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Vancouver Canucks host Blackhawks; Gadjovich best player vs Slovakia at WJC |
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Thursday December 28 - Vancouver Canucks vs. Chicago Blackhawks - 7 p.m. - Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650
Vancouver Canucks: 37 GP, 15-17-5, 35 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
Chicago Blackhawks: 35 GP, 17-13-5, 39 pts, sixth in Central Division
The Vancouver Canucks get back to work after a four day break on Thursday night, hosting their old rivals the Chicago Blackhawks.
Not many players remain on either side from that galvanizing 2011 playoff series. After last year's departures of Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen, only the Sedins, Alex Edler and Chris Tanev are still with the Canucks. On the Blackhawks side, there's Kane and Toews, Keith and Seabrook, and this year's returnee Patrick Sharp, as well as Corey Crawford—who won't play tonight due to an upper-body injury.
I had forgotten that current Utica Comets GM Ryan Johnson finished out his career with Chicago that season. His final NHL game was Game 7 against the Canucks—and he was a minus-two, so he was on the ice for both Vancouver goals, including Burrows' dragon-slayer tally.
The Hawks haven't lived up to their usual Cup-contender level of play through the first three months of the season, but the fact that they're only four points ahead of the Canucks is a bit deceptive. Chicago has played just 35 games so far, among the fewest in the league. They're four games above .500, which won't earn 'em a Presidents' Trophy but should keep 'em in the playoff hunt in the tough Central Division. Who would you take if they ended up in a 1-vs-8 matchup against Vegas in the first round?
Chicago's plus-nine goal differential ranks them ahead of teams like Washington, Columbus, Dallas and Minnesota, which are all currently in playoff positions. But Crawford has been their best player this season—Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy is the only starter with a save percentage better than Crawford's .929, and his 2.27 goals-against is also among the best in the league.
With Crawford sidelined, that means Anton Forsberg is expected to start in net for Chicago. The 25-year-old is just 1-4-3 so far this season, with a 3.13 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.
Compare that to Jacob Markstrom—whose pre-Christmas struggles put him at 9-12-4 with a .905 save percentage, but a 2.77 goals-against.
Markstrom is confirmed to start tonight, after Anders Nilsson took a tongue-lashing from Travis Green at practice on Wednesday.
Green is unapologetic.
To use a very dated reference, Markstrom has become the Forrest Gump of goalies—you never know what you're going to get. He made some great saves in his last outing against St. Louis, but also let in two softies.
And unfortunately for him, he won't have Chris Tanev back to help out tonight.
The Canucks are 1-3-1 in the five games since Tanev was injured, and have given up 24 goals in those five games.
No word yet on how the blue line will look tonight. Green rotated seven defensemen last weekend against the Blues.
A reminder: it's not unusual to see teams looking sluggish after the holidays.
Maybe the Canucks got that out of their system during their hard practice on Wednesday.
One other story that has created lots of buzz over the last few days: with Alex Burmistrov's return to Russia, there's fear that Nikolay Goldobin might be next. He says "I don’t want to go now, I’m in the NHL right now. Not thinking about it."
Now, back to World Juniors, where the Canucks' own Jonah Gadjovich was named player of the game after two goals and a game high seven shots in Canada's 6-0 win over Slovakia on Wednesday.
The rest of the prospects are in action today. Olli Juolevi's Finn's just outshot Denmark 62-7 on their way to a 4-1 win, evening their round-robin record at 1-1. Later today, Sweden takes on the Czechs at 1 p.m. PT, then Team USA plays Slovakia at 4 p.m.
Elias Pettersson is not feeling 100 percent, but will play today.
With the Canada/U.S. outdoor game scheduled for Friday at noon PT (weather permitting), the Americans are in a pretty tight back-to-back situation. It'll be interesting to see how that impacts their player deployment.
In closing—the holiday trade freeze has now been lifted. With the Canucks close to having a full complement of healthy defensemen and plenty of demand for blueliners around the league, it'll be interesting to see if Jim Benning pulls off a deal in the not-too-distant future.
Enjoy the game!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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