Vancouver Begins Four Game Home Stand Against Dallas Tonight

CANUCKS BANTER By Andrew Chernoff December 3, 2015

Home Sweet Home

The Western conference leaders Dallas Stars (19-5-1) visit Rogers Place tonight to take on the Vancouver Canucks (9-9-8), who begin a 4-game home stand, after finishing a 4 game road trip on Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

The banged up Canucks finished their road trip with a record of 1-2-1. During the trip Chris Higgin, Chris Tanev and Jake Virtanen ended up missing action, joining Ben Hutton and Brandon Sutter on the sidelines. Since then, the Canucks disclosed that Brandon Sutter will be lost to the Canucks until at least mid-January after having sports hernia surgery.

Ronalds Kenins, who played well last season when he was called up from Utica (AHL), is expected to make his NHL season debut and it is hoped that some injured Canucks could return to action tonight, receiving clearance after the morning skate.

The Stars are looking to complete the sweep of the Canucks in their third and final game against Vancouver having won the two previous games this season in Dallas.

Dallas fell to the Calgary Flames, 4-3, in a shootout on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Saddledome. The Stars blew a 3-0 lead after two periods by giving up three in the third period, to eventually lose in the shootout.

Dallas comes into Thursday’s contest riding a nine-game winning streak against the Canucks and are 12-3-0 in the last 15 games against them. The Stars have also posted wins in each of the last four trips to Rogers Arena and have earned a 5-1-0 record in the last six games at Vancouver.

The Stars share first in the NHL in wins (19) and lead the Western Conference and rank second in the League in points (39) through the first 25 games of the 2015-16 season. Dallas’ 19-5-1 record is the team’s best mark through the first 25 games of a season in franchise history.

The Stars pace the NHL with a 3.48 goals-per-game average so far this season having scored 87 goals. Dallas also leads the League with nine empty net goals, while the team leads the West and ranks third in the NHL with 20 power play goals this season.

CANUCKS JOTTINGS

The Canucks are 1-6-3 against the Stars in the last ten games played, dating back to the 2012.13 season.
The last three games between the Canucks and Stars have gone beyond regulation; Vancouver has 2 OTL and 1 SOL in those meetings.
Daniel Sedin has 17 points (8-9-17) in the last 11 games. He recently had a seven game point streak from Nov. 14-27; it was the longest point streak of any Canucks player this season and his longest since a seven game streak from Oct. 22 – Nov. 5/13. He currently leads the team and ranks in the top-15 in the League in points (28), goals (12), assists (16), ppg (5) and ppp (11).
Henrik Sedin has 15 points (5-10-15) in the last 11 games. He recently had a six game point streak from Nov. 16-27. He also had a five game point streak earlier this season from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7. Last season, the Captain recorded points in three or more consecutive games on 10 different occasions
Alex Edler leads VAN in time on ice (24:33) and has led the team in that category in 23 of 25 games he’s played, including 14 games where he’s led all skaters in TOI. He currently ranks 17th in the NHL in TOI/GP.
Henrik and Daniel Sedin have played in 583 wins together. According to ESB, since 1990.91 the only pairs of teammates to play in more wins together are Niklas Lidstrom and Kris Draper (664); and Lidstrom and
Tomas Holmstrom (599).
In the month of November, the Sedins combined for 35 points (Daniel registered 8-10-18 while Henrik collected 6-11-17). According to ESB, it is the most points the Sedins have combined for in a calendar month since December 2011, when they tallied 39 points together (10-7-17 for Daniel; and 2-20-22 for Henrik).
Vancouver has scored at least one power play goal in nine of the last 10 games, including at least one power play goal in eight consecutive games from Nov. 12-27. According to ESB, the last time the Canucks went 8 straight games with a PPG in the same season was Dec. 28 – Jan. 15/96. The Canucks also had a PPG in 8 straight games over a span of two seasons from Apr. 14 – Oct. 19/99.
The Canucks 69 goals on the year are 10th most in the NHL
Vancouver is 12th in the League in shots/GP with 30.1
VANCOUVER’S 2015.16 RECORD WHEN…
Score 4+ Goals: 6-0-0
Score 3 Goals or Less: 3-9-8
Allow 4+ Goals: 0-4-3
Allow 3 Goals or Less: 9-4-5
On 0 Days Rest: 2-1-2
On 1 Day Rest: 2-4-5
On 2 Days Rest: 4-3-1
On 3+ Days Rest: 0-1-1
Score a PPG: 4-5-6
Give up a PPG: 4-7-5
25+ Shots on Goal: 7-8-6
Less than 25 shots: 2-1-2