Game Notes: Canucks vs. Penguins

The Canucks play their third of a five-game homestand tonight against the Penguins. Tonight's game is presented by Budweiser.

• The Canucks and Penguins conclude their season series tonight. Vancouver lost the first meeting on Nov. 27 by a score of 8-6.
• Vancouver is 4-6-0 in their last 10 games vs Pittsburgh (2-3-0 in their last 5 meetings)

MORNING SKATE UPDATE

The Canucks held a full skate Saturday with Leivo, Sutter, Graovac & Ferland not on the ice; Demko returned to the ice and was joined by Chatfield and MacEwen.
Coach Green said Eriksson slots back in tonight, and Markstrom starts versus the Penguins. Green also provided updates on a few injured players: Leivo will be out 2-to-3 months with a fractured knee cap, Sutter has an upper-body injury and won't likely play until after the holiday break, while Ferland is closer to returning, but there's still no concrete timeline.

NEED TO KNOW BASIS

LAST MEETING - Nov. 27/19 VAN 6 at PIT 8

JT Miller got the Canucks on the board at 16:42 in the first, cutting the Penguins lead in half...Vancouver scored three goals in the second (Pettersson, Virtanen, Gaudette) to take a 4-2 lead...Miller and Gaudette (tied career high) each notched their second goals of the game in the third period...Quinn Hughes collected three assists for the third time this season (a Canucks rookie d-man record)...Alex Edler tied a Canucks season high for hits (8)...Thatcher Demko faced 40 shots (career high).

LAST GAME - DEC. 19/19: VAN 5 vs VGK 4 (OT)

Antoine Roussel opened the scoring at 2:49 in the first...Tanner Pearson (PPG) and Elias Pettersson collected goals in the opening period to give the Canucks a 3-1 lead...Pettersson notched two goals on the night...Chris Tanev scored the overtime winning goal, the fourth of his career...Jake Virtanen tied a career high for most assists in a game (2)...Jacob Markstrom faced 43 shots.

POWERED UP

• Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson rank tied for t-9th in the NHL for PPG (6).
• Elias Pettersson ranks t-5th for PPP (17).
• Vancouver ranks 2nd in the League with 33 power play goals this season.
• The Canucks ranks 4th in power play percentage (25.4%).

WORKING OVERTIME

On Dec. 19/19 vs VGK, Chris Tanev notched is fourth career overtime goal, placing him in a tie with Alex Edler for third in franchise history for a Canucks defenceman. Sami Salo holds the record with 7, followed by Mattias Ohlund with 6.

ALL-TIME RANKING

Jacob Markstrom has played 210 of 253 career NHL games as a Vancouver Canuck. On Dec. 17/19 vs MTL he surpassed Dan Cloutier (208) for the fourth most games played in franchise history behind McLean (516), Luongo (448) and Brodeur (377). Markstrom's record over 210 GP is 86-88-26.

THE ROOKIE

With his 25th career point in his 31st game, Quinn Hughes became the 8th quickest rookie defenceman to reach 25 points over the last 40 NHL seasons. Larry Murphy set the record in 21 games.

THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM

Canucks rookie defenseman Quinn Hughes collected his third three-assist game this season on Nov. 27/19 at PIT. Hughes became the first rookie defenceman in Canucks history to record three games with three assists in a single season (also Oct. 30 at LAK and Nov. 21 at NSH). The only rookie blueliner with more in a single season is Ray Bourque (4 in 1979-80 with BOS).

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

JT Miller (13-18-31), collected at least one point in eight straight games (5-6-11) from Nov. 21-Dec. 7. The last player to record a longer point streak in his first year with Vancouver was Mark Messier in 1997-98 (5-9-14 in 10 GP).

FACING OFF

Bo Horvat ranks 1st in the NHL in face-off wins (448), even strength face-off wins (332) and power play face-off wins (94).
On Nov. 16/19 vs COL, Horvat won 26 draws in the face-off circle, tying the second highest club record in a single game (Mark Messier - Mar. 2/98 vs LA). The Canucks record stands at 28, also set by Messier on Jan. 8/99 vs FLA. Canucks Head Coach Travis Green holds the League record for faceoff wins in a single game with 33, set on Nov. 8/97 vs CHI.

PRODUCTION FROM PETTERSSON

Elias Petterson is one of five active players to reach the 30-point mark in fewer than 30 games in each of his first two or more NHL seasons. The others: Sidney Crosby (10x) Evgeni Malkin (9x) Alex Ovechkin (6x) and Connor McDavid (5x).
Pettersson recorded his 100th career point in his 103rd game, becoming the second quickest Canuck to accomplish the feat. The quickest a Canuck has reached 100 points was 96 games, achieved by Pavel Bure. The third quickest is Ivan Hlinka who did so in 109 games.

WITH THE ADVANTAGE

On Nov. 21/19 at NSH, Vancouver scored five power-play goals in a game for the first time since Nov. 6, 2011 (6-2 W at CHI); the franchise record for most in a game is six, a mark set Oct. 7, 1983 (10-9 W vs. MNS) and matched March 1, 1992 (11-0 W vs. CGY).