Sharks at Canucks Preview: On the road in Vancouver

After losing to Buffalo at home on Friday night, the Sharks are right back on the road this afternoon for the first of three meetings with the Canucks in the next four games. They’ll try to build on their historically good road play as they won’t play consecutive games in the same building again until March 10–12.

It’s the end of February, but somehow this will be the first time these two teams face off this season. Vancouver sits 10 points behind San Jose in the Pacific and eight behind Colorado for a playoff spot, and its position would be much worse without the most loser points in the league.

At -24, the Canucks’ goal differential ties them with Winnipeg and Arizona for second-worst in the Western Conference. They’re currently playing without Alexander Edler (broken leg) and Brandon Sutter (broken jaw), and Radim Vrbata, sidelined with a lower body injury and the subject of trade rumors, is also unlikely to play.

Tale of the Tape

	@
32–22–6	Record	24–24–12
3rd in Pacific	Rank	4th in Pacific
52.6%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	47.6%
99.9	PDO	99.9
22.5	PP%	17.6
79.3	PK%	81.6

4:00 PST – Rogers Arena – Vancouver, British Columbia
TV: CSN-CA – Radio: KFOX 98.5
Know Your Enemy: Nucks Misconduct

Last meeting

The Canucks came out on top 3–2 when these teams last played almost a year ago. Vrbata scored twice and current Carolina Hurricane Eddie Lack made 40 saves. Melker Karlsson and Joe Thornton scored for the Sharks.

Storylines

• The biggest storyline is, of course, the Sharks’ acquisition of James Reimer, who should start in San Jose tomorrow assuming he gets there in time. Aaron Dell will back up Martin Jones in the meantime.
• The Canucks are bad—but so are the Avs and Sabres, and the Sharks only picked up one point in those two games. They’ll need to take care of business if they want to stay within striking distance of LA and Anaheim.