Columnist image

| Archive

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks (15-16-4) will attempt to complete the sweep of back to back weekend games on home ice when they host the Edmonton Oilers (18-12-3) at Rogers Arena tonight. In the process, the Canucks will be looking to improve to 5-0-1 in their last six outings.

Travis Green’s team returns to action 24 hours after defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 last night. Five different players – Chris Tanev, Loui Eriksson, Josh Leivo, Brock Boeser and Markus Granlund -- netted the goals and 13 of 18 skaters found their way onto the scoresheet. Boeser has now scored in back to back games, has five goals in his past four outings and nine goals in his last 10 games. Elias Pettersson collected an assist on Boeser’s goal to extend his point streak to six games (3+4=12).

Newcomer Leivo has 3+1=4 in six games since being acquired from Toronto on December 3rd while Eriksson has scored in consecutive home games.

Jacob Markstrom turned aside 31 shots to collect his fourth straight victory. He has now stopped 113 of the last 120 shots he has faced (94.2%). Last night marked the fourth time this season and the third in the past five outings that the Canucks have chased the opposing team’s starting goalie.

With no morning skate, the Canucks goaltending decision and any line-up changes will not be known until closer to puck drop. Erik Gudbranson missed his second straight game with back spasms, but is a possibility to return to the Canuck line-up tonight.

Canucks penalty killing, which struggled mightily during much of November, was four for four last night and is now 12 for 12 over the past five games. The last time the Canucks surrendered a power play goal was December 4th when Minnesota scored three times with the man-advantage.

The Canucks are 4-0-1 in their last five and have gained at least a point in seven of their last 10 games (5-3-2). They have won back to back games on home ice for the first time in six weeks.

The Oilers arrive in Vancouver coming off a 4-1 win over Philadelphia on Friday. Connor McDavid scored twice and set up another while Leon Draisaitl had three helpers. McDavid has 5+8=13 on a six game point streak and sits third in NHL scoring with 19+29=48. He leads the team with six power play goals and five game winners.

Draisaitl has 3+9=12 on a five-game streak and is ninth in league scoring with 16+26=42.

Alex Chiasson has scored in back to back games and with 14 on the season has already established a career-high for goals in a season. He was invited to training camp on a PTO before signing a one-year contract.

Mikko Koskinen made 31 saves and was named first star in Friday’s win over Philadephia. The big Finn is now 11-3-1 in his first season in Edmonton. His three shutouts trail only Marc-Andre Fleury and among goalies who have appeared in at least 10 games, Koskinen is second in the league in goals against average (2.12) and save percentage (93.0%).

As a team, the Oilers are 5-0-1 in their past six games, 8-1-1 in their past 10 and 9-2-2 since Ken Hitchcock replaced Todd McLellan behind the bench on November 20th. In those 13 games since the coaching change, the Oilers have outscored their opponents 38-31.

These two clubs split their four game season series last year with the home team prevailing in all four contests. The last meeting on April 7th in Edmonton was the final NHL game for Daniel and Henrik Sedin. The Canucks and Oilers won’t have to wait long to see each other again. The teams will meet on December 27th at Rogers Place in the Canucks first stop on a six-game post-Christmas World Junior road trip.

 

POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP

Goldobin-Horvat-Virtanen

Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser

Roussel-Gaudette-Eriksson

Granlund-Beagle-Motte

 

Edler-Tanev

Hutton-Gudbranson

Pouliot-Stecher

Nilsson

 

POSSIBLE OILERS LINE-UP

Draisaitl-McDavid-Chiasson

Khaira-Nugent Hopkins-Puljujarvi

Caggiula-Spooner-Rieder

Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian

 

Nurse-Larsson

Gravel-Jones

Garrison-Benning

Koiskinen