Canucks Recreation Day: Returning house to face the Blues

Canucks kick off a three-game house stand on Friday vs. St. Louis.

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St. Louis Blues (2-2-1) at Vancouver Canucks (4-2-0) 

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When/the place: Friday, 7 p.m., Rogers Enviornment

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TV: SN Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650

The excitement: The Canucks come house driving a excessive — not solely have they received two straight, however they put collectively their most spectacular efficiency on their five-game highway journey final Tuesday. They managed the complete movement of that recreation, a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators. The Canucks are well-rested after their highway journey and can host a Blues squad that misplaced in Winnipeg on Tuesday and performed in Calgary on Thursday evening.

The historical past: It’s the primary time these two squads have met this season, however these are two coaches who know one another very nicely. They had been roommates once they had been teammates on the Philadelphia Flyers within the late-Nineteen Eighties. Craig Berube received a Stanley Cup teaching the Blues in 2019, and the best way he needs his workforce to play could be very a lot how Tocchet needs his personal workforce to play. “He did a helluva job of creating each one among them vital. That’s what I realized from him. How vital the highest guys and even the fourth line are,” Tocchet stated of Berube. 

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The hope: The Canucks look to slowly be finding out their workforce play. Since yielding a boat-load of scoring possibilities two weeks in the past in Edmonton to the Oilers, the Canucks have gotten higher with each recreation, to the purpose the place they performed their most full recreation of the 12 months on Tuesday in Nashville. Good defending, fast breakouts, persistence with the puck within the offensive zone, that is how Tocchet hopes his workforce will proceed to play.

The concern: The Blues are coming in Friday a bit drained — a traditional lure recreation for a well-rested house workforce. For those who don’t skate laborious at them early, they could skate previous you by the tip.

The highest weapons: Elias Pettersson has 10 factors on the season, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser have eight apiece. Quinn Hughes appears to be like like a person on a mission each evening. The Blues’ offence has appeared extra like a pop-gun to date this season, with simply 11 targets via the primary 5 video games of the 12 months (earlier than Thursday in Calgary). Brandon Saad is the one Blues with a couple of purpose on the season, and he solely has two.

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The wounded: Canucks: Teddy Blueger (ankle), Guillaume Brisebois (concussion, LTIR). Blues: none.

The quote: “They’re a hard-working workforce. They usually’re like us, you understand, they’re looking for their approach, their workforce identification. They work laborious they usually bought some guys which can be going to place the puck in.” — Rick Tocchet

The lineup: Mikheyev-Pettersson-Kuzmenko/Di Giuseppe-Miller-Boeser/Joshua-Suter-Garland/Beauvillier-Lafferty-Höglander/Hughes-Hronek/Cole-Friedman/Soucy-Myers.

The prediction: The Canucks are brimming with confidence. The Blues are nonetheless discovering their approach offensively. Mark this as a enjoyable 4-1 house ice win for Vancouver.


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