Columnist image

| Archive

The Vancouver Canucks (38-25-4) roll out the welcome mat for the Toronto Maple Leafs (27-36-6) this afternoon at Rogers Arena. It's the second and final meeting of the regular season between these two with the Leafs handing the Canucks a 5-2 loss on December 6th at Air Canada Centre.

The Canucks could have as many as four healthy regulars back in their line-up with Brad Richardson (foot -- 24 games) & Kevin Bieksa (hand -- 22 games) both expected to return for the first time since the All-Star break. Chris Higgins and Yannick Weber have both missed the team's last two games with minor injuries. Linden Vey, Brandon McMillan, Ryan Stanton, Frank Corrado and Adam Clendening appear to be the odd men out. Alex Burrows took a maintenance day and missed practice on Friday and his status for today's game is questionable.

If Bieksa plays, this will be just the 24th time in 68 games that the Canucks have had their top six defensemen healthy and dressed for the same game.

Eddie Lack makes his fifth straight start and 11th straight appearance. He allowed three goals in a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings in his last outing on Thursday night. Lack is 7-3-1 in his past 11 decisions.

After scoring the game's first goal in a 2-1 win over Anaheim on Monday, the Canucks again fell behind on Thursday against the Kings. That is seven of the last eight games and 17 of 22 since the All-Star break in which the Canucks have surrendered the game's first goal. Since the start of January, the Canucks are 11-4 against Eastern opponents.

Canucks captain and scoring leader Henrik Sedin has 0+1=1 in his past four games while brother Daniel has gone six games without a goal. Daniel had one of the Canucks two goals in the earlier loss to the Leafs. Chris Tanev scored the other.

The Leafs arrive here after a 6-3 loss in Calgary last night. They gave up two short-handed goals on the same first period power play and dug themselves a 4-1 hole after 20 minutes of play. David Booth scored twice and the former Canuck has 5+2=7 on a six-game point streak. James Reimer went the distance in goal which means Jonathan Bernier is likely to get the start tonight. Bernier is 3-0 lifetime against the Canucks.

Nazem Kadri returns to the Leafs line-up after a three-game team-imposed suspension for disciplinary reasons.

The Leafs are 1-15-2 in their 18 road games in 2015 and overall are 6-20-3 since Peter Horachek replaced Randy Carlyle on January 6th. Joffrey Lupul has gone 17 games without a goal since last scoring in Tampa Bay on December 29th.

West Vancouver's Morgan Rielly leads the Leafs in scoring since the All-Star break with 3+8=11. Booth is second in that span with 5+5=10.

Vernon, BC native Eric Brewer, who had his first point as a Leaf last night, will play his 997th NHL game tonight and is scheduled to reach the 1,000 game milestone in Ottawa next Saturday.

Phil Kessel has gone eight games without a goal (February 26th vs PHI).

Both Jannik Hansen and James Reimer will celebrate birthdays tomorrow. Hansen turns 29 while Reimer will be 27.