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Canucks look to get back on winning track against Blues, WJC tuneups begin
December 20, 2018, 1:43 PM ET [330 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
Thursday December 20 - Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650

Vancouver Canucks: 37 GP, 16-17-4, 36 pts, sixth in Pacific Division
St. Louis Blues: 32 GP, 13-15-4, 30 pts, seventh in Central Division

Less than two weeks after they were crushed at home by the Vancouver Canucks on December 9, the St. Louis Blues make their only visit of the year to Rogers Arena on Thursday night.

Despite their poor performance in that 6-1 defeat, they're not a team that should be taken lightly. They've gone 3-1-0 since the last time they took on the Canucks, while Vancouver is 3-1-1. Though they remain mired near the bottom of the league standings, St. Louis is among the teams with the fewest games played while Vancouver, once again, is right at the top.

For the season so far, the Canucks rank 23rd with a points percentage of .486 while the Blues are 26th at .469.

Not so different, although St. Louis remains both inconsistent and unpredictable. They're coming into Vancouver after a decisive 4-1 win over Edmonton on Tuesday and also beat the tough Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in overtime last week but in between, they got hammered by Calgary by a score of 7-2. With the Canucks, even when they lose they've generally been in the game. Their last true beatdown came nearly a month ago—that 4-0 loss to the Sharks in San Jose.

It'll be interesting to see how the Canucks come out against the Blues after such an emotional game against Tampa Bay in their last outing. Will they be galvanized, or look a bit flat?

The vibe was decidedly more congenial at Rogers Arena on Wednesday, when the team took to the ice with spouses and kids for the annual holiday skate—including a gender reveal.




As for Sven Baertschi's health, sounds like he's still at least a week away from getting back into the lineup.




As for Troy Stecher—this news is probably about as good as could be expected.




General manager Jim Benning didn't make a roster move to cover for Stecher—or do anything else—ahead of Wednesday night's holiday roster freeze. No trades at all around the league; the most noteworthy moves were a couple of players assigned to their respective World Junior teams and Buffalo's Patrik Berglund placed on waivers for purposes of terminating his contract after he failed to report to the team over the weekend. That's a weird one—if he has bigger issues at play, I hope he's getting the support and guidance that he needs.

The Canucks are holding an optional morning skate on Thursday, so we probably won't get many more lineup details until closer to gametime.

Meanwhile: pre-tournament games are starting to roll around the province ahead of this year's World Junior Championship.

In Victoria on Wednesday, it wasn't a great night for Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro in net for Canada's 5-3 win over Switzerland. DiPietro faced just 17 shots, most of which were pretty harmless, and looked especially shaky on two second-period markers for the Swiss.




Ian Scott is scheduled to get the start for Canada's next game, Friday night against Slovakia. Coach Tim Hunter has said he's going to wait to decide which goalie he'll play to wrap up pre-tournament action on Sunday against Finland at Rogers Arena.

Quinn Hughes is also getting the night off on Thursday in Kamloops, as Team USA takes on Russia.




Quinn's brother Jack Hughes is expected to play on Thursday. He skated on a line with Canucks prospect Tyler Madden and Noah Cates in Team USA's scrimmage on Tuesday. Perhaps coach Mike Hastings will keep that trio together against Russia?

Out in the Valley on Wednesday, Toni Utunen's Finns downed Denmark by a score of 7-0, with at least one notable spectator on hand:




Utunen didn't pick up any points, but did wear the C for the Finns:




To wrap up today—lots of Canucks content once again on this year's Spengler Cup team. The roster was released Thursday morning and includes Max Lapierre and Andrew Ebbett as well as short-term Canucks Adam Cracknell, Zac Dalpe and Patrick Wiercioch and one longtimer — now 37-year-old Kevin Bieksa.




As usual, the tournament kicks off on Boxing Day in Davos, Switzerland.

With that, you're up to date. Enjoy the game!
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