Game Preview & Gamethread #22: Canucks vs Sharks

Nov 27, 2022 - 8:48 PM

There is something to be said for openly expressing your hatred of Mark Messier. It cleanses the spirit and brings good karma to all those who participate. Unfortunately, I think it is a one and done kind of deal. The Canucks are going to have to win this game on their own. If they play 75% of the effort of last night’s game they should. Last night was close to a perfect game for this team. And while it feels nice to get the 2 points...and God knows they need all the points they can get, tonight’s game is more important.

First off, the Canucks need another two points, so the next game is always more important than the last. Secondly, the Canucks need to beat teams below them to increase the distance from the bottom and get with striking distance of Calgary and Edmonton. (If you want them to tank..strike all of this)

CANUCKS (8-10-3) at SHARKS (7-13-3)

8 p.m. ET; SN, NBCSCA, ESPN+

Canucks projected lineup

Nils Hoglander — Bo Horvat — J.T. Miller

Andrei Kuzmenko — Elias Pettersson — Ilya Mikheyev

Conor Garland — Sheldon Dries — Brock Boeser

Dakota Joshua — Nils Aman — Curtis Lazar

Quinn Hughes — Luke Schenn

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Ethan Bear

Kyle Burroughs — Tyler Myers

Thatcher Demko

Spencer Martin

Scratched: Jack Rathbone, Riley Stillman, Vasily Podkolzin

Injured: Jack Studnicka (undisclosed), Tanner Pearson (hand), Travis Dermott (concussion), Tucker Poolman (undisclosed)

Sharks projected lineup

Timo Meier — Tomas Hertl — Kevin Labanc

Matt Nieto — Logan Couture — Alexander Barabanov

Noah Gregor — Nick Bonino — Luke Kunin

Oskar Lindblom — Steven Lorentz — Evgeny Svechnikov

Jaycob Megna — Erik Karlsson

Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Matt Benning

Radim Simek — Nick Cicek

Kaapo Kahkonen

Aaron Dell

Scratched: Jonah Gadjovich, Nico Sturm, James Reimer, Scott Harrington

Injured: Markus Nutivaara (lower body), Mario Ferraro (undisclosed)

Tonight we get to see how the Canucks #2 ranked powerplay fairs against the #1 PK of the Sharks. The Sharks are led by overpaid Erik Karlsson. The top five scorers of San Jose have more points than the top five of the Canucks, but it drops off significantly after that.

The Nucks are 6-5-1 in November and wouldn’t be nice to get have a above .500 monthto erase that shitty October? We agree then.

Go Canucks Go!