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Vancouver Canucks Game Day: September 29 vs. Arizona Coyotes |
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Arizona Coyotes vs. Vancouver Canucks - 6:00 p.m. from Rogers Arena - Sportsnet, TSN1040
The Vancouver Canucks are 3-1-0 so far in preseason. They'll look to add another win tonight when they face the Arizona (not Phoenix) Coyotes at Rogers Arena.
Radim Vrbata will be facing his old team as part of Vancouver's first line, along with the Sedin twins. The youngsters who are fighting each other for jobs—Hunter Shinkaruk, Bo Horvat and Nick Jensen—will make up the second line tonight. Here's the complete list of forwards:
With Alex Burrows and Nick Bonino listed on the so-called fourth line, I think you can expect that Willie Desjardins will be rolling his forwards as much as possible tonight.
Brad Richardson and Zack Kassian have not skated for the past two days.
Not sure about Kassian, but Richardson did take part in the Canucks' media day on Sunday:
On the blue line, Alex Edler's expected back in the lineup, while Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis get the night off.
As Willie promised, Edler doesn't look any worse for wear:
With Bieksa and Hamhuis on the sidelines, that means tonight's six defensemen should be some combination of:
Edler - Tanev
Stanton - Corrado
Sbisa - Weber
This should give the coaching staff—and us fans—an opportunity to compare the skillsets of those four players who are gunning for the third-pairing roster spots.
Desjardins didn't announce his starting goalie after the morning skate, but it's speculated that Ryan Miller will get the nod:
As for the Coyotes, they've played five games so far in preseason and have a pretty solid 3-0-2 record, including a 4-0 shutout of the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.
The Coyotes are still carrying 32 players on their roster. A few clicks through their preseason game recaps show the names Lucas Lessio, Justin Hodgman and goaltender Louis Domingue popping up repeatedly. Hodgman's a 26-year-old career minor-leaguer who spent the last two seasons in the KHL. Lessio's a 21-year-old who was chosen by the Coyotes in the second round in 2011. Domingue's a 22-year-old goalie who has bounced between the AHL and ECHL for the past two seasons.
No idea any of them will play tonight, but you might want to keep a roster list close at hand while watching tonight's game. I'll need to make sure I get to the rink tonight a few minutes early so I can nail down those starting lineups!
Jeff Paterson offers up a few familiar names that we can expect to see tonight:
Seven Players Officially Assigned to Utica
The Canucks issued a press release this morning, confirming that seven players, including Jacob Markstrom, have been sent to Utica.
The Comets' training camp opens today, with 37 players.
Ex-Canucks Block Shots
Shot blocking is no longer at the centre of the Canucks' defensive strategy, but former Vancouverites are still doing it—and still feeling the effects.
Take Ryan Kesler, in Sunday's 4-2 loss against the Los Angeles Kings:
Kesler did finish the game, logging more than 18 minutes of ice time.
But poor David Booth was not so lucky in Sunday's Leafs/Sabres tilt. His shot-block broke his foot, which puts him on the shelf for four weeks. Some things never change.
Don't forget: tonight's game is another early 6:00 start. Another channel change: tonight, the action will run across the country on the regular Sportsnet channels—Sportsnet Pacific, for those of us in B.C.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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