Vancouver Canucks gameday: The return of Willie Desjardins (again)
The Vancouver Canucks will greeted by the return of Willie Desjardins and the LA Kings. Vancouver has reinforcements on the way and rumours behind the scenes in LA could provide for a wild game.
Ah, the NHL schedule. It was bad enough for the Vancouver Canucks to travel so much in the first two months with another big road trip queued up for the World Juniors next month. But, don’t you think it’s odd that the team didn’t even play a team within their own division until the end of November?
Well, the Canucks face off against the Los Angeles Kings for the second time in four days. At least the team is back home at Rogers Arena and good timing too since they snapped their losing streak in LA. To add to the good news, Brock Boeser is back in the lineup, slotting back where he belongs. A healthy Boeser itching to get back will return a struggling power play to form.
Vancouver climbed back up to fifth place in the Pacific Division with the win on Saturday. Despite the rumours, Willie Desjardins is still behind the Kings bench (for now). He makes his first return to Vancouver and the Kings are fresh off a 5-2 win over the Oilers.
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So, both teams have won their last game, beating a terrible team along the way. It really is incredible that the Canucks have the ninth most goals in the league (76), but have surrendered the second most (92). The Kings have only given up 74 goals, but have the league’s worst offence with 50 goals. They really have this #LoseforHughes thing nailed down.
I said the Kings would play with desperation on Hockey Night in Canada. That did not happen. They did respond when the Oilers came to town and maybe they will bring a little more this time around. Apparently, the Roxy Flu isn’t a thing anymore. Drew Doughty is coming to town, so we’ll see how sharp he is during the game tonight.
Vancouver has all the right things going for it now. They don’t have the spectre of the losing streak hanging overhead. Offensive pieces are returning and as long as Derrick Pouliot is out of the lineup, this writer is happy. Now, when the Canucks win, he generally leaves his lineup untouched. That can’t happen with Boeser returning, but I would assume that the defence will be the same and Jacob Markstrom gets another start.
That means Troy Stecher likely sits again, who found his way to Travis Green‘s doghouse for whatever reason. Same number of points as Erik Gudbranson and has looked better through the eye test. The team didn’t play too differently with Alex Biega in the lineup. Coaches are weird.
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With all this in mind, a win seems like a guarantee, right? So, that means the Canucks will probably lose. That’s how that usually goes and maybe the rumours of yet another coaching change will light another fire under the Kings. The game could prove to be quite the barn burner if the floodgates are opened. At least I hope it is. The last thing we want to see is 60 minutes of trap hockey.