Canucks likely to see plenty of Oliver Ekman-Larsson on Saturday night in Sunrise
The Vancouver Canucks skate into Sunrise to face old friend Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the Florida Panthers tonight. The Canucks need a win to snap a two-game losing streak and avoid falling below the .500 mark for the first time this season.
To get you ready for the 4pm Pacific puck drop, here are some news and notes from Amerant Arena. Through the years, the buildling has been known as National Car Rental Center, Office Depot Center, Bank Atlantic Center, BB&T Center and for the past two seasons it was FLA Live Arena:
*Ilya Mikheyev makes his season debut for the Canucks nearly nine months since his last NHL action. Mikheyev last played on January 27th against Columbus before being shut down for the season with a partial ACL tear that required surgery. Mikheyev was on a line with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko at this morning's skate.
*In addition to inserting Mikheyev into the line-up, Rick Tocchet appears to be shaking up his depth forwards moving Sam Lafferty to the wing with Pius Suter and Dakota Joshua while Jack Studnicka slides to the middle on a line with Anthony Beauvillier and Conor Garland. Nils Höglander will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
*It appears there will be no changes on defense for the Canucks. The same six that skated in Tampa will be in uniform again tonight. That means Mark Friedman stays in the line-up and will make a second straight appearance after being acquired from Pittsburgh earlier in the week.
*Casey DeSmith makes his second straight Saturday start in goal for the Canucks. He was sensational stopping 37 of 40 shots in a 4-3 win in Edmonton last weekend. DeSmith will have to pay close attention to Panther forward Carter Verhaeghe who has beaten him for five goals on 14 shots in three career meetings.
*The Canucks haven't had a player start a season like Brock Boeser has in more than 25 years. Boeser scored his fifth goal on Thursday in Tampa. The last Canucks with five goals through four games was Alexander Mogilny to start the 1995-96 season.
*Through four games, Filip Hronek -- and not Quinn Hughes -- leads the Canucks in ice time. But only by a couple of seconds. Hronek is 10th in the league averaging 25:00 a game followed closely by Hughes at 24:52. Hronek's 26:53 on Thursday in Tampa Bay is the season high for any Canuck so far.
*Oliver Ekman-Larsson is among the NHL's ice time leaders 10 days into the new season. Only Drew Doughty and Mike Matheson have played more on a per game basis than the former Canuck who is averaging 25:31 and has twice already logged more than 26 minutes. Last season with the Canucks, he was seventh on the team averaging 20:11 per night. OEL scored his first goal as a Panther -- the game winner -- in a 3-1 victory over Toronto on Thursday in Florida's home opener. It was his first NHL goal since February 9th for the Canucks against the NY Islanders.
*The Canucks need to be wary of West Vancouver's Sam Reinhart. He leads the Cats with four goals and six points and has scored in three straight games. In fact, all four of his goals and all six of his points have come on a three-game scoring streak after being held off the scoresheet on opening night
*Sergei Bobrovsky has played every minute of every game so far for the Panthers. The veteran puckstopper is 2-2 on the season with a 2.81 GAA and a .908 save percentage. In his career, Bobrovksy has started 14 games against the Canucks posting a 7-5-2 record with a 2.60 GAA, a .917 save percentage and a pair of shutouts
*Former Vancouver Giants captain Justin Sourdif made his NHL debut earlier this week against New Jersey and has now played a pair of games. Interestingly, the 2020 third rounder's ice time in both games has been 10:00 even. Not a second more or a second less.
*When the Panthers visit the Canucks on December 14th, Roberto Luongo will be added to the Ring of Honour at Rogers Arena
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