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VANCOUVER – It’s an early start for the Vancouver Canucks (11-14-3) and Dallas Stars (13-10-3) who meet in a 1pm matinee at Rogers Arena.

The Canucks return to action after a gut-wrenching 4-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday when the winning goal was scored short-handed with six and a half minutes to play. Brock Boeser scored twice for the Canucks while Alex Edler netted his first of the season. Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves in goal.

The last two games in which Boeser has scored he has scored twice (against Colorado and Vegas). While his season has been interrupted by a nagging groin injury, Boeser has six goals and seven assists for 13 points in the past 13 games he has appeared in. He has had 18 shot attempts in his two games back from injury.

Alex Edler left Thursday’s game with four and a half minutes to play after a collision with Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves. However, Edler returned to the ice at practice on Friday and is expected to play this afternoon. Former Star Antoine Roussel (shoulder) and Erik Gudbranson (neck) both missed Thursday’s game, but practised yesterday. With no morning skate ahead of today’s early face-off, both are considered questionable for this contest.

After watching as the back-up for the past three games, Anders Nilsson is expected to get the start in goal today. He last played last Friday night in a 4-0 loss in San Jose. That was his first game action since October 25 as he missed a month with a fractured finger.

On Thursday, Bo Horvat logged 23:41. He had a pair of third period assists, giving him a team-leading 24 points (11 goals and 13 assists) on the season. The heavy workload was nothing new. It was the eighth time in the past 14 games that Horvat’s ice time has topped 23 minutes.

The Canucks are 1-1-1 in their past three games, but 1-8-2 in their last 11. They have dropped four straight on home ice.

Dallas gets back to work after having the past two nights off. The Stars were 4-3 winners in overtime in Calgary on Wednesday night. Tyler Seguin scored the winner 24 seconds into OT. Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza and Gavin Bayreuther had the other Dallas goals. The win came 24 hours after the Stars fell 1-0 in overtime in Edmonton on Tuesday.

Benn leads the team with 10 goals and five power play goals while Seguin is the top point producer with 25 (eight goals, 17 assists). Seguin shares the league lead for shots on goal this season with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Both have 111. Without a goal in his first 21 games of the season, Valeri Nichushkin will be a healthy scratch today. The Stars will also be without high-scoring defenseman John Klingberg, who is out with a broken hand. They’re also missing blueliners Marc Methot and Stephen Johns.

Third-overall pick in the 2017 draft Miro Heiskanen leads all NHL rookies in ice time averaging 22:57 a night. Bayreuther is third on that list logging 20:20 in his eight games in the league.

Ben Bishop has missed the past five games with a lower body injury, but he returns to action and will get the start this afternoon. He has not played since leaving a November 19 game against the Rangers in New York.

This game marks the end of a difficult stretch of the Stars’ schedule that has seen them play seven of eight and 13 of their last 18 games on the road.

The Canucks won two of three meetings and picked up five of six available points against the Stars last season. The road team won all three of the head-to-head match-ups with two of the three contests played in the Lone Star State.

Canucks lineup from Friday practice

Gagner-Horvat-Virtanen
Goldobin-Pettersson-Boeser
Roussel-Granlund-Eriksson
Schaller-Gaudette-Motte

Del Zotto-Tanev
Hutton-Stecher
Edler-Biega

NIlsson

Stars lineup from Friday practice

Benn-Seguin-Spezza
Shore-Hintz-Radulov
Smith-Faksa-Pitlick
Janmark-Dickinson-Comeau

Lindell-Heiskanen
Bayreuther-Polak
Hanley-Fedun

Bishop