Follow me on Twitter @pool88.
Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues - Friday January 10 - 7:00 pm - Sportsnet Pacific, Fox Sports Midwest
Vancouver Canucks 23-13-9 55 points fourth in Pacific Division
St. Louis Blues 31-7-5 67 points first in Central Division
The Vancouver Canucks will have a tough test ahead as they try to win their first game of 2014 against the St. Louis Blues on Friday night at Rogers Arena.
Friday's game is a tale of two teams headed in opposite directions. The Canucks' defensive struggles and late-game collapses have been well-documented, while the Blues are the hottest team in the league. They've won seven in a row and dismantled Calgary by a 5-0 score on Thursday night.
St. Louis plays well at both ends of the ice. They lead the league by a mile in goal differential, having scored 63 more goals than they've allowed. Chicago's second at plus-42, while the Canucks are plus-8. The win last night finally moves the Blues to the top of the Central Division—they're tied with Chicago with 67 points but have three games in hand.
Vancouver and St. Louis have met once before this year. On October 25, the Canucks took advantage of a sluggish Blues squad coming off a week-long break to wrap up a long road trip with a 3-2 overtime win. Will St. Louis remember to bring its "A" game tonight against a team that looks like it should be easy pickins'?
Both Alex Edler and Alex Burrows practiced Thursday with the Canucks, but Mike Gillis told TEAM 1040 on Friday morning not to expect Burrows back for at least another week:
Gillis also said that Roberto Luongo should be back practising soon. No word I could find on Edler's status beyond Jim Jamieson's report from Thursday's practise that Edler is also not yet cleared to play.
The Blues are without their leading scorer, Alex Steen, who's sidelined with a concussion, but Vladimir Tarasenko has stepped up during the winning streak, with eight points in his last five games. St. Louis is also cooking on the power play—third in the league with a 24.7 percent success rate. At least the Canucks still have their league-leading penalty kill to fall back on.
Tarasenko and Steen are two of the ten Blues who have been named to Olympic teams—one of the highest numbers in the league. The others are Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo for Team Canada, David Backes, Kevin Shattenkirk and TJ Oshie for Team USA, Patrick Berglund for Sweden, Vladimir Sobotka for the Czechs and Jaroslav Halak for Slovakia.
Brian Elliott is expected to get the start for the Blues, while Eddie Lack will be in net for Vancouver. Elliott is playing very well, with nine goals-against in his last seven games—all wins.
Friday will mark the first time Max Lapierre and Derek Roy return to Vancouver since signing with St. Louis as free agents this summer. Both have been consistent contributors in their roles for the Blues—Roy has 8 goals and 30 points, playing about 13 minutes a game, while Lapierre has nine points and is a plus-3.
Tonight marks John Tortorella's 900th game as a head coach. Jeff Paterson has a vintage clip of Torts going at Ken Hitchcock from his younger days, back in Tampa Bay. "Shut yer yap!"
Quick Hits:
- A good column from Elliott Pap in yesterday's Vancouver Sun.
Click here to read about Laurence Gilman's positive impressions of Bo Horvat from World Juniors and Hunter Shinkaruk's successful hip surgery.
- Mark Messier participated in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit on Thursday. Wyatt Arndt of The Province looks at the event through a Canuck lens, focusing on Messier's admission that he regrets taking the captaincy from Trevor Linden when he joined the Canucks.
God, those were dark times for the franchise. If you have the stomach to relive them,
here's the link to Arndt's piece.
- Speaking of ex-Canucks, Keith Ballard's struggles are continuing in Minnesota. The Wild are on a four-game winning streak after going through a rough patch—they've climbed back into eighth place in the Western Conference and are once again just two points behind Vancouver. Ballard has been a healthy scratch for the past two games, replaced by Jon Blum. In 19 games prior to the benching, Ballard was a minus-13, playing primarily on his off-side.
Click here if you'd like to read more about Ballard. The Canucks don't play Minnesota again until February 28, after the Olympic break.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»