The Vancouver Canucks head into their second game of a back-to-back on Sunday afternoon as they match up with the New York Rangers for a 3:00 p.m. PT game at Madison Square Garden.
This will be the third game of a six-game road trip, and the Canucks are looking to improve on their penalty kill as the trip continues.
“Five-on-five, I thought wasn’t that bad, quite all right, just the special teams. That’s a couple of games in a row where our PK, we got to bear down and get those kills, and we got to stay out of the box, myself included,” said Boeser following Saturday’s loss.
Head coach Manny Malhotra added that the penalty kill can take a while to get really good, but he wants to see his players start working harder immediately when down a man.
“There’s just a lot of tough reads right now. The pairs have been switched quite a bit. It’s a work in progress. It’ll take time, but just from a work ethic standpoint, [it] just needs to be much more difficult for teams to recover pucks and get to their sets,” said Malhotra.
Malhotra added that strong special teams can help a team win every night and that giving up goals at this rate isn’t sustainable.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- The Rangers got tough news Saturday morning: their starting netminder, Igor Shesterkin, will miss the rest of the season with a lower-body injury.
- 24-year-old Dylan Garand will likely get a good run of starts between the pipes unless the Rangers hit the trade market for another goalie.
- In six games this season, the Rangers are 4-2-0 and have allowed only 11 goals.
- The Rangers’ special teams have started hot this season. They are clicking at 23.5% on the power play and have killed off 89.5% of their penalties.
- Alexis Lafreniere leads the team with four goals and six points in six games.
- Pavel Dorofeyev is a newcomer to the Rangers this season and leads the team with 19 shots on net.
- William Cuylle leads the Rangers with 22 hits.
- Adam Fox (21:29) and Vladislav Gavrikov (21:22) are the top minute-munchers on the defence corps so far this season.
The Story: Jake DeBrusk Strong Since Sickness
Jake DeBrusk missed last weekend’s games with an illness and has returned to the lineup with serious pop.
He scored twice in his return on Thursday in Carolina and added an assist on Saturday against the Devils. DeBrusk isn’t just getting goals and assists; he has 11 shots and 11 scoring chances in his last two games.
The line of DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki has played 37:19 of five-on-five ice time together and outscored their opponents 3-0 in those minutes.
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
Elias Pettersson: 1g-6a-7p
Paul Cotter: 2g-2a-4p
Linus Karlsson: 1g-3a-4p
Jake DeBrusk: 2g-1a-3p
Marco Rossi: 2g-1a-3p
When and Where to Watch
Sunday’s game starts at 3:00 p.m. PT, and you can watch on Sportsnet or listen to Brendan Batchelor’s radio call on KiSS West Coast.
