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EDMONTON -- The curtain comes down on the brilliant careers of Daniel and Henrik Sedin tonight when the Vancouver Canucks (31-40-10) close out their 2017-18 season against the Edmonton Oilers (35-40-6) at Rogers Place.

This will be the 1,330th game in Henrik’s career and the 1,306th for Daniel. All told, the Sedins will have appeared in 2,636 regular season games and combined for 207 playoff appearances. In their careers, the twins have posted identical 84 point totals against the Oilers. Daniel has 37 goals and 47 assists while Henrik has 17 goals and 67 assists.

It’s probably asking too much for the Sedins to top Thursday’s home finale in which Daniel scored his second of the night in overtime – set up, of course, by Henrik – to give the Canucks a memorable 4-3 overtime victory over the Arizona Coyotes. It was the 744th and 745th time in their careers the Sedins teamed up to score goals. Fellow Swede Alex Edler was in on both of Daniel’s goals, too. Jake Virtanen and Brendan Leipsic had the other Vancouver goals.

With his two points against the Coyotes, Daniel Sedin has caught Brock Boeser for a share of the team lead in scoring with 23 goals and 32 assists for 55 points. With a point tonight, Daniel would lay claim to the sixth individual team scoring title of his career.

Anders Nilsson gets the start in the season finale. Tyler Motte replaces Brendan Gaunce up front while the Canucks go with the same defense tonight they used against Arizona, meaning Ben Hutton stays in the lineup and Ashton Sautner sits out.

Yesterday, Adam Gaudette became the first Canucks draft pick to win the Hobey Baker Award presented to the top player in NCAA hockey each year. Gaudette was in St. Paul, Minn., to accept his award and rejoined the team earlier today in Edmonton.

The Canucks are 5-0-1 in their past six games and 6-1-1 in their last eight. Thursday was the fifth time in the team’s past six outings the Canucks have scored four goals or more in a game. The only time they did not during that span was a 2-1 win over the Oilers. In 15 games since Boeser left the lineup with a season-ending back injury on March 5th, the Canucks have 36 goals from 17 different scorers.

Henrik Sedin and Michael Del Zotto will be the only two players to appear in all 82 games for the Canucks this season. Daniel Sedin played in 81. Virtanen will finish fourth on the Canucks in games played this season with 74.

Troy Stecher is celebrating his 24th birthday as he closes out his second season in the NHL.

Edmonton returns to action following a 4-3 win over Vegas on Thursday night. That snapped a five game losing skid (0-4-1). Connor McDavid, as he usually does, led the way with three assists – his 31st multi-point game of the season. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Matt Benning, Michael Cammalleri and Ty Rattie scored the Oiler goals while Cam Talbot made 30 saves in his ninth straight start.

McDavid will win a second straight Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer. He has 41 goals and 65 assists for 106 points on the season and a six point lead on Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov and is seven up on Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux . The Oiler captain has seven goals and nine assists in his past eight games. His last goal opened the scoring in the last meeting with the Canucks on March 29th. He’s gone three since without a goal.

Despite their firepower, the Oilers are 31st in the league on the power play (14.4 per cent) with a league low in both power play opportunities (208) and power play goals scored (30). Their penalty killing is 26th overall (76.3 per cent), but 31st on home ice (64.6 per cent).

The Canucks lead the season series with the Oilers two wins to one with the home team prevailing in all three contests. The Canucks were 3-2 winners on October 7th and triumphed 2-1 on March 29th at Rogers Arena while the Oilers posted a 5-2 victory on Jan. 20 at Rogers Place. Connor McDavid has two points in the three head to head match-ups. A win tonight would give the Canucks three wins over the Oilers this season. Chicago is the only team the Canucks have beaten three times this year, going 3-0 against the Blackhawks.

As the hockey world mourns for the Humboldt Broncos and the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, two players in tonight’s game hail from the province of Saskatchewan. Canucks defenseman Derrick Pouliot it is from Estevan and Ashton Sautner is from Flaxcombe while Oilers defenseman Ethan Bear is from Regina. Oilers head coach Todd McLellan is a native of Melville, SK, and played for Saskatoon in the Western Hockey League when Swift Current had its bus crash in 1986. He went on to become head coach in Swift Current (1994-2000). He was also a head coach in North Battleford in the SJHL (1993-94).

 

Possible Canucks lines:

Sedin-Sedin-Gagner

Goldobin-Horvat-Virtanen

Archibald-Sutter-Motte

Leipsic-Gaudette-Jokinen

Extras: Dowd & Gaunce

 

Oilers lines:

Nugent-Hopkins-McDavid-Rattie 

Khaira-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi 

Lucic-Strome-Caggiula 

Slepyshev-Cammalleri-Kassian