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Vancouver Canucks Game Day: April 7 vs. Anaheim Ducks, @strombone1 Speaks |
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Vancouver Canucks vs. Anaheim Ducks - Monday April 7 - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, PrimeTicket
Vancouver Canucks: 35-32-11, 81 points, 11th in Western Conference
Anaheim Ducks: 50-20-8, 108 points, second in Western Conference
After winning their first game of the year against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, can the Vancouver Canucks also break the goose-egg when they face the Anaheim Ducks on Monday at Rogers Arena?
This story feels so familiar, since we covered it just nine days ago. The Ducks are three points behind St. Louis at the top of the Western Conference standings, so they'll play one of the wild card teams in the playoffs. Just like last week, they're coming into Vancouver after losing last night in Edmonton—this time by a score of 4-2.
In a strange twist of fate, the top four teams in the West are all currently on late-season losing streaks, while the bottom five have been winning. Who's playing good hockey now??
There are only three games on the schedule tonight. Minnesota meets Winnipeg, who currently sit one point behind Vancouver.
Though SportsClubStats.com still pegs Vancouver's playoff chances at 0.0 percent, where they've been for the past week, the team is still alive...barely. If Dallas had beaten Florida on Sunday, it would have all been over—the Stars would have been eight points ahead of the Canucks, who have four games to go and would lose a tiebreaker.
Instead, Roberto Luongo and the Panthers stepped up and handed the Stars a 3-2 defeat. The best part of all? @strombone1 posted his first tweet in a month about it, after the game. Golden!
Luo can still pick up over 7,000 Retweets in the blink of an eye.
It's comforting to me that he's still paying attention, even though his actions will most likely mean that Eddie Lack will get his 19th straight start, since the team is still not technically out of the playoff picture.
Sounds like Torts is not as grateful, judging from his comments at today's optional morning skate:
Ben Kuzma has the line combinations from Sunday's practice:
Nick Jensen's back up with the twins. Let's see if he can find his scoring touch again.
Yannick Weber was back at practice on Sunday. Will he get into tonight's lineup, or has he lost his spot to Frank Corrado? Are there any other defensemen who could be scratched? I thought Edler was much better than usual on Saturday and Jason Garrison also looked good.
As a whole, the team looked rejuvenated against the Kings and had so much more jump than usual in the third period. It made me think the guys took full advantage of those three days of rest and recovery between games.
The other big storyline tonight is what will probably be Teemu Selanne's final game against the Canucks before his retirement. Talking about fatigue—43-year-old Selanne has played his entire career in the tough Western Conference, which makes his longevity even more impressive.
In 77 games against Vancouver over 22 seasons, Selanne has 42 goals and 49 assists for 91 points—averaging more than a point a game. I remember what an amazing breath of fresh air he was when he landed on a grinding Winnipeg Jets team and promptly scored 76 goals in his rookie season in 1992-93. He has inflicted some damage on Vancouver over the years, but has always been great fun to watch. I'm a fan.
Selanne has been on the verge of retirement for so long, I'm taking this one with a bit of a grain of salt. I remember the nice ovation he got from the crowd during his supposed "last" game last season, though this year's tour seems to carry a little more gravitas. I guess we'll see if he comes up with a clever video to announce his return again this summer.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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