Thursday October 26 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Washington Capitals - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 9 GP, 5-3-1, 11 pts, third in Pacific Division
Washington Capitals: 9 GP, 4-4-1, 9 pts, sixth in Metropolitan Division
Home and happy after their successful road trip, the Vancouver Canucks will be looking to extend their three-game winning streak when they kick off a five-game homestand tonight against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
The Caps' last games were back-to-backs last weekend, which saw them come from behind to defeat Detroit on Ovechkin's overtime winner at Little Caesars Arena on Friday, then drop a 4-1 decision to Florida at home on Saturday. The two-time defending Presidents' Trophy winners got off to a hot start when Ovi scored seven goals in his first two games, but they have cooled off since.
Ovechkin's now up to 10 goals—one behind Nikita Kucherov in the early Rocket Richard Trophy race—and the Caps are looking to get back on track after just one win in their last four games.
The team has been working hard this week—practicing Monday and Tuesday in Washington before travelling to Vancouver later on Tuesday. I was at the Caps' practice at UBC on Wednesday, where Nicklas Backstrom told me the team is looking for more consistency—within each game and over longer timeframes:
I feel like the first couple of games were good but the last couple of games, we haven't been where we want. I feel like the league is so good these days. You've got to put a streak together and we're looking for that. We're looking to find a 60-minute complete game, so hopefully we can do it.
Backstrom's currently centring a line with Tom Wilson and T.J. Oshie, while Ovechkin has found good chemistry with Evgeny Kuznetsov. The pair will have big Alex Chiasson on their right wing tonight.
Kuznetsov said he didn't think there was any sort of message being sent by the coach with his three-straight practice sessions. "We're always practicing like that," he said. "That's our mentality, just working hard every day and making sure everyone's focused, everyone's paying attention, and just execute."
Even with the usual suspects like Ovechkin, Backstrom, Oshie and Braden Holtby still in place, the Caps underwent a long list of offseason changes. Up front, Justin Williams and Marcus Johansson are gone, while Karl Alzner, Nate Schmidt and trade deadline pickup Kevin Shattenkirk are missing from the defense.
Injury-wise, Andre Burakovsky and Matt Niskanen will both be out of the lineup tonight. Keep an eye out for Christian Djoos (son of former NHLer Per Djoos) playing big minutes on defense, and the NHL's first Australian player, Nathan Walker, on the fourth line.
For their part, the Canucks were off on Wednesday after returning home from Minnesota and are having a pretty well-attended optional game-day skate this morning.
Two of the three injured Canucks also skated today as they rehab their knee injuries, which seems like a good sign!
Alex Edler was injured exactly two weeks ago against Winnipeg, while Loui Eriksson has been sidelined for 12 days. Eriksson's on the long-term injured reserve list, though.
According to CapFriendly, that means he can't return to the lineup until he misses at least 10 games and 24 days. Ten games takes us through the end of this homestand, to November 6, which will be 23 days since the injury took place, so it looks like the earliest he'd be allowed to get back into the lineup, if he's healthy, would be November 9 in Anaheim.
The Canucks have also made a couple of expected housekeeping announcements over the last couple of days:
• On Wednesday, Thatcher Demko was re-assigned to Utica after his two-day recall. He was with the team in Minnesota but it makes sense that he'd be sent back to New York now, rather than coming all the way out to Vancouver. The Comets play back-to-back games in Charlotte, North Carolina this Saturday and Sunday before finally playing their home opener at the newly renovated Adirondack Bank Center at the Utica Memorial Auditorium next Wednesday, November 1, against Rochester.
• On Thursday morning, Brendan Gaunce was also officially assigned to the Comets to start his conditioning assignment. Sounds like he probably travelled with Demko.
I would assume, by making the announcement on Thursday, it keeps the meter running a little longer on his 14 potential minor-league days.
After his shutout against Minnesota on Tuesday, Anders Nilsson will get his first regular-season start at Rogers Arena tonight.
The Canucks' success on the road has temporarily overshadowed what is still a huge weakness—the power play. Going into tonight's game, Vancouver is ranked 29th overall with a 10 percent success rate. That's even worse than the 14.1 percent rate that they finished with at the end of last season. How can they *still* be going backward?
Not surprisingly, the Caps can produce with the man advantage. They're currently ranked seventh at 25 percent. But, their penalty kill is ranked 25th, with only a 76.9 percent success rate, while Vancouver is 13th at 82.8. Will this be the night that the Canucks finally start to produce with the man advantage?
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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