Vancouver Canucks

[bondon]

The injury bug strikes again for the Canucks. Joining the ranks is Daniel Sedin who woke up with a stiff back.

Dan Murphy @sportsnetmurph
Daniel Sedin has a sore back. The real #SignsMancariIscoming

Lines are going to be shaken up again. Tonight you will see:
Raymond-H.Sedin-Burrows
Higgins-Kesler-Hansen
Mancari-Hodgson-Weise
Rome-Malhotra-Lapierre

Mark MANcari is in, defense is status quo. Schneider getting the start in net.

If the Canucks still beat the 'Canes i'm gonna lolololololol all night.

[Loch]

Lookin' forward to some non-bias HNIC coverage today! They have no pro-Leaf track record right?

(I'll let the Habs and Sens fans field that!)

Irony states that the Canucks go 0-9 on the PP tonight against the league's worst PK.

[bondon]

Lookin' forward to some non-bias HNIC coverage today! They have no pro-Leaf track record right?

(I'll let the Habs and Sens fans field that!)

Irony states that the Canucks go 0-9 on the PP tonight against the league's worst PK.

Haha, I'm going over to a buddy's place to watch the game with six Leaf fans, someone check to see if I'm still alive after the game please.

Lines tonight thanks to Dan Murphy:
D.Sedin - H.Sedin - Burrows
Higgins - Kesler - Raymond
Malhotra - Hodgson - Hansen
MANcari - Lapierre - Weise

Really looking forward to seeing what Raymond can do with Higgins and Kesler. Raymond was easily the Canucks' best forward the other night against Carolina, should be a great game!

[bondon]

I thought that was a fantastic hockey game through two periods, a lot of back and forth. Then the third period rolled around and the Canucks thoroughly dominated Toronto in every facet in that period (Toronto really dogged it). Both sides managed to get away with some blatant penalties at various points in the game. Just some quick thoughts:

- Luongo - overall pretty solid tonight, made a few incredible stops early in the game that prevented the Leafs from getting out to a lead. Unfortunately Luongo just had to open his mouth and make himself look like a fool. During one of the TV timeouts it looked like Luongo was chirping the Leafs bench, next thing you know on the next play he gives up a goal to Bozak (it was a great goal btw)

- First goal - Good feed by Edler to Higgins who was all alone in front, Higgins put the back-hander home
- Second goal - Raymond streaked in and found the loose puck on a scramble play in front
- Third goal - No chance for Gustavsson whatsoever on this goal as Burrows made a beauty pass to Daniel who popped it top corner short-side
- Fourth goal - Burrows - good patience shown by Henrik, and a very nice shot from Burrows
- Fifth goal - Easily my favourite of the night from the Canucks. Hansen managed to squeak by Phaneuf one on one on a partial breakaway and put it past Gustavsson. Hansen is playing with a ton of confidence this year (loved the ballsy dangle he tried to pull off on the PK against Carolina) and now has 10 goals on the season, already passing his career high before the halfway point in the season.

Aaron Rome was injured in the third period, I assume it was after blocking a shot.

My Keith Ballard turnover count was at three. May have missed one or two. But he sure as shit made those three that I saw count!

[bondon]

Just thought Canucks fans might find this interesting, thanks to Angus for tweeting this.

Ron MacLean discusses his position regarding Alex Burrows.

Wouldn't really call it an apology, its more of an explanation lol. People who aren't fans of Burrows (and I know there are a lot of ya) probably won't give two craps about this.

PS: Wonder if that 'good beer' he had with PJ/Mitchell/Malhotra was what led to this haha

[bondon]

Sorry about the triple post in succession here but I want to keep all these thoughts/topics separate lol. My brother just texted me this, found it pretty damn funny.

Scientific proof that Kevin Bieksa has two different people living in his face

[bondon]

Unfortunate news for Rome who suffered another hand injury in Saturday's game against Toronto. Broken thumb, out 3-4 weeks.

Keith Ballard had back spasms so he won't play tonight. Can't really afford those boneheaded turnovers of his against the league's top team tonight anyway so woohoo. Sulzer will take his place and will skate with Andrew Alberts on the third d-pairing.

As far as I've heard everything else is status quo. PMB is making his return tonight for the Wild while Koivu will sit out another game. Backstrom gets the start.

[bondon]

Great to see Luongo pitch a shutout last game, especially considering how terrible he usually is against Minnesota. He gets the start again tonight against the Red Wings.

Kesler loves playing against the Red Wings. Last season he had seven assists in four games. Looking for him to have a big night to continue his successful campaign.

Lineup is pretty much the same except with a couple of changes, Andrew Ebbett will take Mancari's spot in the lineup.

D.Sedin-H.Sedin-Burrows
Higgins-Kesler-Raymond
Malhotra-Hodgson-Hansen
Ebbett-Lapierre-Weise

Ballard was on the ice for the morning skate but still remains DTD. Sulzer will once again take his place and pair with Andrew Alberts.

Should be a great game tonight between two strong teams!

[ridinryan44]

I'm a really big Sulzer fan and am stoked to see him back in the lineup. He may not hold the "upside" Ballard does, or show a flash of brilliance with a crazy end-to-end rush, but he's been dependable and has good enough offensive skills to be on the second unit. Would like to see more of him this season. Another very good off-season signing be Gillis and his crew.

I'm glad to see Mancari out of the lineup as its easy to see why he's never stuck in the big show. He makes terrible decisions with the puck and is even worse when under pressure, which is pretty much always in the NHL. What a waste of size. He seems like he should be an effective player.

[ridinryan44]

Ballard is a go tonight.

Edler said he is a go tonight but management says he's a game time decision. If Alex says he's going I'm gonna believe him.

[bondon]

Higgins is out...lineup getting shifted a bit.

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Raymond-Kesler-Hansen
Ebbett-Hodgson-Weise
Malhotra-Lapierre-Mancari

D pairings are the same, Ballard and Alberts make up the third pair.

Luongo in net.

Always love it when the Canucks and Sharks play against each other!

[CaptainK]

who's playing the 1st PP point? edler+salo or edler+bieksa? salo hasn't gotten anything in a long time...

[ridinryan44]

who's playing the 1st PP point? edler+salo or edler+bieksa? salo hasn't gotten anything in a long time...

Edler/Salo. Bieksa and Hamhuid run the second unit.

[bondon]

Entertaining game last night to say the least. Missed the second period but just some quick thoughts

-Luongo was absolutely incredible last night. Like Ryan and Angus mentioned on Twitter, its ridiculous how Luongo can just throw on a switch and go from so bad in the first couple of months to so dominant in the last month. Huge save early on a breakaway for Joe Pavelski. I don't know if he didn't realize he had time or if he thought he had an angle but if I were him I would have held it and dangled Luongo's socks off lol.
-I thought the Raymond-Kesler-Hansen line looked very dangerous early in the game. They were using their speed just to out work the Sharks in the first. Hansen doesn't look out of place at all. Really loving the confidence he's playing with this season, that plus aggression is what is causing him to have such a good year IMO
-Bieksa and Edler still on a roll on the back-end points wise. Bieksa has 11 points in 13 games this month and has only had one game where he was a minus (and he was a minus-one). He's +13 this month. Would have been awesome if he had gotten that OT winner but it looked like Ebbett got a nice tip in there. Edler got another two helpers and is still on pace for an incredible 59 points this season.
-Kesler train keeps rolling. He's been great this year, both fantasy and in real life. Would really appreciate it if he stopped all the extra antics though,its getting damn frustrating to show him support when he keeps doing stuff that pisses me off. I thought he kicked the habit last year. Still one of my favourite players to watch though.

Finally, getting really tired of seeing players get in the Sedins' faces with no fear of getting their asses handed to them. I swear, between Marchand's use of Daniel's face as a speed bag and Thornton trying to feed his finger to Henrik last night, I get the whole 'punish them on the PP' thing but shit get someone in the lineup who will make these guys think twice about doing bullshit like that.

Canucks square off against the Ducks tonight and then against the Kings on Saturday on HNIC.

[hawkdog]

not sure what pisses you off about Kesler, he's awesome.

If he did shit like Thornton did to Hank last night than that would be something to be pissed at. Kesler plays on the edge.

I don't think you need a tough guy to stop the shit like Thornton did, the refs should call an unsportsmanlike for that. That is the strategy that teams are using now - ruff up the sedins and hope for a reaction. But the canucks are not taking the bait, they just go out and win the game.

Boston is up next week, should be an interesting game!