Monday October 29 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Minnesota Wild - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 12 GP, 6-6-0, 12 pts, third in Pacific Division
Minnesota Wild: 10 GP, 6-2-2, 14 pts, fifth in Central Division
The Vancouver Canucks will be looking to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season when they host the red-hot Minnesota Wild for the second game of their four-game homestand on Monday at Rogers Arena.
In an effort to ramp up the urgency, Travis Green put his group through an intense practice on Sunday after their 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Brandon Sutter was absent from practice on Sunday and Monday's game-day skate is optional, so we won't get a definitive read on tonight's lines until close to game time.
There will be at least one lineup change up front:
No word yet who's coming out.
One other wrinkle from Sunday's practice that's likely to stick is a change in assignment for Tim Schaller, who was moved up to skate with Bo Horvat and Brendan Leipsic.
Since joining the Canucks, Schaller has had his moments: most notably, his two-assist night in Vancouver's road win over Pittsburgh back on October 16. Despite having missed the first two games of the season as a healthy scratch, he's fourth on the team in hits at 2.1 per game (Tyler Motte leads the way, of course, at 3.2).
Part of the reason why Schaller commanded a two-year deal with a $1.9 million cap hit as a free agent on July 1 was the 12 goals he scored last season as a member of the Boston Bruins—where he sometimes played up in the lineup while the team dealt with injuries.
He has yet to score his first goal with the Canucks, but Travis Green looks like he'll try a similar approach tonight.
"If I’m on that line, I’m definitely going to get pucks and bodies to the net," Schaller told
Ben Kuzma of The Province after practice on Sunday. "We need to work hard away from the puck to get into good spots and make the defence think a little bit more."
Green needs to turn over every stone he can in order to try to find more offense. Here's how his team's scoring has trended through the first 12 games:
5-4-3-4-3-3-1-2-2-2-1-0
Schaller's taking the place of Loui Eriksson, who started the season well with three points in his first two games while playing with Elias Pettersson but has struggled ever since. In Vancouver's last 10 games, Eriksson has managed just one assist. Despite his reputation for strong defensive play, he's also a minus-six in his last four games.
The Canucks also announced on Sunday that Alex Edler will miss 3-6 weeks after spraining his MCL in Vegas last Wednesday. It's pretty close to being deja vu all over again: last year, he sprained his knee in Vancouver's third game of the season and missed 12 games spanning just under a month before returning to action. It was his only injury of the year.
During those 12 games, the Canucks actually went a respectable 7-4-1.
Guillaume Brisebois is a left-shot defenseman who was recalled last Thursday. Despite the Canucks' defensive woes against Arizona and Pittsburgh after Edler went down, don't expect to see Brisebois in game action anytime soon.
Though he hasn't been placed on injured reserve, Chris Tanev is also expected to miss his third-straight game with what's being called a hip bruise. Tanev's pain threshold is so high. It wouldn't surprise me if he's at the rink every day insisting that he can play before the trainers shut him down.
We also got more clarity on Sunday about the nature of Anders Nilsson's broken finger.
Green is estimating 2-3 weeks out of action for Nilsson, so Jacob Markstrom will carry the load for the foreseeable future. The Canucks' next back-to-back games are exactly two weeks away: on the road November 12 against the New York Rangers and November 13 against the New York Islanders.
As for the Wild, they're healthy. And riding into town on a five-game winning streak to kick off their seven-game road trip. Tonight's game is the first of a back-to-back for the Wild.
Dubnyk is off to another hot start, with a 1.96 goals-against average and .945 save percentage. Stalock is a much more humble 3.45 and .879 but his last game was the Wild's 5-4 overtime win over Tampa Bay on the second half of a back-to-back on October 20.
After an injury-plagued 2017-18 season, Zach Parise is back in top form, leading the team with 11 points in 10 games. And despite concern about how Ryan Suter would come back after offseason ankle surgery, he's still leading the team in ice time—though his average of 25:51 so far this season is down from his career average of 28:01 with the Wild.
Parise and Suter have now reached the halfway point of those mammoth twin 13-year, $98-million free-agent contracts that they signed with Minnesota before the 2012-13 lockout. They're each making $9 million in real cash this season and next, then will start to see their salaries drop as they move into the final years of their old-school, back-diving contract. Though they are both still important members of the Wild, Parise's now 34 and Suter's 33. Their history so far certainly suggests that they'll eventually end their careers on long-term injured reserve, with no penalty to their team.
Speaking of old guys, today is Eric Staal's 34th birthday. After his brilliant 42-goal season last year, he has three goals and seven points in his first 10 games of 2018-19.
And one note on a young guy—rookie Jordan Greenway is back with the big club after a weekend sojourn to the minors to get some game action with the Iowa Wild. Greenway had just one assist in nine games with Minnesota, but picked up four points in two AHL games against the Colorado Eagles, including a hat trick on Saturday night.
That brings you up to date. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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