It’s right back to work for the Vancouver Canucks (22-29-6) tonight when they take on the San Jose Sharks (30-19-8) at SAP Center in the Bay Area.
The Canucks fell 4-3 to the Florida Panthers last night at Rogers Arena. Bo Horvat led the way with a goal and two assists while Brock Boeser scored his team leading 27th goal of the season.Horvat has scored in back to back games and leads the team with 4+5=9 in the 11 games he’s played since returning from a broken ankle. Boeser’s goal came on a two-man advantage in the second period and was his 10th power play goal of the season and the team’s 40th PP goal. Only five players in the league have scored more often with the man-advantage than the Canucks rookie.
Michael Del Zotto opened the scoring in the first minute of play last night. It was his fifth goal of the season – tops among Canucks defensemen – and his second goal in three games. Add Erik Gudbranson’s goal in Dallas on Sunday and Canuck blueliners have scored in three straight outings.
Jacob Markstrom got the start last night after his 6-0 shutout win in Dallas on Sunday. He lasted just 20 minutes and was replaced by Anders Nilsson after surrendering four goals on 14 shots. Nilsson stopped all 20 shots he faced in relief. There is a strong possibility the Canucks will come back with Nilsson tonight. His last start was one week ago tonight in Tampa Bay.
Travis Green could make a couple of line-up changes for tonight’s game if he’s looking to insert fresh legs. He has former Shark Nikolay Goldobin, Alex Biega and 26-year-old Swedish rookie Philip Holm on the roster and ready for game action. Tonight will be the Canucks fifth game in eight nights with four of those games on the road. After last night, the Canucks have dropped five of their last six contests.
Alex Edler has had a terrific run since Christmas, but has found himself in a rut recently. He was on the ice for all four goals against in Carolina on Friday night and was on for three of Florida’s four goals last night. If tracked back to the Tampa game a week ago, the big blueliner has been on the ice for eight of the last nine goals the Canucks have surrendered.
The Sharks return to action after a 2-1 loss to Arizona on Tuesday night. They outshot the Coyotes 41-26 but only former ‘Yote Mikael Boedker could manage to score. Martin Jones made 24 saves in defeat. The Sharks hold down second spot in the Pacific Division ten points back of Vegas and two in front of Calgary. They have 15 wins at home and 15 on the road.
The Sharks special teams are among the best in the NHL. They are third in the league on the power play (23.3%) and boast the top penalty killing (84.4%).
Brent Burns leads the team in assists (39) and points (48) while Logan Couture is their top goal scorer with 23 on the season. Burns leads the NHL with 242 shots on goal this season. Quite remarkably, Seth Jones of Columbus is second among defensemen shooters with 187 – 55 shots behind. Burns is second to John Klingberg of Dallas who leads all blueline scorers with 52 points. Burns saw some shifts at forward on Tuesday in an effort to spark the Sharks. It appears he will start the game on right wing tonight.
Joe Thornton underwent knee surgery late last month and a timetable for his return is unclear. Tomas Hertl left Tuesday’s game with an apparent shoulder injury and is expected to miss some time. Veteran Joel Ward has also missed the past two games with a shoulder issue. Scoring depth remains an issue for the Sharks. Since the start of January, defensemen Burns and Marc-Eduoard Vlassic are two of the team’s top scorers.
Since January 1st, Aaron Dell is 7-1-2 in nine starts and one relief appearance. Veteran Martin Jones is 3-6-3 in 12 starts in that span.
Two of the three meetings between these teams have been decided in overtime with Sam Gagner scoring the winner in Vancouver on December 15th and Kevin Labanc ending things in San Jose on December 21st. The Canucks are 0-1-1 in their two previous visits to The Tank this season.
Probable Canucks lines for today’s game:
Baertschi-Horvat-Boeser
Sedin-Sedin-Vanek
Archibald-Sutter-Eriksson
Boucher-Dowd-Virtanen
Extra: Goldobin
Sharks lines:
Meier-Pavelski-Burns
Couture-Labanc-Donskoi
Boedker-Tierney-Hansen
Goodrow-O’Regan-Karlsson
