The suddenly surging Vancouver Canucks (28-40-9) shoot for a third straight win and a fourth victory in five outings when they host the Edmonton Oilers (34-37-6) tonight at Rogers Arena.
Rookie Adam Gaudette will make his NHL debut tonight and join a Canucks team coming off wins over Dallas and Anaheim. Twenty-one-year old Gaudette signed with the Canucks on Monday after starring in his junior season at Northeastern University where he led the NCAA in scoring. The 2015 fifth round draft pick had 60 points (30G, 30A) in 38 college games this season and this morning was named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. In his first season with NU, Gaudette was a teammate of Oiler defenceman Matt Benning.
On Tuesday, the Canucks downed the Ducks 4-1 on the strength of three unanswered third period goals. Brandon Sutter scored twice while Sam Gagner and Alex Biega had the others. For Biega, it was his first goal in 133 games. Gagner has scored in two of his past three games while Sutter, who also added an assist on Tuesday, has five points in his last five games. Alex Edler played a season-high 30:41 including 11:27 of the third period. Troy Stecher played a career-high 25:59.
Defenceman Ashton Sautner made his NHL debut in Dallas on Sunday and his home debut on Tuesday against Anaheim. The 23-year-old has tasted victory in both of his big league appearances.
Jacob Markstrom, on his first personal three-game win streak of the season, gets the start in goal tonight. According to Travis Green, a handful of players are under the weather leaving tonight’s line-up in a state of flux. Gaudette will debut, but Green would not reveal who will come out of the line-up. The coach said Brendan Gaunce is a possibility to play after missing 24 games with a broken leg suffered in Florida on February 6th. Brendan Leipsic (neck) and Ben Hutton (foot) both skated this morning, but will not play tonight.
Daniel Sedin (51) and Henrik Sedin (47) each had an assist on Gagner’s goals against the Ducks. The twins have combined for 98 points on the season as they close in on 100. Not the least bit surprisingly, each Sedin has an identical 83 career points against the Oilers.
After seven straight losses, the Canucks have posted three wins in their past four beating Chicago 5-2, Dallas 4-1 and Anaheim 4-1. Coming into action tonight off back-to-back wins, the Canucks last three game win streak was November 30th-December 5th. The team has now scored 21 goals in 11 games since Brock Boeser went down with a season-ending back injury on March 5th.
The Oilers come to town on the heels of a complete collapse against Columbus. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead by the 10:08 mark, Edmonton watched as the Blue Jackets blitzed them with seven straight goals, including three by Thomas Vanek, in a 7-3 Columbus victory. Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists pushing his point total to a league-best 102. Last year he reached the 100 point mark on the final night of the season against the Canucks. This year he achieved the milestone in his 77th game. Tuesday was McDavid’s 30th multi-point game of the season.
The Oiler captain is on fire these days. He has scored in four straight games (six goals total) and has 13 points on a five game point streak. His 102 points are 34 more than Leon Draisaitl who is second in team scoring with 68 points. McDavid and Draisaitl share the Oilers lead with just five power-play goals apiece.
While McDavid has dazzled with his offensive exploits, the Oilers as a team can not defend. They are 29th in the league in goals against (249). Their special teams are not very special, either. Edmonton’s power-play is dead last in the league at 14.8% and the penalty kill is 28th at 75.5%. In one of the strangest statistical splits in the league, the Oilers PK is last on home ice (64%) and first on the road (86.1%).
Despite the bad loss to Columbus in their last outing, the Oilers are 7-3-2 in their past dozen games including wins in three of their last four road outings.
The Canucks and Oilers have split their two meetings so far this season with each protecting home-ice. The Canucks posted a 3-2 win on opening night on October 7th while the Oilers were 5-2 winners at Rogers Place on January 20th. These teams will face each other again on the final night of the regular season April 7th in Edmonton. In their last 10 head-to-head meetings, the Canucks are 3-6-1 against the Oilers while Edmonton is 7-1-2 against the Canucks. The opening night win this season is the Canucks lone regulation victory against the Oilers since Christmas 2015.
Possible Canucks lines for tonight’s game:
Line-up uncertain with no practices since last game and players reportedly under the weather
Oilers lines:
RNH-McDavid-Rattie
Caggiula-Draisaitl-Aberg
Lucic-Strome-Puljujarvi
Slepyshev-Khaira-Kassian
