Monday November 6 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Detroit Red Wings - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 13 GP, 7-4-2, 16 pts, fourth in Pacific Division
Detroit Red Wings: 15 GP, 7-7-1, 15 pts, fourth in Atlantic Division
Two weeks ago, the Vancouver Canucks caught the Detroit Red Wings midway through a swoon, when they went 0-5-1 in six games. The Wings' fortunes have improved since they got free-agent holdout Andreas Athanasiou back in their lineup, though. He has just two points in five games so far but his linemates Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha are now both tied for Wings' scoring lead with 13 points and Detroit has won three of its last four games, including a 4-0 shutout victory on Sunday in Edmonton.
So—Detroit could put up a better fight than when they fell to the Canucks by a 4-1 score on October 22 at Little Caesars Arena. But they are on a back-to-back at the beginning of their Western Canadian road trip, so that works in Vancouver's favour.
Petr Mrazek got the shutout on Sunday in Edmonton, so I expect we'll see Jimmy Howard in net tonight. He took the loss to Vancouver last month and has carried the majority of the workload for Detroit through the first part of the season, but the two netminders are now boasting nearly identical numbers—Howard has a .927 save percentage and 2.53 goals-against average while Mrazek is at .923 and 2.55 after Sunday's shutout.
Gustav Nyquist scored Detroit's second goal on Sunday, his fifth of the year, but did not finish the game after a knee-on-knee collision with Eric Gryba. He's considered day-to-day, so it's not known whether he'll be able to play tonight. Defenseman Danny DeKeyser also remains on the shelf with an ankle injury.
Veteran Frans Nielsen characterized Sunday's win as a "very solid, simple road game," to
Helene St. James of the
Detroit Free Press after the game. "It was 60 minutes, very few mistakes, we got pucks deep, we were good on the forecheck."
"Hopefully we learned something from tonight and we can see that when we don’t make those mistakes in the neutral zone and turn pucks over, if we play a more simple game and try and outwork the opponents, we can be a really tough team to play against," he added. "We’ve got a lot of skill here, so once the opportunity comes, we can take advantage of that."
The Wings are coming up against a Canucks team that's on a huge high after beating the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. As well as the excitement of Brock Boeser's first career hat trick, the Canucks are starting to gain some notice for the evolution of their team identity and strong defensive play.
"There is nothing fluky about their record (which currently has the Canucks 12th in the league standings, tied with EIGHT other teams with 16 points)," writes
Ed Willes in
The Province today .
"It isn’t the result of being carried by one or two players or benefiting from a couple of lucky breaks. It is, in fact, an accurate reflection of their overall game. Under Travis Green, they have a system and an identity. They roll four lines and get contributions up and down the lineup. Their goaltending has been solid.
"To date, the Canucks’ biggest accomplishment is they’ve changed the conversation around their team," Willes adds. "Given the last two seasons and where they started in September, that’s saying a lot."
I like what I'm seeing, too, but I'm still not sure whether or not this is a mirage. The Canucks had honeymoon periods when Willie Desjardins and John Tortorella first took over the team, too.
Torts went 8-4-1 (17 pts) in his first 13 games in Vancouver in 2013-14 and Willie was 9-4-0 (18 pts) in his first season one year later, so Green's team at 7-4-2 is actually a shade behind both those records. It's heartening to see the Canucks off to a good start, especially with the Young Guns carrying the load offensively and their much-improved team defense.
With five points already in the bank through the first four games of this homestand, they'll have a chance to wrap up this section of their schedule above .500 before they hit the road for four games starting on Tuesday.
Will the Sedins see more ice tonight than they did on Saturday against Pittsburgh? Probably. The pair played about 14 minutes against the Red Wings back in October and Daniel picked up the assist on Jake Virtanen's goal. The Canucks are also coming into a back-to-back of their own, with a game on Tuesday in Calgary, so I'd expect Travis Green to try to balance ice time as much as possible to keep his team fresh on both nights.
I wonder if Brendan Gaunce will get his first NHL action of the year in the next 48 hours, to help spread out the workload?
Comets' GM Ryan Johnson gives Gaunce a thumbs-up for his conditioning stint.
As expected, Jayson Megna was re-assigned to Utica on Sunday in order to make room for Gaunce on the roster.
Johnson also suggests that Nikolay Goldobin is not far away from making the jump to being a full-time NHLer.
Not sure yet what happens with goaltending tonight—and the morning skate is providing little clarity:
Will things change by game time?
I'm tantalized by the possibility that Thatcher Demko might make his NHL debut this week—even if it does end up being on the road...
Finally—the big Matt Duchene trade went down last night and as part of the fallout, Kyle Turris was removed from the list of impending unrestricted free agents when he signed a long-term deal with his new team in Nashville.
The Sens and Preds are instantly made better. Now it's up to Joe Sakic to get more out of his bounty of picks and prospects than he was able to extract from his return in the Ryan O'Reilly trade. O'Reilly was traded two summers ago, with Jamie McGinn, for JT Compher, Mikhail Grigorenko, Nikita Zadorov and a second-round pick in the 2015 draft (Jeremy Roy).
I'm a big fan of both O'Reilly and Duchene from having watched and talked with them at World Championships. Here's my take on the deal:
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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