Tuesday March 20 - Vancouver Canucks at Vegas Golden Knights - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vegas Golden Knights: 72 GP, 46-21-5, 97 pts, first in Pacific Division
Vancouver Canucks: 72 GP, 25-38-9, 59 pts, 29th overall
Let's start with the biggest news of the day: Buffalo was shut out by Nashville on Monday night, but Arizona served up a solid home win against the Calgary Flames. So the Coyotes, with a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games, have caught the Canucks with 59 points—and the two teams do play each other one more time this season, on April 5 in Vancouver.
In addition to the fact that they're winning, the Coyotes look like they're drawing some pretty respectable crowds. That's based on the eye test only—
HockeyDB shows the team's average attendance is up by only a handful of seats compared to last year. But the vibe seemed to be rockin' last night in the closing minutes, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson was beaming like he'd just won the gold medal for Team Sweden when he scored the game winner, then added an empty-netter.
I do expect the Coyotes to finish above the Canucks this season. The race to the bottom continues!
It's a bit jarring to realize that the Coyotes' last 10 games have been better than their new desert neighbours in Vegas, who will host the Canucks tonight. Since their easy 6-3 win over Vancouver on February 23, the Golden Knights have slumped a bit—5-5-1 in the ensuing 11 games, with four of those losses coming on home ice to bump their tremendous record at T-Mobile Arena down to 25-9-2 for the year.
Don't get me wrong: it's still amazing that Vegas is sitting in fourth place overall and should have no trouble wrapping up a Pacific Division title in the team's inaugural season, but the magic doesn't seem to be quite as strong as it was earlier in the year.
The exception? William "Wild Bill" Karlsson, who picked up a hat trick against Calgary on Sunday and is now tied for fourth overall in the NHL with 39 goals, just four behind leaders Overchkin and Laine. He scored twice against the Canucks last month; how many can he get today?
Undaunted by injuries early in the season, Vegas lost a few players over the last week. Former Canuck Luca Sbisa and forwards William Carrier, Oscar Lindberg and Reilly Smith are all expected to miss tonight's game.
As for the Canucks, here's how they practiced on Monday—at UBC, as they make way for the setup of this Sunday's Juno Awards at Rogers Arena:
That crazy power-play unit that doesn't have a centre is still a thing, too:
Travis Green's team will be looking to snap the six-game losing skid that began when Brock Boeser came out of the lineup after suffering that back injury against the New York Islanders two weeks ago.
Now, prospect talk!
First: another day, another accolade for Adam Gaudette.
This week, you can vote for the man with the clever Twitter handle @hockey_gaud as the Hobey Baker field gets narrowed from 10 to three:
After Harvard failed to receive an invitation to the NCAA tournament, the Boston Bruins were able to sign their own junior centre, Ryan Donato. The 21-year-old promptly scored a goal and added two assists in Boston's 5-4 overtime loss to Columbus last night, adding fuel to our wish that Gaudette's Northeastern group gets eliminated this weekend so he can join the Canucks for the last few games of the season.
If the experts at ESPN know anything, it may not happen. Nobody's picking the Huskies to win it all, but in
this article, five of six ESPN personalities pick Northeastern to reach the Frozen Four—which would essentially kill Gaudette's opportunity to join the Canucks this season.
Lots at stake this weekend!
In the last blog, I promised a rundown of the Canucks' CHL prospects as the major junior playoffs get set to begin. Here we go:
• Though he was limited to just 58 games this season, Kole Lind finished 11th in WHL scoring, leading the Kelowna Rockets with 39-56-95. The Rockets finished first in the WHL's B.C. division with a record of 43-22-5-2 and will face Jake Bean and the Tri-City Americans in the first round of the playoffs.
• Over in Owen Sound, 2018 World Junior gold medalist Jonah Gadjovich finished his season with 25-23-48 in 42 games. That's a step backward, in total production and points per game, from his 46 goals and 74 points in 60 games last season.
In the final OHL standings, Gadjovich finished behind his teammate Brett McKenzie, who was acquired by the Attack from North Bay at mid-season. Vancouver's seventh-round pick in 2016, McKenzie finished the year with a total of 22-27-49 in 64 games—also a drop from his point-a-game pace last season.
The Attack finished fourth in the OHL's Western Conference and will play the fifth-place London Knights in the first round of the playoffs.
• In Windsor, goaltender Michael DiPietro carried a heavy workload, appearing in 56 games and putting together a 29-21-3 record with a .910 save percentage and 2.79 GAA, but he led the OHL by a wide margin with seven shutouts. Windsor finished sixth in the Western Conference and will face Jordan Kyrou and third-place Sarnia in the first round as the Spitfires try to defend their Memorial Cup title.
• In Oshawa, Canucks' seventh-rounder Matt Brassard showed tremendous improvement this year. The 6'2" defenseman went from 7-11-18 in 33 games last season to 16-35-51 in 67 games this year, and was a plus-13. He finished fourth in the OHL in goals by a defenseman and was the top-scoring defenseman on his team. The Generals finished fifth in the OHL's Eastern Conference and will play fourth-place Niagara in the first round.
From the 2016 draft, defenseman Cole Candella finished his season with the Sudbury Wolves with 5-28-33 in 68 games—a small improvement from last season. The Wolves finished 10th in the OHL's Eastern Conference, so they failed to qualify for the playoffs, but Candella did get a nice endorsement from his GM at the end of the year:
Rob Papineaue also praised Candella's skating as being NHL-caliber.
The Canucks will need to make a decision on Candella soon. Their hold on his rights will expire on June 1.
Last week, we heard that the team has decided not to sign 2016 sixth-rounder Jakob Stukel from Calgary or Latvian Rodrigo Abols out of Portland. In a draft that saw the Canucks select just six players, the pool is now down to four: Olli Juolevi, William Lockwood, Candella and Brett McKenzie.
Playoffs kick off in both the WHL and OHL on Thursday.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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