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EDMONTON – The Vancouver Canucks (17-18-4) resume the post-Christmas portion of their schedule with their 40th game of the season when they visit the Edmonton Oilers (18-15-3) tonight at Rogers Place.

The team flew in from Vancouver this morning and, with the IIHF World Junior Championship taking over Rogers Arena until early January, tonight’s game marks the first game of a six-game road trip that will conclude in Toronto on January 5th. This is the Canucks third six-game road trip of the season and tonight is the club’s 21st road game.

The Canucks fell 1-0 to Winnipeg in their final game before Christmas. They outshot the Jets 40-23, but surrendered the game’s only goal with 1:28 remaining in the third period. It was the third time this season the Canucks have been held off the score sheet. Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves and is now 6-1 in his past seven starts with a 1.58 GAA and 94.4% save percentage during that time.

Markstrom gets the start in goal tonight and the team will go with the same line-up used against the Jets. Injured players Troy Stecher, Sven Baertschi and Brandon Sutter are all on the road trip and all took part in the morning skate, but none will suit up tonight. Tim Schaller and Michael Del Zotto will be the healthy scratches.

Brock Boeser has gone three games without a point – his longest dry stretch of the season. Elias Pettersson has one goal in his past six outings. Both players scored their last goals in a 4-2 win over Edmonton on December 16th. Bo Horvat had a goal and an assist that night in a match-up role against Connor McDavid. The Canucks torched the Oilers for three power play goals – a season high for Vancouver.

Canucks penalty killers have been in a groove for most of this month. They went two for two against Winnipeg and are on a run of 22 consecutive successful kills over their past nine games. They have not surrendered a power play goal since December 4th against Minnesota. The Canucks penalty killers have been perfect in 10 of their last 11 games.

With the loss to the Jets, the Canucks are 6-2-1 in their past nine games and have points in nine of their past 14 (7-5-2).

The Oilers limped into the break on a three-game losing streak following a 6-3 setback at home against Tampa Bay on Saturday. Despite the slump, the Oilers spent their holiday break above the playoff bar holding onto the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Alex Chiasson scored the Edmonton goals against Tampa while Connor McDavid had a hand in each of them. The Oilers went two for three on the power play.

McDavid leads the Oilers and sits fourth in overall NHL scoring with 19+33=52 and is tops on the team with six power play goals. Draisaitl has 17+26=43 while The Nuge has 12+21=33. Chiasson has a career-high 16 goals to go along with four helpers on the season. Five of his goals have come with the man-advantage.

Tampa peppered Edmonton with 45 shots – the most allowed by the Oilers this season. Mikko Koskinen made 39 saves before the Bolts sealed the victory into an empty net. Edmonton has surrendered 40 or more shots in three of its past six games (vs Colorado, Winnipeg and Tampa Bay).

Koskinen will be between the pipes tonight while Jason Garrison and Drake Caggiula are both ill and will be out of the line-up tonight.  Jujhar Khaira will serve the second game of a two game suspension for cross-checking against St. Louis last week.

The Oilers losing skid started in Vancouver on December 16th. Between the games against the Canucks and Lighting, they also dropped a 4-1 decision to St. Louis. Prior to the December 16th game, they were 5-0-1 in their previous six games and 8-1-1 in their previous 10 outings.

Since Ken Hitchcock replaced Todd McLellan behind the Oilers bench on November 20th, the team is 9-5-2.

These two teams will meet again January 17th in Vancouver and finish their season series March 7th here in Edmonton.

 

POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP

Eriksson-Horvat-Virtanen

Goldobin-Pettersson-Boeser

Granlund-Gaudette-Leivo

Roussel-Beagle-Motte

 

Edler-Tanev

Hutton-Gudbranson

Pouliot-Biega

 

Markstrom

 

POSSIBLE OILERS LINE-UP

Chiasson-McDavid-Draisaitl

Rieder-RNH-Puljujarvi

Lucic-Brodziak-Kassian

Zykov-Spooner-Rattie

 

Nurse-Larsson

Gravel-Benning

Jones-Wideman

 

Koskinen