The Vancouver Canucks (40-17-7) have picked up a pair of wins on their current road trip and now set their sights on the bright lights of Las Vegas for the final stop of the trip.
Following a pair of 2-1 victories, the Canucks are beginning to see games tighten up as the playoffs approach.
Thursday’s game will be the second matchup of the season between the Canucks and Vegas Golden Knights (33-22-7). The Knights took game one in a 4-1 victory back in November. Jack Eichel has a big game in their November matchup – picking up three points and being named the first star.
Eichel is the only player on the Golden Knights who is over a point per game this season. He’s scored 19 goals and added 25 assists for 44 points this season in the 43 games played. Eichel is also the only Golden Knights forward averaging over 20 minutes per game.
Joining Eichel on the top line are Ivan Barbashev and Jonathan Marchessault. That trio has played 253 minutes together this season and has been on the ice for 12 goals scored and eight goals against.
Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore lead the way in ice time from the defence but they play on separate pairings at even strength. Pietrangelo plays with Alec Martinez while Theodore is with Brayden McNabb. Theodore and Pietrangelo each quarterback a power play unit and Pietrangelo will see a lot of time on the penalty kill, which is a big reason why he is averaging 23:47 per game.
Forward Keegan Kolesar is one of the six players in the league with 200 or more hits this season. Kolesar only averages 10:53 of ice time per game but his presence is felt in spades with his love for throwing hits and being aggressive.
The Knights will be without their captain Mark Stone, who is out for the season with an upper-body injury. They will also miss Brett Howden and William Carrier to injury for Thursday’s game.
Adin Hill missed 22 games from December to late January, but he has been healthy for the last month and has strong numbers in the crease this season. Hill has struggled lately, however -- allowing five goals in each of his last two starts.
Vegas will feature their new, fancy toy in their forward group when Anthoney Mantha joins the team for his debut with his new club. Mantha is a 6’5” winger who has picked up 20 goals and added 14 assists for 34 points in 56 games with the Washington Capitals this season. Mantha was traded in exchange for a second and fourth-round pick
Quick Hits on the Competition:
- The Knights currently sit in a wild card position following a 10-game stretch where the team has gone 2-7-1. They have given up five or more goals in six of their last 10 games, but we should expect them to tighten up as the Pacific Division-leading Canucks come to town.
- The game's first goal is always important and that will not change for Thursday’s game. The Knights are 14-3-1 on home ice when they tally first and 5-6-1 when the visiting score the first goal.
- Defenceman Shea Theodore has only played in 27 games this season but he leads the Knights with 10 power play assists.
- Jonathan Marchessault is the only Knight with 30+ goals this season. He’s also the only player on their roster with 200+ shots on net.
- William Karlsson has been excellent in the faceoff dot this season – he's winning 55% of his draws.
Fresh off a pair of 2-1 road wins, the Canucks set their eyes on closing out the road trip with a clean sweep and getting a win against a Pacific Division foe expected to be in the playoffs
The Canucks are well aware of how games are tightening up and goals aren’t flowing like they were at the beginning of the season. Head coach Rick Tocchet has consistently talked about the team needing to learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable and Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings was a great example of that.
Elias Pettersson scored his 30th goal of the season on Tuesday, giving him the third season of his NHL career with 30 or more goals. Pettersson was a big factor in their last game and played 21:51 while being a +2 on the night.
J.T. Miller continues to be a rock for this team after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime on Tuesday. Miller now has seven game-winning goals on the season and is second on the team to Pettersson, who had nine.
Nikita Zadorov has been sticking out with his play over the past handful of games. The big, left-shot defenceman has a couple of primary assists over his last five games. In those five games, and skip ahead if you don’t like fancy stats, Zadorov has held a 58% Corsi and his control of expected goals sits at 61.8%.
The most impressive number from his play over the last five games is his control of high-danger shot attempts. Let’s break down that stat a little bit. High-danger shot attempts occur within a few feet of the crease as well as shots from the slot. High-danger shot attempts can be a great indicator of how a player is helping his team generate quality offensive chances well also limiting the ability of the opposition to get shots from close range.
At five-on-five over the past five games, Zadorov has been on the ice for 19 high-danger shot attempts and only five against. That 79.2% control of the high-danger shot attempt share is helpful in showing us that Zadorov is playing some of his best hockey of the season.
Canucks’ Top Performers over Last Five:
J.T. Miller: 2g-6a-8p
Brock Boeser: 4g-1a-5p
Quinn Hughes: 0g-4a-4p
Nils Höglander: 2g-1a-3p
Elias Pettersson: 1g-2a-3p
Thursday’s game is back to a 7:00 pm PT start time. The game can be viewed on Sportsnet or you can listen to Brendan Batchelor and his call on the radio play-by-play with Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.
