Vancouver will have a hard time finding a win in what would normally be an easy game on the road in Columbus tonight if special teams, soft goals and shootouts weren’t such huge issues for the team.
Game recap – March 5 vs. Sharks
All three mentioned above came into play in Tuesday night’s shootout loss against the San Jose Sharks, where the team went 0-for-5 on the power play, lazily let in floaters and continued to post doughnuts in the shootout, save for the trusty Chris Higgins who scored the opening goal.
The Canucks are now 0-for-10 in their previous five outings on the PP and Daniel Sedin hasn’t posted a goal on the man advantage since the team’s fourth game of the season back on January 25 (Henrik hasn’t scored one all season). Late game penalties by the Sharks gave the team some great chances, but as many shots were fired, Vancouver came up blank. With the Sedins, Edler and Garrison, the Canucks are supposed to be dominant in this part of the game and without any production, the team could say goodbye to a Presidents’ Trophy.
I’m kidding, we’ll get it – it’s not like any teams have won points in all their games up to this point in the season, right?
Tonight’s game preview
The Canucks need to take advantage of this road game in Columbus, or else risk continuing their harsh spell that has seen them (gasp) with less points than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Columbus is, however, having what they would call an impressive run so far with three consecutive wins (a season high). Vinny Prospal and Mark Letestu are both having four-game point streaks, and back on the case is goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky(!), who made 39 saves on 40 shots in his last two.
While another loss may not be unexpected by Canucks fans, some faith can be found in Jannik Hansen and Henrik Sedin who are both on three and five game point streaks respectively.
Here are your need-to-knows for the game:
Broadcast info
Puck drop: 4 p.m. PST
Radio: Team 1040
Television: Rogers Sportsnet Pacific
Lineup courtesy of www.DailyFaceoff.com
Written by Vyas Saran, a Sports Contributor at Vancity Buzz. Follow Vyas on Twitter at @vyasvcs.
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