Saturday April 11 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers - 7 p.m. - CBC, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 47-29-5, 97 points, second in Pacific Division
Edmonton Oilers: 24-44-13, 61 points, sixth in Pacific Division
My hockey brain is already fixating on the Calgary Flames, but the Canucks will host the *other* team from Alberta as they wrap up their season tonight at Rogers Arena on Trevor Linden's 45th birthday.
Born in April of 1970, is it destiny that Linden is the same age as the Canucks franchise itself?
Linden and company will be honouring their old teammate Gino Odjick in tonight's pregame ceremony.
It has been about 10 months since we learned that Odjick had been diagnosed with a terminal heart illness and given just weeks to live.
Here's where Gino's at these days:
He has fought hard to defy his medical odds—true to the character we knew when we saw him scrap his way into the NHL, then win the hearts of fans with his team-first attitude and unlikely friendship with Pavel Bure.
I'm looking forward to the opportunity to pay tribute to one of the franchise's bigger-than-life personalities tonight. I hope the event helps give him strength to keep up the fight!
We'll know in a few hours whether or not tonight's game has any real meaning for the Canucks on the ice.
Vancouver and Calgary still need to determine which team will earn home-ice advantage in their playoff series, but the Flames' game is an early one. They face off at noon PT against the Winnipeg Jets—with national coverage on Sportsnet.
Right now, the Canucks are two points ahead of the Flames in the standings. If Calgary fails to win today, the Canucks will hit the ice tonight knowing that they have second place locked up.
If the Flames do beat Winnipeg, they'll tie the Canucks with 97 points, but they'll hold the tiebreaker thanks to more regulation/overtime wins. In that case, Vancouver would need at least one point tonight to secure home ice.
Sure, the Canucks have put together an impressive road record this season—fourth-best in the league at 24-14-3. But think about the Sea of Red in Calgary and the frenzy their fans will be in before their team's first playoff game in six years. I'd feel a lot better about starting this puppy off at home.
If the Canucks do go into tonight's game with a lock on second place, we might see Willie Desjardins rest a couple of his veterans in place of members of the press box contingent such as Brandon McMillan and Ryan Stanton. Who knows who else might show up?
I certainly hope both Daniel and Henrik Sedin play tonight. After they both dealt with injury issues last year, the twins are the only two Canucks to appear in every game this season.
I also want to see the twins work some of their magic against the Oilers, especially so Daniel can move further up the league scoring standings. He has eight points in four games against Edmonton so far this season.
Shawn Matthias is listed as "questionable" at
Canucks.com but sounded on Thursday like he expected to be ready to play.
There's no game-day skate this morning, so we'll have to wait till warmup to see what else is happening with the lineup. The one thing we do know—Ryan Miller is expected to return to the crease in what's essentially a tune-up game for the playoffs.
The Canucks and Oilers haven't met since November 19. Vancouver went 4-0 against Edmonton over the first five weeks of the season—all with Ryan Miller in net.
The Oilers will be without Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tonight, who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury. Edmonton's also missing three regulars on the blue line: Andrew Ference, Mark Fayne and Nikita Nikitin. Despite being undermanned, the Oilers are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games. They dropped a 3-1 decision to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday after beating L.A. 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Every NHL team is in action today, and the final playoff spot is yet to be determined in the Eastern Conference, with Boston, Pittsburgh and Ottawa fighting it out. The Senators are playing an early game—currently leading Philadelphia 1-0 at the end of the first period.
Enjoy all the action! And if you're going to the game tonight, make sure you're in your seat by 6:45 for the Gino ceremony.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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