The Vancouver Canucks travel east today for arguably the strangest weekend of games that we will see all season.
On Saturday, at 11:00 am PT, the Canucks will play the Minnesota Wild and then they will follow it up at 12:00 pm PT on Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Don’t forget that the game times are whacky this weekend. We’ve got some brunch games this weekend and it makes for a great excuse to take full advantage of your time off on the weekend.
Or I guess you could finish up/begin your holiday shopping.
The Canucks and Wild played last week and the Canucks came out on top with a 2-0 shutout win. It was Casey DeSmith in net for his first shutout as a Canuck while Nils Höglander opened the scoring in the first period and Teddy Blueger gave some insurance with his goal in the third period.
Since their 2-0 loss to the Canucks, the Wild have gone 2-1-0 and their young forward Matt Boldy has been a big reason why they’ve been able to pick up a pair of wins over their last three. Boldy has three goals over that three-game span and has been on the ice for four goals scored and only one against.
Quick Hits on the Competition (Wild):
- Wild captain Jared Spurgeon missed Thursday night’s game against the Calgary Flames and is now listed as day-to-day ahead of Saturday’s game.
- The leading minute-muncher, Jonas Brodin played in the game against the Canucks last week but has since been injured and will be out of the Wild’s lineup for a significant amount of time.
- With the injuries to the backend, you can expect to see Brock Faber eat up a lot of minutes. The 21-year-old Faber player 30:08 in the Wild’s last game.
- Joel Eriksson Ek (14) and Marco Rossi (10) are the two Wild players with double-digits for goals this season.
- The Wild are 11-12-4 on the season but are 6-2-0 since making a coaching change and bringing in John Hynes as their bench boss.
- Filip Gustavsson has started 17 games this season while Marc-Andre Fleury has started 10. Both goalies have had their struggles this season but Gustavsson has had a handful of strong performances, including two shutouts on the year.
On Sunday, at 12:00 pm PT, Canucks fans will get their first viewing of 2023 first overall pick Connor Bedard.
This season, Bedard has shown many flashes of the generational talent that many scouts predicted he would be. Born and raised in the Lower Mainland, Bedard grew up following the Canucks and he will get his first chance to play against his hometown club on Sunday.
The 18-year-old Bedard is leading rookie scoring with 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points through 29 games. ‘The Kid’ centres Chicago’s first line and is averaging 19:23 of ice time per game.
Bedard’s linemates have been changing throughout the season but his last game saw Ryan Donato and Philipp Kurashev as his wingers. We’ve seen Kurashev be a regular alongside Bedard but former Canuck Anthony Beauvillier spent a lot of time on Bedard’s wing since the trade on November 28th. Beauvillier has spent more time on a line with Bedard than time away from him since the trade.
The Blackhawks are currently the last-placed team in the NHL standings. They have a 9-19-1 record and are currently in the midst of a three-game losing streak. The good news for the Blackhawks is that they will have two full days off and the Canucks will be on the second of a back-to-back. The afternoon starts make everything funky here but it’s still going to be a difficult task for the Canucks to come through on the second of a back-to-back with travel included.
Quick Hits on the Competition (Blackhawks):
- The Blackhawks have the 30th-ranked power play in the league and is clicking at 9.9%.
- It’s been a split in the crease this season with Petr Mrazek picking up 16 starts and Arvid Soderblom having 13 starts. Soderblom has a 4.00 goals-against average and Mrazek’s GAA is 3.04.
- Seth Jones is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the Blackhawks this season. The 29-year-old right-shot defenceman is averaging 25:25 of ice time this season through 27 games played.
- After Bedard, the leading goal scorer for the Blackhawks is former Canuck Jason Dickinson, who has nine goals on the season.
The Canucks wrapped up their five-game homestand on a four-game winning streak.
We saw Brock Boeser lead the way with five goals and eight points over the homestand. Boeser sits second in the league with 22 goals on the season. He only trails Auston Matthews and his 23 goals.
Andrei Kuzmenko is starting to find his scoring touch once again. Kuzmenko had 13 individual scoring chances over the homestand and has opened the scoring in each of the last two games.
It’s more than likely that we get a look at both Casey DeSmith and Thatcher Demko over the weekend. The duo has allowed a total of four goals over the last four games and now has combined for four shutouts on the season.
Demko’s save percentage is up to .923% and he now leads the league with 15 wins on the season.
Quinn Hughes still maintains the league lead in points and goals from a defenceman.
And a quick little stat for the numbers crowd out there; Conor Garland is in the top-30 of the league for control of expected goals (xGF%). He leads the Canucks with a 59.29% xGF%. To simplify, when Garland is on the ice, he and his linemates are controlling a ton of the scoring chances that are taking place and we saw those advanced stats come to fruition on Thursday night against the Panthers as Garland was on the ice for three Canucks goals at even strength and zero goals against.
This preview will wrap up with another reminder about those game times on the weekend.
Saturday against Brock Faber and the Wild is an 11:00 am PT start time.
Sunday against Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks is a 12:00 pm (noon) PT start time.
The games can be watched on Sportsnet and Brendan Batchelor will have the radio call for you on Sportsnet 650.
One last time... 11:00 am on Saturday and noon on Sunday!
