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Canucks & Comets hope they're trending upward with Christmas approaching |
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Sunday December 9 - Vancouver Canucks at St. Louis Blues - noon - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 31 GP, 12-16-3, 25 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
St. Louis Blues: 27 GP, 10-13-4, 24 pts, seventh in Central Division
With the noon start to the kickoff of Vancouver's three-game road trip on Sunday, I'll get the preview set up with some time to spare.
In their first meeting of the year, the Blues and Canucks are both coming off big wins over Central Division powerhouses. The Canucks took down the Nashville Predators at Rogers Arena on Thursday, while Jake Allen earned his first shutout of the year and Colton Parayko's power-play goal was the difference in a 1-0 road win for the Blues against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
Allen took a big share of the blame for the Blues' struggles early in the season, but the oft-streaky netminder seems to be getting his game together. He had a 3.99 goals-against average and .874 save percentage, improved to 2.58 and .917 in November and is now at 0.96 and .968 through two starts in December.
The Blues are kicking off a nicely spaced four-game homestand on Sunday against Vancouver, so I'd expect Allen will get the start.
the other bright spot for St. Louis in recent games has been their penalty killing–which is a good thing for them, because they've been taking a ton of penalties lately. All told, Vancouver is second in the league with 115 minors in 31 games heading into Saturday's action—an average of 3.71 minors per game. But they've been better at staying out of the box over their last five games, averaging just 2.4 times shorthanded per game and penalized just once against Nashville on Thursday.
The Blues are tied for 14th overall this season, but their 100 minors over 27 games works out to be basically the same as Vancouver—an average of 3.70 per game. And they're trending upwards—shorthanded 24 times in their last five games for an average of 4.8 times per game. So the Canucks' new-look first power-play unit should get some opportunities to work on Sunday but will still be challenged. The Blues have allowed just two power-play goals over their last five games for a kill rate of 91.7 percent, and went 6-for-6 against the dangerous Jets on Friday.
Though they got back into town late on Friday night, the Blues are holding a full practice on Saturday.
Here's a quick look at how they'll probably line up on Sunday:
Is offseason free-agent signing David Perron looking at a healthy scratch on Sunday? He earned a power-play assist on the Blues' lone goal on Friday night but also played an uncharacteristically low 13:26, his second-fewest minutes of the year.
With eight goals and 16 points, Perron is tied for third in scoring on a team that's averaging 2.85 goals per game—again, almost identical to Vancouver's 2.84. Leading the way—new acquisition Ryan O'Reilly, who has 28 points and also leads the team in power-play points with nine. His ice time tops all Blues forwards at an average of 20:39 per game and he's second in the NHL with 376 faceoff wins, behind Bo Horvat's 431. But O'Reilly's at the top of the pack among players with more than 200 faceoffs this year, with a win rate of 61 percent. Considering the massive number of draws he has taken, Horvat's looking pretty good in 27th place at 54.8 percent.
Teammates for Canada at the World Championship last May, I imagine we'll see O'Reilly and Horvat go head-to-head in the circle more than a few times on Sunday. Four years older than Horvat, the two are evolving as very similar players, with strong defensive foundations to go along with the ability to make plays and put the puck in the net. Both players are currently leading their teams in scoring and tracking to hit career highs in points this year.
Of course, the biggest news surrounding the Blues this year was the team's firing of coach Mike Yeo on November 19. The move was overshadowed by Todd McLellan's dismissal in Edmonton the following day, and has put the team into a bit of a state of flux after assistant Craig Berube took over the top job.
The Blues were 7-9-3 when Yeo was axed. After Friday's win in Winnipeg, they're 3-4-1 in a little less than three weeks under Berube.
As for the Canucks, they're also squeezing in a practice session on Saturday.
Meanwhile, on Friday night in Utica, Reid Boucher was a healthy scratch but wasn't needed as the Comets knocked off the Springfield Thunderbirds by a score of 5-2.
Tanner Kero tallied a goal and an assist to take over sole possession of the team scoring lead with 21 points in 26 games and Jonathan Dahlen was named the game's first star after tallying his fifth and sixth goals of the year.
The Comets are now 5-3-0 since Thatcher Demko joined the team on November 21 after recovering from his concussion. Demko is right on his career average of 2.55 goals against but still has room for improvement in his individual game, with a .904 save percentage so far this season.
With 24 points in 26 games, the Comets sit one point ahead of Belleville and Binghamton and two up on the Toronto Marlies. That's good for fourth place in the AHL's tight North Division standings, but all three of the teams chasing them have games in hand.
Next up: a Saturday-night visit to Binghamton to take on the Devils.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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