Two teams on three-game win streaks face-off at Rogers Arena on Saturday night
It's a battle of two 5-2 hockey clubs as the Vancouver Canucks host the New York Rangers. The Canucks are coming off last night's 5-0 win over St. Louis while the Rangers have been idle since a 3-0 win in Edmonton on Thursday night.
Here's what you need to know ahead of tonight's 7pm PT puck drop:
*The Canucks did not hold a morning skate after playing last night. The expectation is that Rick Tocchet will use the same 18 skaters he has used in the past two victories. However, Tocchet said on Friday morning that he planned to split the goaltending duties this weekend. That meant the plan was to go with Casey DeSmith for a third straight Saturday start. It's believed that will still be the case, but Thatcher Demko may have given Tocchet something to think about with his 22-save shutout against St. Louis.
*Although playing for a second straight night, the Canucks should not see back to back games as a challenge. Rather with the way they're playing, this should be viewed as an opportunity. The coaches managed the bench well in the third period last night resting most of the star players. Ian Cole led all Canucks in ice time against St. Louis at 20:54. Captain Quinn Hughes was the only other player to crest 20 minutes on Friday -- logging a season-low 20:41. Elias Pettersson played just 4:13 of the third period, Brock Boeser saw only 3:55 of ice in the final frame and JT Miller was out for 3:10 of the third and only six seconds over the final eight minutes. Fatigue should not be an issue tonight.
*The Canucks are 4-0 when opening the scoring as they did midway through the first period on Friday. They have scored first in each of the games on their three game win streak and have not trailed at any point in a game since falling 4-3 in Tampa Bay.
*Brock Boeser carries a four-game point streak into action tonight. Boeser has 2+2=4 over that span. Phil Di Giuseppe and Ilya Mikheyev have both scored in back to back games.
*Tonight's game features two of the best defensemen in the game in Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox. Both players have eight points through their first seven games. Hughes, who scored twice last night, now has 24 shots on goal this season. Evan Bouchard of the Oilers is the only defenseman in the league with more (25).
*The Rangers arrive in town for the fourth stop on a five-game Western road swing that started with a 4-1 win in Seattle and continued with a 3-1 victory in Calgary and Thursday's 3-0 triumph in Edmonton. The Rangers are second only to Boston in terms of goals against per game averaging 1.86 through seven games.
*New York leads the league in shot prevention yielding just 24.9 shots per game so far this season. The Rangers have yet to allow more than 29 shots in any game. Part of that is Jacob Trouba leading the NHL with 27 blocked shots. Former Canuck Nick Bonino isn't far behind at 23. Bonino and fellow newcomer Blake Wheeler are both still looking for their first points as Rangers
*Artemi Panarin leads the Blueshirts with 3+7=10 and has had a point in all seven of New York's games this season. Alexis Lafrenière enters play tonight with goals in three straight games.
*The Canucks are likely to see a rested Igor Shesterkin between the pipes tonight. He had the night off in Edmonton. Shesterkin stopped 27 of 28 shots in a 3-1 win in his last outing on Wednesday in Calgary.
*With games on consecutive nights at Rogers Arena, it's not a huge surprise that the same referees that worked the Canucks and Blues have been assigned tonight's game. That means Michael Markovic and Jon McIssac will be the men with the whistles for the Canucks and Rangers.
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