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Sharks at Canucks Preview: Back to Vancouver

Four days after scoring four unanswered goals to defeat the Canucks 4–1, the Sharks are back for more. They’ll look for a similar result the second time around, though hopefully they can score some goals before the third period this time.

The Canucks lost to the Islanders in regulation on Tuesday night, so they now sit 14 points behind the Sharks for the third spot in the Pacific. San Jose can make that lead even more comfortable and maybe pick up some ground on LA or Anaheim with another win tonight.

Vancouver’s still missing Alexander Edler and Brandon Sutter with long term injuries, but Radim Vrbata—still a Canuck after Vancouver GM Jim Benning made no deals on deadline day—skated yesterday and could return to the lineup.

Tale of the Tape

San Jose Sharks @ Vancouver Canucks
34–22–6 Record 24–26–12
3rd in Pacific Rank 4th in Pacific
52.6% Score-Adj. Fenwick 47.7%
100.1 PDO 99.8
22.3 PP% 17.8
79.8 PK% 81.5

7:00 PST – Rogers Arena – Vancouver, British Columbia
TV: CSN-CA – Radio: KFOX 98.5
Know Your Enemy: Nucks Misconduct

Last meeting

Down 1–0 after two periods, the Sharks won 4–1 behind goals from Joe Pavelski, Tomas Hertl, Patrick Marleau and Justin Braun. Marc-Edouard Vlasic set a career high in points, and Martin Jones made 23 saves. But you remember that.

Storylines

  • New backup goalie James Reimer is in Vancouver, but Pete DeBoer said yesterday that Jones will start again tonight. That’ll give Reimer a bit more time to practice with his new teammates. If we don’t see him against the Canucks in San Jose on Saturday, we’ll certainly see him next week when the Sharks play a back-to-back in Alberta.
  • Five Sharks—Hertl, Pavelski, Vlasic, Joonas Donskoi and Roman Polak—were named to preliminary World Cup of Hockey rosters. Four Canucks—Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Jacob Markstrom and Jannik Hansen—made the initial cut.
  • The Canucks are all but dead already, but it sure would be fun to see the Sharks put another nail in Vancouver’s coffin.
  • The Sharks are 1–0 AMB (After Mike Brown). Can they stay perfect?

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