THE INTRO

It’s time for bounce-back szn! The Carolina Hurricanes have made their way to the city without Uber to take on bike lanes, delicious Japadogs and of course, the Vancouver Canucks. Carolina has put up six-spots in their two games while allowing only three goals against Edmonton and two versus the Wild.

The Canucks need to get their house in order and get back to drawing penalties which have allowed Vancouver to become one of the NHL’s elites on the power-play.

Sure, we’d like to see them play well at 5v5 but that’s a pipe dream so let’s enjoy the other parts that have done well.

Let’s Do This!

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

The odds for tonight’s game are: (VAN +110/ CAR -130) courtesy of OddsShark.com

TV / RADIO / PUCK DROP

SNP / SN 650 / 7:00 PM

LINEUPS

Antoine Roussel has shaved his mustache, Zack MacEwen has been recalled and Micheal Ferland is back on the injury list with a UBI. Is Brandon Sutter back? Follow the Twitters.

It’s Jacob Markstrom’s net until it’s not. If you’ve followed along you’ll know I have no clue until they tell us. I’m wrong more than I’m right.

Canucks lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

 

Erik “Haula if you hear me” Haula is out with a knee injury and isn’t coming back any time soon. That’s it for lineup notes.

If they have reincarnated Petr Mrazek, he is the likely starter for tonight.

Hurricanes lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

 

GAME NOTES AND A STAT OR TWO

• Brock Boeser missed a colossal amount of breakaways against the Leafs, to be honest, all of the Canucks did. What was impressive was the time and space he had to make something happen. Brock doesn’t miss a lot (29 missed shots this season) and he’s on a decent clip as well in the goal category (11 goals) so if Boeser continues, those breakaways should turn into goals.
• Sebastian Aho is having a great season with 18 goals thus far. Predicting what will happen each game is tough but if I know the Canucks, Aho will have at least two opportunities to put one home tonight.
• Both Thatcher Demko and Jacob Markstrom have fallen below the .920 SV% bar and the last few games are big reasons why. The Canucks are scoring but they’re being scored on just as much. They need to tighten up and get back to what got the conversation started. The shots are there and they have dominated the shot-share but they need to capitalize.
• It’s anyone’s guess if Quinn Hughes will factor in as one of the NHL’s top-three defenseman but right now, he’s close. In fact, he’s four points out of the top three. Carolina has seen some special defensemen come through their organization but they haven’t seen Quinn Hughes yet. That should be fun.
• Carolina was the recipient of the slump buster against the Canucks and Antoine Roussel has been a lightning rod for change. Can he be the man who takes the Canucks out of their slump and back into the spotlight? He did it against Ottawa and Carolina is just as forgettable a team.

#CANUCKSTWITTER

The man is gonna be a pro

I'm very excited to say that I will be moving away from Nanaimo.
I never wanted to leave but bigger and better things are a ferry ride away.
I'll be moving over to go to @bcit starting in January.

Excited to get on with my writing and podcasting career.

Ill miss you VI.

— Chris Faber (@ChrisFaber39) December 12, 2019

WARNING: Weird truths below

The AHL is a helluva drug

— Chris Conte (@ChrisConte79) December 12, 2019

MY 94 CENTS

#TeamLikeThat vs. #BunchofJerks is really just a numbers game. Dougie Hamilton can’t fool our goaltenders though, Dan Cloutier doesn’t play for this team anymore. No center ice goals happening tonight. Canucks bounce back because they don’t have a choice. I wonder if the STAAL/STAAL/STAAL line will get matched against SUBBAN/SUBBAN/SUBBAN?

AND ANOTHER THING…

Sara, he taught us all a lot but you’re right, there was so much more he would have taught us. Thanks for sharing!

I have felt so selfish lately thinking about Botch. There was so much left to learn it feels like only he could teach. The bench is perfect pic.twitter.com/VPL4c9xT7c

— Sara Civ (@SaraCivian) December 11, 2019