
Apparently Bonino's absence was simply a maintenance day. The plan is to get him into the middle with Shawn Matthias and Radim Vrbata, according to
Ben Kuzma.
I do think putting Matthias back on the wing could be one way to try to facilitate that North-South idea. He has been one of the best Canucks all season at carrying the puck down the ice and going to the net, and his 16 goals are second on the team behind Radim Vrbata's 23.
As for Kenins, Willie Desjardins suggests that by trying to do too much in recent games, he has been taking himself out of position defensively. I don't like seeing him pulled from the lineup, and he does have a solid 10 points in 16 NHL games, but after Thursday's game I can see why Willie wants to try shaking things up.
The good news—Vancouver has had a much better time with the Sharks in San Jose than they have at Rogers Arena this season. Despite their two recent drubbings at home, they've picked up 3-2 and 3-1 wins when visiting NorCal earlier in the year.
I'm not hearing anything about a change in the netminding situation and after Eddie Lack's outstanding performance on Thursday in Phoenix, he has certainly earned another start.
With Alex Burrows and Alex Edler both back for their second games, I'd humbly suggest that this would be a good time for the power play to start producing. Vancouver's currently ranked 19th, with a 17.8 percent success rate. That's not good enough for a team that wants to be in the playoffs.
After a stretch where the Canucks weren't drawing any penalties, they have been getting chances over the last week, but have gone 1-for-12 in their last three games (that's 8.3 percent). San Jose's penalty-killing is 25th overall, and Vancouver's one power-play goal this week did come against the Sharks, so that'd be a good place to start if they hope to pocket two points tonight.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference, key games tonight see Winnipeg visiting Nashville, while the Kings host the Pittsburgh Penguins. Calgary is off tonight but will face the suddenly-hot Ottawa Senators on Sunday.
Countdown to Hockey Wives
On a lighter note, it's nearly time to set your PVRs for the premiere of
Hockey Wives, March 18th on W Network.
I'll be watching to get a bit more insight into the relationship between Ryan Miller and his actress wife Noureen DeWulf. Their first child, a boy, is due this month so if there's any silver lining from Miller's knee injury, it's that he'll be able to be with DeWulf for the birth.
Judging from her Instagram, the pair have been enjoying the opportunity to visit some of Vancouver's finer restaurants while he has been sidelined.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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