Thursday January 14 - Vancouver Canucks at Washington Capitals - 4:00 p.m - Sportsnet 360 - TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 43 GP, 17-16-10, 44 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Washington Capitals: 42 GP, 32-7-3, 67 pts, first in Metropolitan Division
The Vancouver Canucks kick off their last Eastern road trip of the 2015-16 season with a game against the best team in the NHL on Thursday night.
The Washington Capitals are the only team the league still in single digits in the loss column, with seven. In their early-season visit to Vancouver, they beat Vancouver 3-2 at Rogers Arena back on October 22.
At the moment, Washington's on a four-game winning streak, coming off a 7-1 win against Ottawa last Sunday. Alex Ovechkin scored his 500th and 501st career goals in that game and had five goals in three games to take over the NHL scoring lead last week—a collection of accomplishments that have him currently holding the title of the NHL's First Star of the Week.
The Caps will be holding a ceremony before tonight's game to honour Ovi's latest accomplishment. Playing in the era that he does, it is truly remarkable that Ovechkin scored his 500th goal in his 801st NHL game, making him the fifth-fastest player to reach the milestone behind Wayne Gretzky (575 games), Mario Lemieux (601 games), Mike Bossy (647 games) and Brett Hull (693 games), according to the
Capitals' website.
Back on November 19, Ovechkin scored his 484th goal to pass Sergei Fedorov as the highest-scoring Russian-born player of all time in the NHL. I had the privilege of speaking to Ovechkin, his teammates and his coach about this milestone when the Caps were in Vancouver in October, for
this story in the
New York Times.
“It’s within reason that he could potentially challenge for the all-time goal-scoring record,” Brooks Laich suggested to me. “That’s incredible to say in this day and age, with how tight the league is. He’s got the best shot in the world. He gets four or five good looks at the net every night. He can score in so many ways: individually, with traffic in front of the net, with deflections.”
This year, it's more than just the Ovi show in Washington. The Caps are basically sitting where the Canucks were in 2011—first in the league, but with a closetful of playoff frustration haunting their organization.
The Caps have been in the league just four years less than Vancouver—they joined, along with the Kansas City Scouts, in 1974. Like Vancouver, they've never won a Stanley Cup—and they've been to the final just once, when they were swept by the Detroit Red Wings back in 1998. In Ovechkin's 10 seasons, they've yet to make it past the second round.
This year might be different, though. In addition to the prolific scoring of Ovechkin and his faithful sidekick Nicklas Backstrom, the Caps have tightened up their defensive game under coach Barry Trotz. Washington's currently second in the league behind Dallas in scoring, but first overall with just 90 goals against as 26-year-old workhorse Braden Holtby makes a run for his first career Vezina Trophy.
Our local goaltending guru
Kevin Woodley names Holtby as the Vezina favourite today at NHL.com, pointing out that he's on pace to become the first goaltender in NHL history to win 50 games in a season.
Washington's special teams are also excellent: second on the power play at 26.6 percent and fourth overall on the penalty kill with an 85.5 percent success rate.
Also at NHL.com,
Dan Rosen has a feature on the impressive contributions that new additions Justin Williams and T.J. Oshie have made to the Capitals this season.
Bottom line: the Canucks face an even bigger challenge tonight than they did when they ended the Florida Panthers' 12-game winning streak last Monday.
I'm hoping the Canucks managed to absorb all of Florida's magical juju during that postgame melee. The Panthers certainly laid an egg last night in Calgary when Roberto Luongo gave up four goals in the first period on the way to a 6-0 shutout loss to the Flames.
The Canucks only had an optional skate this morning, but there's a chance that both Luca Sbisa and Jannik Hansen could be in the Vancouver lineup tonight. Hansen has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, while Sbisa has been out of the lineup since December 1 with a fractured bone in his hand.
On Thursday morning, the Canucks announced that they have also recalled defenseman Taylor Fedun from Utica.
One thing we do know—Ryan Miller gets his first start in net tonight since he pulled himself out of the shootout in Florida back on December 20. After three and a half weeks of rest and recovery time, hopefully Miller will be primed to put in a good showing against one of the most potent offenses in the league.
As for Washington, they're missing forward Jay Beagle and defensemen John Carlson and Brooks Orpik from their lineup. Carlson had been having a dazzling season before he went down with a lower-body injury. He last played on Boxing Day.
To wrap up today—a little love for Vancouver's special teams.
After finally snapping their nine-game power-play drought against Arizona, the Canucks have now scored a power-play goal in each of the last four games, going 4-for-13 overall. The penalty kill has also been clicking—it hasn't given up a goal in the last three games.
Vancouver's last four games have all ended in 3-2 scores, as did their game against the Caps earlier this year. Will we see another tight one tonight?
Tune in—it's an early 4:00 start, broadcast nationally on Sportsnet 360.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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