The Vancouver Canucks are set to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night for the first time this season.
After picking up a 2-0 win on Thursday night on the back of Nils Höglander and Teddy Blueger leading the way offensively and Casey DeSmith picked up his first shutout of the season – the Canucks now look to continue their prowess on home ice and add to their 9-3-1 record at Rogers Arena this season.
The Hurricanes are currently riding a three-game losing streak to begin a six-game road trip – their longest road trip of the season. Their three losses were rough. They lost 2-1 to Winnipeg on Monday, 6-1 to Edmonton on Wednesday, and 3-2 to Calgary on Thursday night. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour has had firm words for his team over the past couple of nights, so you can expect this Hurricanes team to have a lot of motivation for Saturday night.
Sebastian Aho leads the way for the Hurricanes this season with 22 points through 23 games played. Teuvo Teravainen and Martin Necas have flanked the 26-year-old centre but we may see a shake-up after three straight losses.
Seth Jarvis has really come on this season for the Hurricanes. The 21-year-old was the 13th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and has had a quick turnaround to becoming an offensive producer at the NHL level. He’s picked up nine goals, added 10 assists this season, and is on pace to crush his career-high of 17 goals and 40 points in a year.
The Hurricanes roster bolsters Brent Burns and Jordan Staal – a pair of long-time NHLers who are still contributing at age 38 and 35. The duo combines for over 2500 NHL games and Burns has five goals this season while Staal has three.
Between the pipes, the Hurricanes have been rotating Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov. It’s been a down season for each goalie. Raanta has a .863% save percentage while Kochetkov sits at .873%.
As for the Canucks, goaltending has been very different than the league-worst Hurricanes and their .873% save percentage. The Canucks have gotten great goaltending from Thatcher Demko (.917%) this season and we just saw DeSmith pick up his first shutout of the season on Thursday and raise his save percentage to .913% after the goose egg.
We talked about him in our last preview but he’s getting another mention after scoring the game-winning goal on Thursday night. Nils Höglander continues to be a workhorse at five-on-five and now finds himself in the top-six – playing on a line with J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser.
“I thought he had a lot of energy and he gave that line energy,” said head coach Rick Tocchet in Thursday’s post-game media availability. “They were [in] a hard matchup against [Kaprizov], who is a hell of a hockey player and I thought [Nils] held his own. That was a good step for Höggy, playing in his own end against their top line... I think he did a hell of a job.”
Höglander had a season-high in ice time on Thursday with 15:45 and is now seeing a bit of time on the second power play unit as well. His nine goals at five-on-five are tied for ninth in the league with players like Nathan MacKinnon and Brady Tkachuk.
J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes, and Elias Pettersson remain in the top-10 of league scoring. Miller is second in the league with 39 points, Hughes is tied for fourth with 36, and Pettersson is tied for seventh with 34. The three stars are due for some power play success as well. Though the man-advantage group has moved the puck with ease, they have only found the back of the net once over their last four games. Perhaps the Hurricanes’ .780% shorthanded save percentage will help.
As for the Canucks’ play while shorthanded, defenceman Noah Juulsen has been steady while playing down a man. Juulsen has only been on the ice for one goal-against while shorthanded over his last 13 games. Juulsen is finding a way to contribute to this team and is seeing more and more time on the penalty kill lately.
Saturday night will be another Hockey Night in Canada night for the Canucks as the game is scheduled for 7:00 pm PT. You can watch the game on HNIC through Sportsnet and listen to Brendan Batchelor mispronounce zero names through a full 60 minutes of play over on the radio broadcast with Sportsnet 650.
