Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators - Wednesday March 19 - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Fox Sports Tennessee
Vancouver Canucks 31-30-10 72 points 10th in Western Conference
Nashville Predators 29-30-10 68 points 12th in Western Conference
The Vancouver Canucks are back home and will face the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena on Wednesday, Canucks for Kids Telethon night.
Vancouver finished their eastern road trip with a 2-2-0 record, while the Preds are on the second half of a back-to-back after losing 5-1 to the Oilers on Tuesday night.
Pekka Rinne is back with Nashville after missing more than four months with a hip injury, but he was pulled midway through the third period in Edmonton after allowing all five goals. Carter Hutton was perfect in relief, so there's a question mark about which netminder will get the start tonight in Vancouver.
The Preds have never been a team that scores a lot of goals, and that hole has deepened since the departure of pending free agent David Legwand, who was moved to Detroit at the trade deadline. Meanwhile, the Canucks have picked up the offensive pace in recent games with their resurgent first line of Henrik Sedin, Alex Burrows and Nicklas Jensen. It will be interesting to see if they can keep their road mojo intact at home.
The game is the first at Rogers Arena, of course, since the Canucks gave up seven third-period goals to the New York Islanders nine days ago. I suspect this will be a much less fiery affair.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the two teams. They're 1-1 in their matchups so far this year, with each team winning on the road.
Though there has been no official word on the status of Chris Tanev, canucks.com deems him "doubtful" due to the hand injury he suffered in the first period against Tampa Bay on Monday.
TEAM1040 has a gloomier prognostication:
The Canucks website points out that the Canucks' record this season without Tanev in the lineup has been 1-6-0. You may recall that his broken thumb coincided with the pre-Olympic losing streak.
#TankNation, this may be just the news you're looking for. The Preds are only four points behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings. Is this actually a "must-lose" game?
New Anti-Tanking Rules?
Speaking of the temptation to drop in the standings to secure better draft choices, Elliotte Friedman reports in his "30 Thoughts" column this week that the league is looking at tweaking the draft lottery in an effort to further discourage such actions.
Click here to read the details.
I always find these discussions a bit mystifying. Whether a last-place team has a 100 percent chance of choosing first overall or a 25 percent chance, as they did last year—as long as their odds are better than any of the other teams, the advantage still exists. It's not as clear-cut, but their chances don't get better if they finish, say, 26th—even with the system that Friedman outlines in his article.
It sounds like any changes wouldn't take effect until the 2015 draft, so the lottery process should be the same as it was last year, where any non-playoff team could theoretically jump to first overall.
Click here for those details, from NHL.com.
I expect this topic will only get hotter as the Canucks wind their way through the final weeks of the season.
Luongo Dazzles in Shark Tank
Here's a head-scratcher. The San Jose Sharks were one of the hottest teams in the league, riding a six-game winning streak, as they headed into Tuesday night's game against Florida at the Shark Tank.
They fired 52 shots at Roberto Luongo, including 29 in the third period, but the Panthers escaped with a 3-2 win.
It's the first time that Luongo has faced 50 or more shots in a game since his first stint as a Panther, back in 2006. He always did say he liked to be busy...
Aquilinis Buy Restaurant Group
Out of the blue, an announcement came down on Tuesday that the Aquilini Group is purchasing the Toptable Restaurant Group.
This marks their first foray into the world of fine dining. The cluster of restaurants includes Whistler's Araxi, as well as Vancouver's CinCin, West, Blue Water Cafe and Thierry.
The restaurant business is well-known as a risky one, but these names are some of the best-established brands in the industry in B.C. Previous owner Jack Evrensel will continue to oversee operations as a consultant: at first glance it looks like the Aquilinis will take a relatively hands-off approach.
I wonder if there will be any synergy between the restaurant group and the massive food-services undertakings that are part of the operations at Rogers Arena?
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