The Vancouver Canucks conclude their three-game homestand with a Sunday night battle against the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.
Sunday’s game will be the third matchup of the season between the two Pacific Division foes. These two teams will meet again on April 16th to close out the regular season.
Vancouver is coming into Sunday’s game fresh off a strong performance against the Anaheim Ducks. The Canucks won 6-2 on Saturday afternoon and got goals from up and down their lineup, as well as a strong performance from Thatcher Demko between the pipes.
Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes had multi-point games on Saturday, and the power play succeeded, going two for two in the game. Boeser has 25 goals on the season, and Hughes is up to 72 points in 62 games.
Kiefer Sherwood continues to extend his record for most hits in a season. He is up to 435 on the year and adds to his record every game.
Aatu Räty has been excellent in the faceoff dot this season. In 27 games, he has won 147 of his 253 draws, which is good enough for a 58.1% win rate.
With Demko starting on Saturday afternoon, the expected goaltender on Sunday is Kevin Lankinen. He can pick up his 25th win of the season on Sunday. That would crush his career-high of 17 in 2020-21.
The Golden Knights are also playing on the second night of a back-to-back, but they had to travel in from Calgary after beating the Flames in overtime on Saturday night. Reilly Smith scored two goals on Saturday, including the overtime winner with 29 seconds remaining in the extra period. Shea Theodore assisted on all three of Vegas’ goals on Saturday.
Quick Hits on the Competition
- The Knights have won seven of their last nine games and hold a record of 46-22-8 on the season.
- They are 19-13-5 on the road.
- Jack Eichel leads Vegas with 93 points in 75 games. He has 27 goals and 66 assists, 29 of his assists have come on the power play.
- Vegas’ power play is the top-ranked in the league. They are scoring on 30.1% of their man-advantages. Tomas Hertl leads the Golden Knights with 14 power play goals, but he is still recovering from an injury and has not played since March 23rd.
- Their penalty kill ranks 24th in the league with a 75.8% kill rate.
- Akira Schmid started in net on Saturday, so the expected goaltender for Sunday is Adin Hill. He has a 29-13-5 record with a .907% save percentage, 2.50 goals-against average, and has four shutouts.
- They are 27-8-6 when scoring the first goal of the game and 19-14-2 when their opposition scores the opening goal.
The Story: The Calming Pairing
Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet played the Marcus Pettersson and Filip Hronek pairing for 19+ minutes on Saturday night. He liked how that pairing calmed the game down, but was also able to get some offence from Hronek on Saturday night.
“That pair calms things down,” said Tocchet following Saturday’s game. “I thought that was one of the Fil’s better games, and offensively, he did a nice job of attacking the blue line. Marcus is always the calming influence for us.”
Canucks’ Top Performers over the Last Five Games
Kiefer Sherwood: 2g-5a-7p
Pius Suter: 1g-5a-6p
Quinn Hughes: 0g-5a-5p
Brock Boeser: 2g-2a-4p
Aatu Räty: 3g-0a-3p
When and Where to Watch
Sunday’s game starts at 7:00 p.m. PT, and you can watch it on Sportsnet or listen to Brendan Batchelor’s radio call on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network.
