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Can the Canucks right the ship on their season after a November to forget? |
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Wednesday December 1 - Vancouver Canucks at Ottawa Senators - 4:30 p.m. PT
Can the Canucks keep it going?
At last, the club got some good news on the ice in Montreal on Monday, skating away with two points and buoyed by a classic Elias Pettersson one-timer goal in their 2-1 victory over the Canadiens.
Petey's goal came on the power play, too, giving Vancouver a rare victory in the special-teams battle. It was his fourth of the year and his first since Nov. 9.
With November now mercifully in the rearview mirror, the Canucks went 4-9-1 for the month after a 3-5-1 start in October. On Nov. 1, their seven points had them in a tie for 25th in the NHL standings; the .389 points percentage had them tied for 27th.
Wednesday's opponent, the Ottawa Senators, was 3-4-0 at the end of October — one point back in real points but higher in points percentage at .429.
Heading into Wednesday's matchup, the Canucks' 16 points puts them in a tie for 27th with the Chicago Blackhawks, who have played two fewer games. Vancouver's points percentage has now slipped to .348, good for 29th spot.
Meanwhile, Ottawa went 1-10-1 in November, and was shut down for a week due to its Covid outbreak. Despite all the optimism at the end of last season about how the young Senators were ready to take a step, instead they sit last in the league in both points (9) and points percentage (.237). Their last win came against Pittsburgh on Nov. 13. They've lost all four of their games since returning from their Covid pause. Big-money goaltender Matt Murray cleared waivers a couple of days ago and is now with the Belleville Senators. And Brady Tkachuk lost his mind over the weekend after he was bitten during a scuffle with Brendan Lemieux of the Los Angeles Kings — which earned Lemieux a five-game suspension.
In the battle for the basement, the Senators are slightly ahead of the Canucks in goals scored per game (2.42 vs. 2.26). Vancouver is quite a bit better in goals against (3.13 vs. 3.84). Ottawa is slightly better on the power play (17.5% vs. 16.9%) and substantially better on the penalty kill — still ranked 28th with a 74.1% success rate, but the Canucks remain dead last at 63.4%, even after a perfect 2-for-2 night in Montreal.
Drake Batherson is leading the Sens offensively so far this season, with 16 points in 14 games. No one else is over 0.7 points per game.
The Canucks have three players above that 0.7 PPG threshold — J.T. Miller (20 points in 23 games), Conor Garland (16 points in 23 games) and Quinn Hughes (16 points in 22 games). But more than a quarter of the way into the season, nobody has more than seven goals (Miller and Garland).
A familiar face will be making his Senators debut on Wednesday night. After being picked up on waivers from Chicago last week, Adam Gaudette will slot into the third-line centre spot, playing with Alex Formenton and Zach Sanford.
Michael Del Zotto has played 10 games for Ottawa this season, but it looks like he'll be a healthy scratch on Wednesday.
As for the Canucks, here's how they'll line up:
This will be the fourth-straight game in the press box for Juho Lammikko, who has swapped places with Justin Dowling.
And as the Canucks have struggled through this dark stretch, that's really the only change of any type that the team has made. The injured list has remained the same since Tyler Motte's return eight games ago — with just Matthew Highmore and Brandon Sutter missing from the main roster.
As for Travis Hamonic, he's still officially listed as being in the minors. Here's his latest status update, as of Wednesday.
As for the Abbotsford Canucks, they did return to their home rink on Tuesday and delivered a 3-2 win over the Ontario Reign in front of a recorded crowd of 4,015 — even as the rain and flooding continues.
That attendance is up from the home opener (3,498), but down a bit from the last home game on Nov. 14 (4,623).
In addition to witnessing a win, the fans on hand on Tuesday also got to see a fantastic goal from Phil Di Giuseppe.
Nic Petan and Sheldon Rempal had the other goals for Abbotsford, while Adam Johnson and Alex Turcotte replied for Ontario.
The two teams will meet again in Abbotsford on Wednesday, then the homestand continues with a pair of games against the San Jose Barracuda this weekend.
While Evander Kane has reported to the Barracuda after clearing waivers following his 21-game NHL suspension for presenting a fake vaccine card, he's not expected to make the trip to his home province this weekend.
If you missed it over the weekend, Kane has also changed agents and his new representative, Dan Milstein of Gold Star, is open to building a trade path to Vancouver.
I feel like I've been consistent on this every time there has been talk around Kane being moved. For me, nothing has changed. Thanks, but no thanks.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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