NEW YORK –The Vancouver Canucks (10-7-2) reach the 20-game mark of the 2018-19 National Hockey League season tonight when they face the New York Islanders (8-6-2) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Canucks suffered their first regulation loss in more than two weeks last night when they fell 2-1 to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Nikolay Goldobin scored his first goal since opening night while Jacob Markstrom made 25 saves. The team is 4-1-2 in its past seven games.
The Canucks didn’t play poorly on Monday night, but they didn’t play well enough to win. In another tight battle well into the third period, the Canucks were unable to generate the offense they have in many other games this season. Elias Pettersson has now gone three games without a goal since opening the scoring in the first period in Detroit last Tuesday. He has just 0+1=1 in his past three games. Bo Horvat has scored in one of the team’s last nine games (he had a pair of goals in Boston earlier on this road trip).
With Pettersson and Horvat playing key roles, the Canucks power play went 0 for 4 against the Rangers with just over five minutes of power play time. The team generated only four shots with the man-advantage and three of them came in a scramble in the dying seconds of the hockey game. The power play has scored in one of four games on the road trip so far (it was 2/5 in Boston last Thursday).
Last night was the first time this season the Canucks were unable to get at least a single point from a game in which they opened the scoring. They are now 5-1-1 when scoring the game’s first goal. It was also the club’s first one-goal loss in regulation time this season (5-1-2).
With no morning skate after playing last night, the Canucks will likely wait until closer to game time to reveal their goaltending decision for tonight plus any line-up changes. If Jacob Markstrom gets the nod tonight it will be his ninth consecutive start and the first time this season he’s played both ends of a back to back set.
The Islanders have dropped three in a row following a 4-2 loss in Florida on Saturday. Those three games followed a five-game win streak. Brock Nelson scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season against the Panthers while Mathew Barzal netted his second. That snapped a string of 13 games without a goal since October 6th.
Josh Bailey leads the team in scoring with 5+12=17 while Barzal has a share of second with 2+12=14.The Coquitlam native played in his 100th NHL game on Saturday night. The reigning Rookie of the Year has 24+75=99 in his career so far.
After watching the past two games as Robin Lehner’s back-up, Thomas Greiss is expected to get the start tonight. He is sixth in the NHL in save percentage stopping 94.0% of the shots he’s faced. His 1.98 GAA is seventh best among goalies to play at least four games this season. With Greiss and Lehner leading the way, the Isles have been a stingy bunch so far this season. Only Nashville and Arizona have allowed fewer goals than the 41 the Isles have surrendered.
Former Canuck Luca Sbisa has dressed for just three games for the Isles after signing a one-year deal with the club during training camp. He has not suited up since October 17th at Anaheim.
The Isles are starting a stretch of seven games where they will only play in the New York Metropolitan area (five home games and one each at the Rangers and New Jersey Devils).
Under new head coach Barry Trotz, the Islanders have opened the scoring in 10 of their 16 games and are 7-1-2 when scoring first.
Possible Canucks lines:
Roussel-Horvat-Eriksson
Goldobin-Pettersson-Virtanen
Schaller-Granlund-Motte
Archibald-Gaudette-Leipsic
Hutton-Gudbranson
Pouliot-Tanev
MDZ-Stecher
Markstrom/Bachman
(TSN1040's Jeff Paterson)