Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
Nucks Fan Rebuild & Retool Center - Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
10 p.m. ET; TVAS, SNP, SN-PIT
The losing streak is over! Now...can we please start a new winning streak? I would like to know what was said in the 2nd intermission of Saturday's game to get the Canucks skating again. With this team, that's really what it comes down to. When the Canucks are skating hard, they are able to create off the break out or the turnover. When they skate on the PP, they get better shots. The 4 game losing streak was not about teams beating the Canucks, but rather the Canucks trying to create from static positions and that doesn't work for them.
Taco and the Nucks practiced yesterday and Taco talks about the team they face tonight.
The Penguins are in a dog fight and every game they play is 2 points they need to keep pace in the Metro. With Guentzel out, the Penguins will have to rely on some duo named Crosby/Malkin to create offense...or maybe play some defense. Pittsburgh is a team that throws 82's +/- theory out the window as the Pens are +15, but sitting in 6th place in the division and 9 points out of a wild card spot.
Tonight is the Hockey Talks game and with it comes Wes Rypien, to talk about mental health, which everyone can relate to and we need to hear that's it ok to talk about your struggles.
Penguins projected lineup
Reilly Smith -- Sidney Crosby -- Rickard Rakell
Drew O’Connor -- Evgeni Malkin -- Valtteri Puustinen
Emil Bemstrom -- Lars Eller -- Jesse Puljujarvi
Jansen Harkins -- Noel Acciari -- Jeff Carter
Pierre-Olivier Joseph -- Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson -- Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves -- Chad Ruhwedel
Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic
Scratched: John Ludvig, Matthew Phillips
Injured: Bryan Rust (upper body), Jake Guentzel (upper body), Matt Nieto (knee surgery)
Canucks projected lineup
Pius Suter -- J.T. Miller -- Brock Boeser
Nils Hoglander -- Elias Pettersson -- Ilya Mikheyev
Arshdeep Bains -- Elias Lindholm -- Conor Garland
Phillip Di Giuseppe -- Teddy Blueger -- Sam Lafferty
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Ian Cole -- Tyler Myers
Nikita Zadorov -- Noah Juulsen
Thatcher Demko
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Mark Friedman, Nils Aman
Injured: Dakota Joshua (upper body), Carson Soucy (hand)
Status report
Rust, a forward who normally plays on the top line, is week to week after leaving during the third period of a 7-6 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday; Smith moves up from the third line to take Rust’s place, and Puljujarvi takes Smith’s spot after being a healthy scratch the past three games. ... The Canucks will stick with the forward lines they used in a 3-2 overtime win against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, which included moving Pettersson back from wing to center and dropping center Lindholm off his line down to center a third line. - NHL.COM
Game Day Battle Hymn
Drums you say...lots of drums...yes, we can do that. Johnnes Grossman seems pretty good at playing them.
