Canucks gameday: Looking to stay hot vs. the Blues

The Vancouver Canucks return home as they prepare for a showdown with the St. Louis Blues. Here is your game preview.

Well, the Vancouver Canucks sure made that California road trip look easy — coming away with five out of a possible six points.

Vancouver outscored its opponents 11-6 during the road trip, and they’re sitting pretty at 9-3-2 on the season. Now, they’ll try to secure the season series against the St. Louis Blues — whom the Canucks defeated on the road 4-3 in a shootout back on Oct. 17.

The Blues will be one of Vancouver’s toughest opponents yet. The defending Stanley Cup champions have won four straight games, and they sit atop the Central Division with a 9-3-3 record. Their 22 points are second in the Western Conference, behind only the Edmonton Oilers.

Vancouver, meanwhile, is riding a seven-game point streak. Their last regulation loss took place on Oct. 19 against the New Jersey Devils. We’ll see if they can continue the momentum against this Western Conference powerhouse.

Players to watch

Elias Pettersson: He won the Calder Trophy last year, and now Pettersson is growing into both a Hart and Art Ross candidate. He’s now up to six goals and 20 points on the season, and Pettersson has recorded 10 points in his last five games.

Ryan O’Reilly: The Reigning Selke and Conn Smythe winner is building off his career year nicely. O’Reilly leads the Blues with 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 15 games.

Brock Boeser: Like Pettersson, Boeser has been practically unstoppable over his last five games. The 22-year-old sniper has nine points over that span. He picked up three goals and a trio of assists during the California road trip.

Alex Pietrangelo: The All-Star blueliner is performing nicely in his contract year, with 10 points in 15 games. Pietrangelo is eating up over 23 minutes of ice time a night. He’s a force at both ends of the nice, and the Canucks are going to have to plan carefully against him.

Score prediction: 4-3 Blues

It’s been a while since I picked against the Canucks. I was wrong in choosing the Blues to win their Oct. 17 matchup, so recent history says I’ll be incorrect again here.

I do feel like the Canucks are do for a loss. They’ve been playing near-perfect hockey as of late, but they’ve also benefited from a fairly weak schedule. The Blues are unlike most other teams Vancouver has faced this year.

So I’m going to predict a close loss here. They’ll battle hard in every aspect and keep it close, but the 2019 Stanley Cup winners win a high-scoring affair 4-3, and Vancouver learns a valuable lesson or two in the defeat.