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Chris Tanev returns to action as Vancouver Canucks hit the road in Edmonton |
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Saturday March 18 - Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers - 7 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet
Vancouver Canucks: 70 GP, 28-33-9, 65 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
Edmonton Oilers: 70 GP, 37-24-7, 83 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Chris Tanev is expected to be back in the lineup but Nikolay Goldobin will not as the Vancouver Canucks travel to Edmonton for a Saturday night matchup with the Oilers at Rogers Place.
Tanev has missed the last three games with a bout of food poisoning. Less than a month ago, he also missed two games due to the mumps.
Though the Canucks are starting a stretch of five games at Rogers Arena, they're returning to Vancouver after tonight's game. They'll head out of town for the Central Division portion of the road trip on Monday.
Nikolay Goldobin is staying home this weekend, working at getting stronger after losing 15 pounds during his nasty bout with the flu.
Still no timeline on a return to action for Jacob Markstrom, so expect Ryan Miller to make his sixth straight start. Miller has allowed 17 goals in his last five games and is 0-3-2. Making his 47th appearance, he has already passed his 45 games from his first season in Vancouver in 2014-15 and will soon beat his 51 appearances from last season.
Miller currently ranks 17th overall in minutes played by a goaltender this season, just behind Connor Hellebuyck of Winnipeg and just ahead of Steve Mason of Philadelphia and Corey Crawford of Chicago.
We have three weeks left in the season.
The Canucks are 1-1 against the Oilers so far this season. They were shut out by a score of 2-0 back in late October in Vancouver, then Bo Horvat tallied the shootout winner to end a New Year's Eve game in Edmonton where the Canucks were outshot 44-32.
Surprisingly, even though the Canucks have held their opponents to less than 35 shots in just one of their last seven games, six other NHL teams still average more shots allowed per game. Vancouver is tied for seventh-highest with the New York Islanders, at 31.9 shots against per game, while Buffalo is the highest, at 34.3. If the Canucks keep surrendering scoring chances like they have been over last several games, there's a strong possibility that they'll move up in this category before the end of the year.
Looking at the Oilers, they appear to have now found their form again after a brief skid dropped them into the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference earlier this month. The Pacific Division playoff standings are tight—San Jose has a comfortable cushion at the top with 91 points, then Anaheim's in second place with 85, Calgary has 84 and the Oilers have 83.
Edmonton does have a very favourable schedule heading into these final weeks of the season. The Oilers are playing the seventh game of an eight-game homestand tonight, which started as they came out of their bye week. They'll play just two games on the road in March—a back-to-back in Anaheim and Colorado next week. And tonight's game is the first of three remaining against the Canucks—they'll also play Vancouver in a home-and-home to close out the season.
The Canucks lost to the Bruins and the Stars this week, but the Oil had no trouble putting either team away. Edmonton beat Dallas 7-1 on Tuesday and took care of Boston by a score of 7-4 on Thursday.
Connor McDavid has lived up to his billing in his sophomore season; his 79 points currently tie him with Brad Marchand for the league lead. Leon Draisaitl has also had an outstanding year—he's up to 24 goals and 61 points. And Patrick Maroon, who was a bargain pickup from Anaheim at the 2016 trade deadline, has caught fire.
Maroon's previous career highs with Anaheim were 11 goals in 2013-14 and 34 points in 2014-15. With three goals and four points in his last two games, Maroon is now at 36 points on the year and is tied with McDavid and Draisaitl for the team lead in scoring, with 24 goals.
Cam Talbot has also proven that he was the right goalie for the Oilers to target when they made that upgrade during the summer of 2015. Talbot leads the league in minutes played and has put together a record of 35-20-8, with a 2.39 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. He has played just two playoff games in his career, in relief of Henrik Lundqvist when he was with the New York Rangers, so I'm sure he'll be looking forward to showing what he can do this year in the postseason.
Elsewhere, a couple of other quick notes to wrap up today:
The Comets continue to cling to the fourth and final playoff spot in the AHL's North Division but the race couldn't be tighter. Fifth-place St. John's has the same winning percentage as Utica, .540, but rank lower in the standings by virtue of one more game played. The Comets are on the road to take on Jaro Halak and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers tonight.
Brock Boeser's North Dakota Fighting Hawks also won on Friday, beating Denver 1-0 to advance to the final of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. They'll take on Minnesota-Duluth tonight.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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