Vancouver Canucks gameday: Rivalry renewed with Boston Bruins

Following a six-game road trip, the Vancouver Canucks return home and will try to hand the Boston Bruins a sweep on the Western Canadian swing. Here’s what you need to know for tonight’s game.

The Vancouver Canucks come home with six of an available 12 points on that brutal six-game road trip, and that was without rookie star Elias Pettersson for the final two contests.

Now, the Canucks come home to take on their old friends — Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins. It’s been over seven years since that fateful Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, but the memories will not fade away any time soon. It’s always an adventure when these two teams meet, and tonight’s atmosphere at Rogers Arena should be incredible.

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The Canucks will try to bounce back after a 4-1 road loss to the Winnipeg Jets, whereas the Bruins are coming off consecutive losses to the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers. The Canucks would surely love to hand Boston the sweep on the Western Canadian road trip, but they’ll have to play a full 60 minutes for that to happen.

Boston’s top line of Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak hasn’t missed a beat. They have 12,13 and 11 points, respectively.

Vancouver’s defencemen couldn’t contain Winnipeg’s top stars on Thursday, and the Bruins’ big stars will keep them battle-tested in this one.

Vancouver split the season series with Boston last season. They lost 6-3 on the road but hammered a surging Bruins team 6-1 at Rogers Arena to pick up the win. Before that, the Bruins had taken three of the previous four meetings.

The Canucks will need the likes of Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser to carry the load against this Boston team. They obviously aren’t on the same level of production as the Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak line, but we’ve seen this duo take over games before. They can certainly do it against a team allowing three goals per game, via NHL.com.

Though the Bruins are certainly the better team on paper, the Canucks have played good defensive hockey, especially against the super-skilled teams. If they can steal road games against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins, one has to think they’re capable of handing Boston a third consecutive loss.

Vancouver will come home to an energized group of fans after a lengthy six-game road trip. It’s been two-and-a-half weeks since their last home contest, and it’d be huge to see them hand their old rivals another loss following a grueling road trip.

But for that to happen, the defencemen will have to handle Boston’s top line, and the Canucks will need Boeser and Horvat to carry the offence.