Canucks @ Capitals game notes

CANUCKS AT CAPITALS PREVIEW: (TV: Sportsnet Pacific; Radio: Sportsnet 650)

LAST MEETING OCT. 26/17: VAN 6 vs WSH 2

Thomas Vanek opened scoring at 12:53 in the first period...The Canucks scored three power play goals (Horvat and Baertschi - 2) for the first time since Nov. 21/15 vs TOR...Markus Granlund and Derek Dorsett also notched goals for the Canucks...Both Sven Baertschi and Alexander Burmistrov collected their 100th NHL point...Brock Boeser established a career high for most assists/points in a game with 3...The game marked the first time the Canucks have scored 6 goals in a game since Nov. 21/15 vs TOR.

VS. WASH NOTES:

• Sven Baertschi (2-1-3) and Brock Boeser (0-3-3) lead Canucks skaters in scoring in the 2017.18 season series.
• Thomas Vanek has 27 career points (12-15-27) vs WSH in 39 GP, the most by an active Canuck skater.
• Sam Gagner registered his 400th career point on Apr. 2/17 vs WSH.
• Troy Stecher enters tonight's game having played 99 career games.

LAST GAME: JAN. 7/18: VAN 2 at MTL 5

Daniel Sedin led Canucks skaters in scoring with two points (1-1-2)...Michael Del Zotto notched his second goal of the season...Alex Edler, Henrik Sedin and Brock Boeser each collected an assist...Edler and Erik Gudbranson led the team in blocked shots (5)...Michael Chaput recorded six hits, the most on the Canucks...Anders Nilsson faced 45 shots.

THE GOING RATE:

• In the month of December, Brock Boeser had 13 points in 13 games including a 5-game point streak from Dec. 7-15 and a 4-game point streak from Dec. 19-28. He led all rookies in goals (8), ranked second in points (13) and tied for 5th in assists (5) in the month of December. Boeser currently has 9 points (5-4-9) over his last 7 games.
• Henrik Sedin has 15 assists/points over the past 17 games. In the month of December, he ranked tied for 9th in the League for most assists with 11.
• Thomas Vanek has 11 points (5-6-11) over the past 8 games. He sits tied for 8th in League scoring since Dec. 19 (11).
• Sam Gagner has collected 8 points (4-4-8) over the past 10 games.
• Daniel Sedin has 9 points (3-6-9) over the past 10 games.

PLAYER QUICK HITS:

• Brock Boeser ranks tied for 5th in the NHL goal-scoring race and leads all rookies with 22 goals. Boeser has scored 20.0% of the Canucks 110 goals this season which is the second highest percent of team goals scored in the NHL (behind Ovechkin - 20.9%).
• Brock Boeser won NHL Rookie of the Month honours in both November and December, becoming the first Canucks rookie to win it in back-to-back months.
• Notable goal achievements: Boeser is the 8th rookie in the past 28 years to score 16+ goals within his first 28 games of a season. His 20th goal in game #37 broke the Canucks record for quickest 20 goals scored in a rookie season, previously held by Trevor Linden in 1988-89 (20 in game #52). His 17 goals through the first 30 games are the most by a Canuck through his first 30 games of a season in franchise history. His 15 goals through the Canucks first 30 games are also the 2nd most by a US-born rookie through his team's first 30 games of a season (behind Tony Granato's 16 goals through the Rangers first 30 games during the 1988.89 season).
• Thomas Vanek collected his 54th career GWG on Dec. 28 vs CHI to place him in 4-way tie for 16th among active NHL players. Daniel Sedin is the only Canuck with more GWG (82) and ranks fifth among active NHLers for most GWG.
• Thomas Vanek notched his 10th career hat trick against Montreal on Dec. 19. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Vanek ranks tied for 6th, alongside Sidney Crosby, for most career hat tricks. Only Ovechkin (20), Jagr (15), Gaborik (14), E. Staal (13) and Malkin (11) have more. According to Sportsnet Stats, he is also tied for the 3rd most in the NHL since the start of 2007-08.
• Henrik Sedin notched his 800th career assist on Dec. 13 vs NSH. In doing so, he became the first Canucks player, the 31st player in NHL history, the 3rd active player and the 2nd Swedish-born player to accomplish the feat. He is now at 806 assists.
• Jacob Markstrom has recorded 3 assists this season, which leads all goaltenders in that category. The last goaltenders to record 3 or more assists in a season were Jonathan Quick (3), Kari Lehtonen (3) and Henrik Lundqvist (4) who all accomplished the feat during the 2015.16 season.