Canucks Game Facts
Tonight: Vancouver Canucks at Dallas Stars
Where: American Airlines Arena
When: 5 pm pacific
TV/Radio: Sportsnet / AM-650
Key Factors:
Starting goalkeepers: Thatcher Demko for Vancouver, Scott Wedgewood for Dallas.
Last week, Demko was the NHL’s 2nd-Star of the week with a shut-out among his three wins. He had this Tuesday night off as Casey DeSmith picked up the victory in Nashville.
The Canucks saw balanced scoring in the game with five different goal-getters and four players with multi-point games.
Outside of D-man Carson Soucy, the Vancouver line-up remains healthy at the moment.
The Stars have been a little less fortunate in that they lost their number-one goalie Jake Oettinger last week to a week-to-week lower body injury. Although he wasn’t off to a hot start this season, they expected the 25-year-old to come around. Wedgewood and back-up Matt Murray, no, not the Cup winning former Penguins Matt Murray, are handling the chores at the moment.
The Stars have seven of a possible eight points over their last four games.
Who’s Hot? And Not …
Elias Pettersson picked up a goal and an assist on Tuesday night and popped back up into a tie for 6th place in NHL scoring with 41 points. Captain Quinn Hughes has that same number and still leads NHL defenceman in scoring following a two assist game against the Predators.
Swiss forward Pius Suter tallied a goal and an assist, Russian Winger Ilya Mikheyev had two assists, while his countryman Andrei Kuzmenko was a healthy scratch.
32-year-old centre Matt Duchene is the hottest Stars player with seven points over his last four games. He had two goals and an assist against the Kraken three nights ago.
Venerable forward Joe Pavelski had two points in the game and leads Dallas in scoring with 29 points.
4th-line centre Radek Faksa has six points in 25 games, with one in each of last two games.
Special Teams
The Canucks power play went 0-for-3 on Tuesday in Nashville and is just 2-for-15 over their last four games. The season percentage has been slipping a bit lately, yet still impressive overall at 24.8%. Their penalty kill held Nashville to an 0-for-2 night, but remains substandard at 76.5% on the season.
The Stars have better balance in their special teams. The PP works at a 23.3% efficiency rate while the PK operates at an impressive 86.7%. Both the Stars and the Kraken went 0-for-4 on the power play on Monday night.
Coming In:
Canucks: 22-9-and-2 for 46 points, the second most in the NHL, coming off a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
Stars: 18-8-and-4 for 40 points and second place in the Central Division after a 4-3 overtime victory over the Seattle Kraken on Monday.
Recent Canucks:
— Ex-Canucks Winger Beauvillier Not Completely Surprised By Trade
— Canucks Trade Studnicka To Sharks For Cicek And Pick
