Monday October 12 - Vancouver Canucks at Anaheim Ducks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Vancouver - TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 1-0-1 - 3 points - third in Pacific Division
Anaheim Ducks: 0-1-0 - 0 points - fifth in Pacific Division
If you're in the mood to spend most of this rainy Thanksgiving Monday inside watching sports, you're in good shape. Sportsnet 360 is kicking things off with a Columbus Day matchup between the Lightning and Bruins, starting at 10 a.m. The Blue Jays will try to force Game 5 in the ALDS series when they face the Texas Rangers at 1 p.m., then the Canucks will try to pick up their second win of the season when they visit Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa and the Anaheim Ducks at 7 p.m.
Note that, due to baseball, the game will be televised on Sportsnet Vancouver, not the usual Sportsnet Pacific.
I am the most casual baseball fan, but I am emotionally invested in this year's Jays. The naturally leisurely pace of the game was making me crazy yesterday when I actually cared about the outcome!
Anyway—on to our game.
The biggest intrigue of the night will be Kevin Bieksa's first-ever game against the team he'd spent his whole career with until this summer.
Bieksa's wearing No. 2 for the Ducks and played 24:27 in their season-opening 2-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday—on Anaheim's top pairing with Hampus Lindholm. He had an even plus-minus with one hit and one giveaway, blocked four shots, and had four shots blocked of his own.
Also worth noting—the Ducks gave up a whopping 44 shots to San Jose on Saturday night. Will the Canucks get that much space on the ice tonight?
Click here for Ducks beat reporter Eric Stephens' conversations with Bieksa and Kesler heading into tonight's game, from the
Orange County Register.
Bieksa says his goal is not to overthink the situation. "Don’t make it into a more emotional game than it should be. Just go out and make the reads. Let the game come to me and have fun."
I haven't seen any definite lineup info about tonight's game, but there's plenty of speculation that Jake Virtanen will draw in to make his NHL debut.
Anaheim's exactly the type of "heavy" team that the Canucks were thinking about when they shored up the toughness on their fourth line, but I'd love to see Virtanen put his speed on display against Bieksa.
Though Alex Edler and Ryan Miller were both missing from Sunday's practice in Vancouver, both travelled with the team and are expected to play tonight. Frederik Andersen gets the start in net for the Ducks.
Willie also offered some other updates on injured players after practice on Sunday:
Higgins was injured exactly three weeks ago at Kraft Hockeyville, so he should be great to get back into the lineup in 1-3 more weeks if his recovery continues to go as planned.
According to
General Fanager, the Canucks are currently carrying just 22 players on their active roster, but they remain tight to the cap. They have enough roster space for Higgins to rejoin the team when he's healthy, but I'm not sure how the cap space will shake out.
Something to keep an eye on as Higgins gets healthier.
To conclude today—if you're looking to show your support for this year's crop of young Canucks talent, you can now do just that at the Team Store:
Should we read anything into this as far as Virtanen and Jared McCann's trails potentially lasting beyond nine games?
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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