TORONTO –The Vancouver Canucks (20-20-4) will be without their biggest weapon on one of the biggest stages in hockey when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs (26-12-2) tonight at Scotiabank Arena.
Elias Pettersson will not play tonight after suffering a knee injury in the second period in Montreal on Thursday. Pettersson, who leads the Canucks with 42 points in 38 games and had five goals in his previous four games, will have an MRI in Toronto today and is out indefinitely. The young Swede was at the rink and around his teammates this morning, and it’s believed the injury is not considered serious. Without their scoring star, the Canucks were blanked 2-0 by Carey Price and the Canadiens. It was the third time in their past six games the Canucks have been held off the scoresheet and the fifth time this season.
With eight apiece, Pettersson and Brock Boeser have combined to score 16 of the team’s past 39 goals (41%) in 13 games since December 9th. Boeser had a career-high 14 shot attempts against the Habs but was unable to score on any of his six shots on goal. He has launched 25 shots at the net in the past two games in Montreal and Ottawa.
The Canucks will need someone to step up to fill the scoring void left by Pettersson’s absence. Bo Horvat, Jake Virtanen and Loui Eriksson have all gone six games without scoring while Markus Granlund has gone nine since his last goal (an empty-netter) and 17 since last beating a goalie. Nikolay Goldobin, a healthy scratch the past two games, draws back into the line-up but he’s gone 10 without a goal and has just one in his past 17 games.
The Canucks went 3-3 in Pettersson’s absence in October when he missed six games with a concussion. The team scored 11 times in that span (but just nine times in regulation).
Jacob Markstrom was sharp on Thursday stopping 25 shots; however, he was outduelled by Price and suffered just his second loss in his past 11 starts. Markstrom will get the call again tonight with Thatcher Demko dressing as the back-up for the first time this season after being recalled from the American Hockey League yesterday.
The Maple Leafs are back in action following a 4-3 loss at home to Minnesota on Thursday. Mitch Marner scored twice including a goal just seven seconds after the opening face-off while William Nylander scored his first goal in his 12th game since reaching a contract settlement a month ago.
Michael Hutchinson made 31 saves in his Maple Leafs debut after being acquired from Florida earlier in the week. He will get the nod again tonight as he looks for his first NHL win since October 19th. Hutchinson has started just seven NHL games over the past three seasons.
Toronto has dropped back to back games after rattling off five straight victories. The team has not lost three in a row all season. The Leafs are 11-4-2 in 17 games since November 24th.
John Tavares leads the team with 26 goals through his first 40 games in a Maple Leafs jersey while Marner leads the team with 55 points (15+40). West Vancouver’s Morgan Rielly leads all NHL defensemen with 13 goals and is tied with San Jose’s Brent Burns for most points by a blueliner with 44.
Auston Matthews has 19+17=36 in 26 games after missing time earlier this season with a shoulder injury. Despite the time on the shelf, he leads the Leafs with seven power-play goals. However, Matthews has gone five games without a goal.
With Marner, Tavares, Matthews, Rielly and adding in Kasperi Kapanen and Nazem Kadri, Toronto boasts six players with 25 or more points this season. By comparison, the Canucks have three. Marner is playing his 200th NHL game tonight and has 56+129=185 in his first 199 games as a Leaf.
Veteran forward Patrick Marleau is slated to appear in his 1616th NHL game tonight – 80 of those have been against the Canucks. He has 30+26=56 in his career against Vancouver.
These teams are on opposite ends of the injury spectrum this season. The Canucks have lost 149 man-games to injury while the Leafs have lost just 33.
The Maple Leafs will make their lone visit to Vancouver on March 6th to complete the season series. This year it's a Wednesday night contest rather than the traditional Saturday afternoon affair. National television preferred the Auston Matthews versus Connor McDavid storyline so the Leafs will play in Edmonton on the Saturday of that week.
POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP
Roussel-Horvat-Eriksson
Goldobin-Sutter-Boeser
Baertschi-Granlund-Virtanen
Schaller-Beagle-Motte
Edler-Tanev
Hutton-Gudbranson
Pouliot-Stecher
Markstrom
POSSIBLE MAPLE LEAFS LINE-UP
Brown-Tavares-Marner
Johnsson-Matthews-Brown
Marleau-Kadri-Kapanen
Lindholm-Gauthier-Moore
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Ozhiganov
Hutchinson