Friday October 16 - Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues - 7:00 p.m. - Sportsnet Vancouver, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 3-0-1, 7 points, first in Pacific Division
St. Louis Blues: 3-1-0, 6 points, third in Central Division
In Willie Desjardins' inaugural season behind the bench last year, the Canucks surprised out of the gate by going 3-1-0 on their way to a 101-point season.
This year, they're one point better.
The Canucks have earned a small measure of respect this week from Dan Rosen at NHL.com, who moved them up to No. 13 on his
Super 16 power rankings.
David Ebner at
The Globe and Mail gives credit to Ryan Miller for great goaltending, but thinks the Canucks' hot early pace is unsustainable, since they're ranking 22nd out of 30 teams in puck possession.
I'm not sure the Canucks themselves care too much about advanced stats. In
The Province, Jason Botchford reports that Sven Baertschi leads all forwards in shot attempt differential through the first four games. Yet, he was demoted to the fourth line during Tuesday's game in Los Angeles and dropped another peg on the depth chart at practice on Thursday, skating as the extra forward.
With just a single assist in his first four games, Baertschi's expected to take a seat in the press box for tonight's game against St. Louis, while all three rookies draw in.
To his credit, Baertschi seems to be taking the demotion in stride. From Botchford:
“Life goes on,” was the response from the chilled Baertschi.
“If I was 30-years-old, maybe it would be different. I’d be like ‘What’s going on here?’
“But I’m still young. The main thing is I have to stay calm and as soon as I get a chance again, I have to secure a spot.”
Today's morning skate is optional, so Irf's running with yesterday's combinations as the most likely starting combinations for tonight:
Sutter's back with the twins, Prust is staying on the second line with Horvat and Vrbata, McCann's centring the third line with Burrows and Hansen and Virtanen's on the fourth line with Dorsett and Cracknell.
Here's what's probably the biggest news from today's practice:
On Thursday, Willie described Markstrom as being "a ways away," and there's no rush to get him back into the lineup. The Canucks are home for the next five games, with at least one day off between every game, so Miller should easily be able to handle the load.
The next back-to-back comes in two weeks, when the Canucks hit the road to take on Dallas on October 29 and Arizona on October 30. It'd be nice if the goalies could share that set of games.
Now—back to the present.
The St. Louis Blues hit town after a tidy 4-2 win over the Oilers last night in Edmonton.
The Blues extended their winning streak against the Oilers to eight games, but have lost six straight to the Canucks:
The Blues are alternating their goalies to start the season, so Jake Allen will get the nod against Vancouver tonight.
Three key injuries for the Blues at the moment. Patrick Berglund's on the shelf with a shoulder issue, rookie Robby Fabbri suffered a concussion in his second NHL game and star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body issue.
The Blues' offense has been strong in the early going, led by Vladimir Tarasenko's five points in the team's first four games. Another player to watch tonight is the Blues' version of Ben Hutton, Colton Parayko.
Parayko's also 22. He's a giant at 6'5" and 226 pounds, was drafted in the third round in 2012 and played his college hockey in Alaska (!) before joining the Chicago Wolves for 17 games last season.
Speaking of Hutton,
click here to read Brad Ziemer's story from the
Vancouver Sun about how he and Jake Virtanen celebrated receiving their first NHL paycheques yesterday with a trip out to Abbotsford to have dinner with Jake's parents.
I wonder if they made it to Castle Fun Park in time for a round of mini-golf?
Finally, to wrap today—a teaser video on the Canuck players goal songs:
After watching this, I'm hoping for a huge offensive explosion tonight so we can start hearing these tracks and dissecting their significance.
Once again, due to baseball, you'll find the game on Sportsnet Vancouver tonight. Enjoy!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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