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Grenier, LaBate in up front as Vancouver Canucks host Cup champ Penguins |
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Saturday March 11 - Pittsburgh Penguins at Vancouver Canucks - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet
Vancouver Canucks: 67 GP, 28-30-9, 65 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Pittsburgh Penguins: 66 GP, 42-16-8, 92 pts, third in Metropolitan Division
The banged-up Vancouver Canucks will be the rested team when they host the Stanley Cup Champions on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks will be without Brendan Gaunce, who was injured on Thursday against the New York Islanders but did finish the game.
Bad timing for Gaunce, who was benefitting from increased ice time and a bigger role thanks to all the holes in the lineup up front.
Nikolay Goldobin will also miss his second straight game.
For the third time this year, Alex Grenier has been recalled from the Utica Comets. Grenier has gotten into two games with the Canucks so far this year, and played six games last year. Though he's Utica's leading scorer this year with 16 goals and 40 points in 54 games, Grenier has yet to pick up his first point at the NHL level.
Joe LaBate played last night in Utica. There hasn't been an official announcement of his recall yet, but apparently he's on his way west, also his third recall of the year.
By the way, the Utica Comets had a better night against the Islanders' farm team on Friday than the Canucks did against the parent club on Thursday. Utica stretched its current winning streak to six games as Thatcher Demko outdueled Jaroslav Halak and the Comets beat the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 2-1.
That's a really impressive win; Halak is 15-4-1 since being assigned to the Sound Tigers this season, with a 2.07 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.
Demko has been carrying the load for the last few weeks and has been fantastic. He has been in net for all six games during this winning streak, and has allowed just seven goals.
The Comets currently sit in fourth place in a tight North Division. The AHL ranks teams by points percentage rather than actual points, so the Comets currently sit in the last playoff spot in their division—they have one point less than the fifth-place St. John's IceCaps, but they also have two games in hand.
The Comets take on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tonight in Allentown.
Back to the Canucks, whose playoff chances took a hit while they sat idle on Friday night. The St. Louis Blues beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-3, so the Canucks have now fallen eight points back of that second wild-card spot.
Here's who was on hand for today's morning skate.
The Penguins rolled into town last night after an entertaining 3-2 shootout win over the Edmonton Oilers. Of course, much was made of the head-to-head matchup between Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid in that game. I suspect it means more to Connor, who posted a career-high nine shots and picked up his 23rd goal of the season, as well as scoring in the shootout.
Crosby has now fallen to fourth place in the NHL scoring race, five points behind the leader McDavid. With nine points in his last four games, it's Crosby's teammate Evgeni Malkin who has climbed into a second-place tie with Patrick Kane with 71 points, four back of McDavid.
Crosby is the league's top goal-scorer right now, with 34, and Malkin is right behind him—tied for second place with Patrik Laine and Brad Marchand with 32 goals going into Saturday's games.
No matter what the outcome of tonight's game, I'm excited to watch Crosby and Malkin at a time when they're playing some of their best hockey.
The Penguins made several moves to shore up their blue line at the trade deadline—Olli Maatta's out with a hand injury and Kris Letang has just been put on IR, retroactive to February 21, with what's being called an "upper body injury." Details are scarce, which has led to some speculation that Letang might be dealing with more heart problems—remember, he suffered that stroke back in 2014.
So far, new additions Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit have been solid on the Pittsburgh blue line. B.C. boy Justin Schultz has also been killing it in his new home after being discarded by the Oilers last year. He leads the Penguins with a plus-29 and is their top-scoring defenseman with 12 goals and 46 points.
Marc-Andre Fleury was excellent in the Pittsburgh net last night in Edmonton, stopping 40 of 42 shots and being named the game's second star. I'm guessing the Canucks will face rookie Matt Murray, who has the better numbers of the two Penguins' goaltenders this year. He's 25-8-3 with a .923 save percentage and 2.39 goals-against average.
No Stanley Cup hangover for the Penguins. They're currently tied for second place in the league with 92 points, three back of Washington. They're first in scoring with 230 goals, third on the power-play with a 22.9 percent success rate and currently riding a four-game winning streak.
But they are playing their third game in four nights, and coming off a back-to-back after an emotional win. If Pittsburgh comes out a bit flat tonight, that could give the Canucks the room they'll need to try to collect at least a point in their fifth straight game.
Enjoy!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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