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Erik Gudbranson returns to the lineup as Vancouver Canucks face Red Wings |
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Sunday October 22 - Vancouver Canucks at Detroit Red Wings - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 7 GP, 3-3-1, 7 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Detroit Red Wings: 8 GP, 4-3-1, 9 pts, fourth in Atlantic Division
The Vancouver Canucks will have Erik Gubrandson back in the lineup after his one-game suspension when they play their fourth game in six nights against the Detroit Red Wings in the only NHL game of the day on Sunday.
Baseball's on a break till the World Series begins on Tuesday, but it's a huge day for MLS, with all 22 teams in action at the same time as playoff spots are determined on the last day of the regular season.
The Vancouver Whitecaps are in Portland, taking on the Timbers for a chance to secure first place in the Western Conference and a chance to advance directly to the two-game conference semifinal. A loss would mean they'd have to play in a one-game knockout round next week.
I laid out all the permutations and combinations, as well as what today's match means for the Whitecaps franchise, in my Goal Posts column this week:
Decision Day games run at 1 p.m. PT this afternoon, right before the Canucks face the Red Wings at 4:00. You'll find the Whitecaps on TSN1.
Believe it or not, a win for the Canucks today would move them into an NHL playoff spot. They've caught up to the rest of the league in games played and with two points tonight, they'd leapfrog Calgary, Winnipeg, Colorado and Anaheim to move over .500 for the first time since the second game of the season and into third place in the Pacific Division.
The Canucks are 2-1 on this five-game road trip so far, so two points tonight would also guarantee a winning record for the trip. The sample size is small but last year's Canucks had a really tough time winning games away from Rogers Arena. Their 12-26-3 record was only better than Colorado, and their first road win of the year didn't come until they beat the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on November 8, when the death knell was already sounding for Willie Desjardins thanks to that eight-game losing streak.
The Red Wings haven't turned out to be as bad as expected in the early going this season, but today's game should be winnable for the Canucks. Detroit started out strong, winning four of its first five games, but has now lost three in a row after untimely penalties led to a late-game collapse and an overtime loss to the Washington Capitals in their last game on Friday night.
The other thing I noticed when I tuned in for the end of that game on Friday? The high number of empty red seats in the lower bowl at new Little Caesars Arena. Official attendance was listed as a sellout of 19,515, but it sure didn't look that way. I can't imagine people had left to beat the traffic with their team up by one and the opponent pressing in the late stages of the third...
The Wings are still trying move some inventory for today's game.
Detroit general manager Ken Holland has been busy this week—finally coming to terms with RFA holdout Andreas Athanasiou on Friday, then making two trades on Saturday—partly to clear cap space for his new arrival.
I dig into the details of those moves in this piece:
Athanasiou still needs to get all his paperwork sorted out, so it could be close to two weeks until he joins the team. But the player acquired in the Riley Sheahan deal yesterday, Scott Wilson, will be in today's lineup.
Wilson's arrival could knock our old friend David Booth into the press box.
With Athanasiou unsigned at the end of preseason, Booth turned a PTO with his hometown team into a cheap one-year deal with a $700,000 cap hit, but has been averaging just 4:56 of ice time in the four games he has played so far.
Booth offered up a crazy tale of life, death and perspective to Dan Murphy on Saturday.
Back on the ice today, Jimmy Howard will make his sixth start of the year in net for the Wings. He's 3-1-0 so far, with a solid 2.54 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.
Up front, the Wings are still being led by ageless Henrik Zetterberg. Dylan Larkin has also bounced back after a rough sophomore campaign and enigmatic scorer Anthony Mantha has finally put his game together. On the back end, Mike Green is showing why he earned a contract with a $6 million cap hit as a free agent a year ago—he's third among all defensemen in scoring with 10 points in eight games.
As for the Canucks, games in Detroit were sure-fire starts for Ryan Miller for the last three years—and he had one of his best moments in his final visit to the Joe last season.
Sounds like Jacob Markstrom will get the start again tonight after picking up the win in Buffalo.
As mentioned, Erik Gudbranson will be back on the blue line, so that bumps Alex Biega to the press box. After his one-game call-up as an extra player, Patrick Wiercioch was re-assigned to the Utica Comets on Saturday.
That leaves the Canucks with an active roster of 22 players, so Brendan Gaunce can be activated without issue. Sounds like he's a bit ahead of schedule for his projected November return.
Don't forget, Gaunce was successfully developed into an NHL player by Travis Green over the course of a season and a half in the AHL. I'm sure Green would now love to try to kick Gaunce's game up another notch at the pro level.
Finally, speaking of Utica, another big win last night for the Comets. Thatcher Demko came up huge as the team came out of the first period with a 3-0 lead on three power-play goals despite having been outshot 22-6 in Rochester. In the end, the power play went 4-for-8, the PK was a perfect 6-for-6 and Demko made 40 saves. Reid Boucher scored twice, with Darren Archibald, Joe LaBate and Guillaume Brisebois adding the other goals, and Nikolay Goldobin picked up another two assists.
Boucher's now ranked 12th in league scoring with 2-6-8 in five games and Goldobin is 14th with 3-4-7. The pair sandwich Elias Petterson's big brother Emil, who has eight points in his first five AHL games with the Milwaukee Admirals—a good sign, yes?
The Comets are now off again until next Saturday. Game time for the Canucks, once again, is 4 p.m.
Enjoy!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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