Tuesday December 6 - Vancouver Canucks at New Jersey Devils - 4:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific
Vancouver Canucks: 25 GP, 11-12-2, 24 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
New Jersey Devils: 24 GP, 11-7-6, 28 pts, sixth in Metropolitan Division
The Vancouver Canucks kick off their Eastern road trip with a visit to the Prudential Center to take on the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday. They've already played the Rangers and Islanders, so today's game will be the team's last in the Tri-State area. They'll be back in New York one final time in February, to play the Sabres in Buffalo midway through a six-gamer.
The New Jersey Devils finished 20th in the NHL last season with 84 points and were last in the league in scoring—the only team behind Vancouver, with 184 goals for. This year, they're currently tied for 16th place in the league with 2.54 goals per game—the same as last year's juggernauts from Dallas and Washington, as well as the New York Islanders. Vancouver is now up to 28th, at 2.20 goals per game.
The boost in offense has happened even though the team has been without two of its best offensive weapons for reasonably significant amount of times. Travis Zajac has appeared in all 24 games and leads the team with 20 points, but Mike Cammalleri and Taylor Hall lead the team with two-game winners apiece, though Cammalleri has missed six games (8-7-17 in 18 games) and Hall has missed eight (6-9-15 in 16 games).
Cammalleri and Hall are now both currently healthy. They combined for five points in the Devils' 5-4 comeback win in Nashville last Saturday.
New acquisition Beau Bennett will also be returning to the New Jersey lineup tonight after missing the team's last three games due to a skate laceration to his right leg, which happened in practice on November 29. Sophomore centre Sergey Kalinin is also expected to return after missing two games due to illness.
The Devils will be without rookie Pavel Zacha, who left Saturday's game against the Preds in the first period due to a facial laceration.
After backup Keith Kinkaid earned the win on Saturday in Nashville, ex-Canuck Cory Schneider returns to the crease tonight. He's 8-6-4 so far this season, with an unusually mundane .912 save percentage and 2.63 goals-against average. His career averages are .924 and 2.20—and his overall numbers in New Jersey are almost identical to what they were in Vancouver.
Schneider's 30 now—he'll be 31 in March—and still has just 10 postseason games to his credit, all with the Canucks. I hope the Devils can get back into the playoffs soon so we can see whether he'll be able to deliver in a high-pressure situation.
As for the Canucks, they're going with Jacob Markstrom in net. This'll be Markstrom's first start since his 33-save performance in Vancouver's shootout win over Colorado back on November 26. Markstrom is 6-3-2 this season, with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage.
Based on the lines from Monday's practice, I expect we'll see the same combinations as we did in last Saturday's win over the Maple Leafs.
The "new face" in the room on Monday, if I can call it that, was of the droid variety.
According to Derek Jory of the Canucks website, R2D2 was on hand to shoot a promo with the Devils for their Star Wars night on December 11, five days before the new film "Rogue One" lands in theatres.
Before I close—I missed this yesterday. Brock Boeser has been invited to join the Team USA camp for a second year at the World Junior Championship. Boeser has been on the shelf for the last two weeks with an upper-body injury but is expected to be well enough to participate in the tournament.
Before his injury, he was 7-9-16 in 13 games. While sidelined, he has had a chance to keep an eye on his old teammate, Troy Stecher.
Boeser says watching Stecher make Vancouver this season gets him excited about the future. #Canucks
And finally, I'll leave you with this: the Devils are the only team in the NHL's that's still undefeated in regulation on home ice. New Jersey is playing just its 10th game of the year at the Prudential Center tonight—the team's record so far is 7-0-2.
Can the Canucks snap that streak? We'll find out soon—game time is 4 p.m. PT.
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