Canucks Game Day: toothless sharks but no quinn hughes

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Vancouver Canucks vs. San Jose Sharks

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When/where: Thursday at. 7.30 pm, SAP Center

TV: Sn Pacific. Radio: Sports net 650

The Buzz: Quick: Which team this season think you have tried more shots on the opposition target, Vancouver Canucks or San Jose Sharks? If you said sharks you are right. These are two teams that have struggled to create consistent violation this year. The difference? Defensive game. No team in the NHL has given up more attempts at their own goal than the sharks. Canucks, on the other hand, have given the fifth-Mewest. Defense-first canucks appear to finally sort their offensive games. But Canucks will be without Quinn Hughes, their offensive talisman, Thursday. They did it okay on Tuesday against Colorado and you would think they will be in order against a much weaker Harproof …

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The story: Despite Sharks’ mediocrity this season, Canucks has not exactly blown them out of the water. Vancouver won in November 3-2 on a late Pius Suter goal and 4-3 two days before Christmas in a game that Quinn Hughes probably shouldn’t have played.

Hope: The breakouts and the overall revitalized attack that Canucks have shown in the last two weeks are real. There are clues that Canucks are ready to break out, and not only because of the new players – the overall trend for Canucks in recent weeks has been control possession, limited opposition scoring opportunities and create its own mountain. They have just struggled to quit.

Fear: The same old advice remains in their games. And they don’t have Hughes at the forefront.

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The top guns: Without Hughes in the lineup, Conor Garland and Brock Boeser lead the road with 34 points. That’s not what you expected to get into the season. Macklin Celebrini is the only thing that goes for the sharks at this time, though William Eklund is tied with him at 38 points.

They wounded: Canucks: Quinn Hughes (lower body, day to day). Sharks: Jan Rutta (lower body, week to week), climate Kostin (lower body, week to week), nico sturm (lower body, week to week), nikolai kovalenko (upper body, week to week), Ty dellandrea (upper body, day to day), Alex Wennberg (upper body, day to day)

The quote: “To take the puck to the net and attack the inner (of the ice) – this is the next level for us. But I like our breakouts because we spend less time at our end. ” – Rick Tocchet about what his team needs to continue working on.

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The latest: Canucks made a smaller watch program Wednesday and sent Linus Karlsson back to Ahl Abbotsford and remembered Nils Åman. Defense-first Åman had only two assists in five NHL games earlier this season, but has 28 points in 32 AHL games.

The projected lineup:

DeMusketsson-Garland

O’Connor-chytil-Boeser

Joshua-Suter-Sherwood

Höglander-Blueger-åman

Forbort-Hronek

M. Pettersson-Myers

E. Pettersson-Soucy

Demko

The prediction: Canucks looks like they might be getting on a roll. They crush the unhappy sharks 4-1.

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