Wednesday April 6 - Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TSN1040
Vancouver Canucks: 79 GP, 30-36-13, 73 pts, fifth in Pacific Division
Edmonton Oilers: 80 GP, 30-43-7, 67 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
It sounds like tonight's hockey game is basically a warm-up act for the big closing ceremony at Edmonton's Rexall Place.
As explained in this article from Caley Ramsey at Edmonton's Global TV, "The puck drops at 5 p.m. (Mountain Time) Wednesday night. The start time was bumped up several hours from the original 8 p.m. start time to accommodate the post-game ceremony."
The TV listings are showing a one-hour "Farewell to Rexall" special that's scheduled to start at 7 p.m. PT. That'll run coast-to-coast on all four Sportsnet regional feeds, so Leafs fans will also be able to tune in after watching the Toronto/Columbus game.
Bottom line: I think puck drop will happen pretty close to 4 p.m. Plan accordingly if you'd like to actually watch tonight's hockey game.
Two Canucks who will miss the old barn in Edmonton are Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
Courtesy: #Canucks Daniel+Henrik Sedin are 1-2 in pts among active opponents at Rexall. Their 43&42 are above Iginla/Marleau/Doan/Thornton
As usual, the twins are wrapping up the season 1-2 in Canucks scoring this year. Daniel leads the team with 28 goals and Henrik is tops with 43 assists. Can they pad those totals a bit in their last three games before they hang up their skates for the summer?
Daniel's resurgence as a pure goal-scorer has been an offensive bright spot for the Canucks this season. His overall point total is down from 2014-15, but his shooting percentage is in double digits at 11 percent for the first time since the 2011-12 season, and he has a chance to hit the 30-goal mark for the first time in four years.
Maybe it really has taken Daniel all this time to truly get right again after despicable Duncan Keith nailed him with that elbow to the head back in March of 2012?
That being said, the Canucks have yet to score a goal in regular-season play at Rexall this year. In their lone previous visit in March, Vancouver was shut out 2-0 by the Oilers.
Brendan Gaunce would like you to remember, though, that his best chance in that game could have been a goal if the world rotated on a slightly different axis:
Gaunce: "It would be awesome to score in the last game at Rexall Place. I thought I did the last time we were here!" pic.twitter.com/NuH19FldWk
As Abbott points out, Jacob Markstrom should get the start in net tonight.
Now that they're on their best winning streak of the season, can the Canucks make it four in a row?
Vancouver's draft lottery dreams got some help last night thanks to a win by the Winnipeg Jets and an overtime loss by the Calgary Flames. The Jets bumped the Canucks down to 26th place—tied with the Flames with 73 points but above them in the standings thanks to a game in hand.
Canucks fans should root for John Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets against the Maple Leafs tonight. Toronto is now guaranteed to finish below Vancouver—as is Edmonton—but the Blue Jackets sit three points back with three games left to play. They still have a shot!
A couple of other items from the Canucks universe today:
• The Frozen Four gets underway from Tampa on Thursday. On the eve of the event, Joshua Clipperton of The Canadian Press touched base with Canucks prospect Thatcher Demko, who is completing his junior season at Boston College.
It has been widely speculated that Demko will turn pro this summer, but he reports that he has not yet had any discussions with the Canucks.
“To be honest I haven’t talked to them,” Demko told Clipperton in a phone interview. “I think they’re just letting me stay focused on what’s important right now. There’s not much else to it.”
“I have my mind focused on this job and I think [Vancouver] is just giving me some respect in that regard,” said Demko, who could also return to the Eagles for his senior year if he remains unsigned. “I’m sure there will be discussions over the summer of what they want, what I want.”
Jimmy Vesey's decision to explore free agency after finishing his senior year at Harvard has sounded some alarm bells, but I'm going to assume, for now, that everything is fine in the Demko camp. He's a west-coast kid who seems like he has accomplished pretty much everything there is to accomplish at the college level. My guess is that he'll be eager to start learning the pro game in Utica next season.
• If you haven't seen it, check out this transcript of Nikita Tryamkin's media availability from Tuesday's practice, courtesy of Jeff Paterson at Canucks Army.
It's the first time the translator has been brought back to help the big guy answer questions since he first arrived in Vancouver. I always suspect a lot more is being said than what we're fed, but it sounds like all is going well.
The most interesting nugget, I think, is that Tryamkin is getting married on April 30, then will return to Vancouver after that to train for the rest of the summer. The fact that his wedding has been on the horizon makes me even more impressed at his willingness to come over this spring and kickstart his NHL career. As well as providing a spark of hope for the suffering Canucks fans, I think this taste of life in North America has provided him with a valuable benchmark in terms of where his fitness will need to be next season.
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