Saturday Feb. 7 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Pittsburgh Penguins - 7:00 p.m. - CBC, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 28-19-3, 59 points, fourth in Pacific Division
Pittsburgh Penguins: 30-14-8, 68 points, first in Atlantic Division
With the Vancouver Canucks coming off one of their worst losses of the season, I'm going to open this blog with a couple of bits of good news:
The Pittsburgh Penguins' Western Canada road trip has been nearly perfect thus far. Marc-Andre Fleury shut out both the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday and the Calgary Flames on Friday, so the Canucks are lucky to get yet another team at the end of a back-to-back, and one that is playing its backup goalie.
Thomas Greiss has a 3-1-2 record on the road this season, and was also in net for Vancouver's impressive 3-0 win over Pittsburgh back in early December.
The Penguins are healthier now, and David Perron has lived up to expectations as Sidney Crosby's new right winger, with 12 points in 14 games since joining Pittsburgh in early January. For his part, Crosby has been struggling to score, relatively speaking, but had two beauties against Calgary on Friday night. Talk about being held to a higher standard: For all his challenges, Crosby's still just two points out of top spot in the NHL scoring race.
Because they're the Penguins, there will still be a couple of key bodies missing from the lineup tonight. Pascal Dupuis remains sidelined with blood clots, Blake Comeau has been out since Christmas with a wrist injury, Olli Maatta is on the shelf with a shoulder problem and ex-Canuck Christian Ehrhoff has been out of action for the last week with a suspected concussion.
For the Canucks, Ryan Miller is absent from Saturday's optional skate, so he's expected to get the start tonight. Also absent: Zack Kassian. I figured after Thursday's debacle that he'd get a chance to draw in and see if he can bring some emotion to the team.
If you didn't hear, Friday's practice out at UBC was a little more heated than we've come to expect from this year's edition of the Canucks. Willie amped up his message:
We even saw an on-ice skirmish between Yannick Weber and Shawn Matthias:
Elliott Pap has both players' descriptions of the incident in
this Vancouver Sun article.
Weber: "Shawn and I are really good friends and it's just heat of the moment."
Matthias: "It's a battle drill and you have two guys trying hard and he got a couple of good shots on me there. He cross-checked me three times in the face, so I wanted to get one back."
As practice concludes...
I'll take that. And I'll expect to see No. 8 back in his usual position beside Alex Edler tonight.
The Canucks, of course, are wrapping up a six-game homestand before hitting the road for two tough games next week against Minnesota and Chicago. The best they can do with this homestand is salvage a 3-3 record if they can beat Pittsburgh tonight—not exactly ideal, but the only decent scenario that's left on the table.
Vancouver's home record is now 13-11-1—sandwiched in between non-playoff teams Dallas and Florida at 23rd in the league, while they're an impressive fifth on the road.
I guess it's a good thing that home ice advantage looks like it'll be a non-issue in the playoffs?
A win tonight would bounce the Canucks back into third place in the Pacific Division, ahead of Calgary. Of the teams chasing Vancouver, Colorado and Minnesota will face each other tonight, while Dallas meets Buffalo in a "should-win." L.A. will be in tough against Tampa Bay, who are virtually unbeatable at home.
The Canucks are 4-5 on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights so far this season. In a marquee matchup against one of the league's best players (and best teams), here's hoping they can live up to the promise they're making, of matching the intensity they showed on Tuesday against Winnipeg.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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