Vancouver Canucks (4-6-0) @ Detroit Red Wings (4-4-0)
Location: Washington, DC
TV: Sportsnet Pacific
Time: 4:00pm/PST

Man this Canucks team is on one heck of a streak! Unfortunately for Canucks fans, the streak is not one which they would like to continue. Vancouver is coming off yet another loss against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, a loss in which they yet again did not put up a full sixty minute hard-working effort. Although their effort did seem more consistent throughout the game versus the Red Wings, it wasn’t even close to what it needed to be and many of their streaks of bad habits continued. The Canucks took way to many selfish and bone-headed penalties and once again got outshot by an extensive margin. Here’s a stat, the Red Wings first line outshot the whole Canucks team.

Vancouver rolls into Washington today for the first time in about four years (and who knows, probably the only time in a few more if the schedule doesn’t change) and they have one thing in common with the Caps’: both teams are having a tough time scoring. Washington was one of only three teams to have five 25-goal scorers last year, but this year things haven’t started the same. However with their off-season additions of Michael Nylander, Viktor Kozlov and Tom Poti and another year under the belts of Alexanders Ovechkin and Semin, Washington’s depth is unlike it has been for many years. It’s only time before Washington starts to feel more comfortable and puts up more consistent offensive efforts.

Both teams would sorely like to get above .500 so this game, although still early in the season, is a proverbial must-win for both team. Washington is coming off a big win which saw them have their highest offensive output of the season with a 5-3 victory over Tampa Bay on Wednesday. Vancouver has been having trouble off the ice as well as on the ice as in recent days Markus Naslund has questioned the system the Canucks are playing and has stated that it is not conducive to scoring, while head coach Alain Vigneault has called out his top six forwards on more than one occasion for not producing or working hard.

The Canucks will be sporting some new lines tonight as Mason Raymond lines up where he did to start the season: alongside the Sedins on the first line. Ryan Kesler stays at centre but changes roles as he will centre a second line between Markus Naslund and Taylor Pyatt. The third line sees Brendan Morrison and Matt Cooke reunited and Trevor Linden will be back in the lineup in a scoring (and checking) role. This set of the top nine seems to be the most promising when it comes to having a balanced attack. Let’s not ask for goals from all three lines just yet as shots are hard enough to come by these days. But it’s reassuring enough to know that if one line gets shut down (like in games past) the Canucks won’t have to rely on a line of grinders to provide the team’s offense.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.