Saturday October 20 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Boston Bruins - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet One, CITY-TV, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 7 GP, 4-3-0, 8 pts, third in Pacific Division
Boston Bruins: 7 GP, 4-2-1, 9 pts, third in Atlantic Division
Back in Vancouver with a winning record, the Vancouver Canucks will play host to two top franchises from the Eastern Conference over the next three days.
First up, the Boston Bruins on Saturday. The Bruins are in the midst of a four-game Canadian road trip that has already seen them lose to Calgary in regulation and to Edmonton in overtime. They'll wrap up the trip in Ottawa on Tuesday before heading home.
Once again, their first line is on fire. A four-time Selke winner who has long been renowned for his defensive game, Patrice Bergeron is defying conventional wisdom as he hits new offensive heights at age 33. Last season, he came close to producing at a point-per-game pace for the first time in his career, with 63 points in 64 games and a career high shooting percentage of 13.6.
This year, he's doing even better. Through seven games, he's tied for second in league scoring with 13 points, including six goals, with a shooting percentage of 25.0 percent. And yes, he's still killing it in the faceoff circle, winning 58.2 percent of his draws.
Bergeron's linemates are right there with him. Brad Marchand has 12 points so far and David Pastrnak has 11, including eight goals. That's second-most in the league behind Auston Matthews.
Further down the lineup, there's lots of buzz about a pair of sophomores, Charlie McAvoy and Jake DeBrusk, as well as rookie Ryan Donato. And we may not get many more opportunities to see Zdeno Chara in action. Now 41, his ice time is slowly dialing back from those inhuman levels of a few years back. This season, he's averaging 21:45 per game so far. That's about a minute less than last year but still tops on his team.
Chara, Bergeron, Marchand and David Krejci are the only Boston holdovers from that watershed 2011 Stanley Cup Final against Vancouver—and then-backup Tuukka Rask, though he didn't see a minute of game action in the 2011 playoffs. On the Vancouver side, now that the Sedins are gone, we're down to only Alex Edler and Chris Tanev.
Mike Matheson may be the new Public Enemy No. 1 in Vancouver, but I'm sure Marchand will still hear his share of boos on Saturday night.
“I think maybe it’s more for the fans and the media than anything,” Marchand told
Ben Kuzma of The Province about whether the rivalry still simmered for him. “But it’s always a good feeling going back in that arena, for sure. I’m not liked very much in that city. But it’s still fun to go there.”
Boston has just one significant injury: in the Bruins' final preseason game, defenseman Torey Krug re-injured the ankle that he fractured during last spring's playoffs. He has yet to get into a regular-season game this year.
No word yet on who Boston will tap in goal tonight, but new arrival Jaroslav Halak has been outplaying Tuukka Rask in the early going. Rask is 2-2-0 with a scary .875 save percentage and 4.08 GAA while Halak has sparkled with a 2-0-1 record, a .939 save percentage and a 1.69 GAA.
As for the Canucks, Jacob Markstrom is the first goalie off the ice at their morning skate, so it looks like he'll draw back in for the first time since the 5-3 loss to Carolina on October 9. In three appearances, Markstrom's numbers are in the same neighbourhood as Rask's: a 4.03 GAA and .883 save percentage.
Up front, here are the lines and pairings:
Nikolay Goldobin moved up to play with Horvat and Boeser during the Winnipeg game, and stays in that spot. Jake Virtanen also moves up to the second line, skating with Adam Gaudette and Sven Baertschi.
You want youth? You got it. Today's top six by age:
23-23-21
26-22-22
Brendan Leipsic and Michael Del Zotto remain scratched.
As for Elias Pettersson, he has now officially been placed on injured reserve, retroactive to last Wednesday. That means the first day he'd be eligible to return to action would be next Wednesday, October 24, in Vegas.
More progress in the recovery from his concussion. He was on the ice this morning at Rogers Arena.
Further steps are required but for now, everything continues to head in the right direction.
To wrap up, a quick check-in on the Utica Comets, who bounced back from an early 3-0 deficit to make a game of it, but ultimately fell 4-3 to the Cleveland Monsters as they set the AHL record for consecutive sellouts on Friday night.
Ivan Kulbakov recorded his first loss of the year in net; the Utica power play went 2-for-7 off Jonathan Dahlen's first goal of the year and Darren Archibald's third. Reid Boucher added his league-leading ninth goal at even strength to draw the Comets within one late in the third period, but the team couldn't find the equalizer.
After a bit of a rough start to his season defensively, Olli Juolevi appears to have settled down a bit. He was a minus-7 through his first four games but has had an even plus-minus in each of the last three games, and picked up another power-play assist on Dahlen's goal on Friday.
Here were the scratches from Friday's game:
Expect Trent Cull to switch up his lineup once again, as usual, when the Comets visit the Syracuse Crunch on Saturday.
With that, you're up to date. Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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