CANUCKS BANTER: Pittsburgh Visits Vancouver To End Two Game Home Stand

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CANUCKS BANTER     By Andrew Chernoff    November 4, 2015

Canucks Go For Three Consecutive Wins At Home Tonight

The Canucks end their 2-game home stand and go for their 7th win of the season tonight, as they try to keep up with the Los Angeles Kings both tied atop the Pacific Division.

Vancouver enters the game having defeated the Philadelphia Flyers on November 2 by a 4-1 margin, extending their winning streak to 2-games. Vancouver is 5-2-3 in their last 10-games.

The Penguins come into the game riding a 4-game winning streak, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs in their last game by a 4-0 score. Pittsburgh is 7-3 in their last 10-games.

Marc-Andre Fleury’s second shutout of the season ties him for the NHL lead. That gives Fleury 17 shutouts over the last three seasons, tied for the NHL lead with Carey Price.

This is the fifth game in a stretch that will see the Penguins play six of seven games on the road (4-0 thus far).

Tonight marks the first of two meetings this season between the Canucks and Penguins. Vancouver will travel to Pittsburgh on Jan. 23rd.

Last year the Canucks swept the Penguins, 2-0, as Eddie Lack and Ryan Miller each posted shutouts, outscoring Pittsburgh 8-0. Those wins by the Canucks snapped the Penguins’ four-game winning streak in the series.

The Penguins have been victorious in three of their last five visits to Vancouver.

Overall the Canucks are 5-4-1 in their last 10 meetings with the Penguins. They have gone seven consecutive games without a regulation loss against Pittsburgh (4-0-3) with their last regulation lost coming on Nov. 3, 2000.

CANUCKS AT A GLANCE

  • Radim Vrbata (2-2-4) has a four game point streak entering tonight’s game. Henrik Sedin (0-3-3) has a three game assist streak entering tonight’s game.
  • Through Nov. 4, Jared McCann leads the team in goals and ranks t-second among rookies in that category (5); he is also the first Canucks player since Dane Jackson in 1993 to have at least five consecutive goals to start his career (no assists). McCann currently ranks fifth among rookies in shooting percentage (29.4%).
  • Ben Hutton ranks t-fourth among NHL rookies in assists (5).
  • Alex Edler leads VAN in time on ice (24:52) and has led the team in that category in nine of 11 games he’s played. He currently ranks 9th in the NHL in TOI/GP. Last season, Edler ranked first on the team in average ice time per game (23:58) and led the team in TOI on 59 separate occasions including 26 games where led all skaters in TOI.
  • Ryan Miller has an NHL-best 53 wins in games decided by a shootout; he sits t-23rd all-time in wins with 328 and is in a tie with Carey Price for 46th all-time in shutouts (36).

The Canucks are currently tied for 1rst place with Los Angeles ,in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, with 16-points; 4-points ahead of San Jose, who are alone in second place. Arizona currently is in 3rd place with 11-points, 1-point ahead of Edmonton in 4th place with 10-points.

Vancouver, San Jose, and Los Angeles both have a game in-hand on Edmonton and Calgary. Arizona and Anaheim both have a game in-hand on on Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Jose; two games in-hand on Edmonton and Calgary.

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Vancouver is among the top 6-teams in the Western Conference, and are tied for the 3rd best team in the conference with their 16-points. The Dallas Stars are at the  top of the conference with 20-points, currently sporting an 8-2 record in their last 10-games.

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Canucks are among the top 10-teams in the NHL, and are tied for the 5th best team in the league with their 16-points. The Montreal Canadians are the top team with 23-points, with a record of 11-2-1, all wins in regulation play.

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Pittsburgh is in 4rth-place in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference, with 14-points. The New York Rangers are at top spot in the division, with 18-points; followed by the New York Islanders with 17-points, and the Philadelphia Flyers with 16-points. New Jersey is currently in 5th place in the division with 13-points. 

Pittsburgh and Washington both have a game in-hand on the Rangers, Devils, Panthers and Flyers; 2-games in-hand on the Islanders and Blue Jackets. The Rangers, Devils, Panthers, and Flyers all have 1-game in-hand on the Islanders and Blue Jackets.

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Daniel Sedin leads the Canucks in scoring with 9-points including a team high 6-assists, followed by Alex Burrows with 8-points; Brandon Sutter and Henrik Sedin are next with 7-points.  Radim Vrbata closely follows with 6-points. Brandon Prust, Alex Edler; rookies rookie Jared McCann and Ben Hutton; Jannik Hansen are on their skate blades with 5-points.

Rookie Jared McCann leads the Canucks as the top sniper with 5-goals in 10-games played.

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For the Penguins, Evgeni Malkin leads Philadelphia with 10-points, followed by Phil Kessel with 6-points and Sidney Crosby with 5-points.

Malkin and Kessel lead Pittsburgh with goals scored with 4-goals each.

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GAME JOTTINGS

The following are with thanks to SportingCharts

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Statistics for Canucks Banter provided with thanks by the NHL, Vancouver Canucks and SportingCharts.

China urges U.S. not to threaten its sovereignty – Reuters News 11/3/2015 8:40 PM

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Last week’s U.S. naval patrol in the South China Sea threatened China’s sovereignty and security interests, and the U.S. should not take any more dangerous actions that threaten China’s sovereignty, Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan said.

Chang made the comments to U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Source: China urges U.S. not to threaten its sovereignty – Reuters News 11/3/2015 8:40 PM

Test to diagnose ‘face blindness’ – BBC News

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Scientists have come up with a questionnaire they say should help diagnose a condition called face blindness.

Prosopagnosia, as doctors call it, affects around two in every 100 people in the UK and is the inability to recognise people by their faces alone.

In its most extreme form, people cannot even recognise their family or friends.

Milder forms, while still distressing, can be tricky to diagnose, which is why tests are needed.

People with prosopagnosia often use non-facial cues to recognise others, such as their hairstyle, clothes, voice, or distinctive features.

Some may be unaware they have the condition, instead believing they have a “bad memory for faces”. But prosopagnosia is entirely unrelated to intelligence or broader memory ability.

One [anonymous] person with prosopagnosia explains: “My biggest problem is seeing the difference between ordinary-looking people, especially faces with few specific traits.

“I work at a hospital with an awful lot of employees and I often introduce myself to colleagues with whom I have worked several times before. I also often have problems recognising my next-door neighbour, even though we have been neighbours for eight years now. She often changes clothes, hairstyle and hair colour. When I strive to recognise people, I try to use technical clues like clothing, hairstyle, scars, glasses, their dialect and so on.”

Doctors can use computer-based tests to see if people can spot famous faces and memorise and recognise a set of unfamiliar faces.

And now Dr Pundit Shah and colleagues at University College London have come up with a 20-item questionnaire to help measure the severity of someone’s face blindness.

Source: Test to diagnose ‘face blindness’ – BBC News

Oil Relief Spurs Freeport and Teck to Biggest Gain Among Miners | BOE Report

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Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and Teck Resources Ltd., punished in the stock market for expanding into oil before prices tumbled, rallied on Tuesday as crude jumped to a two-week high.

Shares in Freeport surged 6.9 percent to $12.64 at 11:51 a.m. in New York while Teck, Canada’s biggest diversified, rose 9.4 percent to C$8.27 in Toronto. They were the best performers in the Bloomberg Americas Mining Index. Both shares are down 54 percent in the past year, compared with the index’s 31 percent decline.

Copper miner Freeport invested heavily in oil and gas in 2013 with the acquisitions of McMoRan Exploration Co. and Plains Exploration & Production Co., swelling its debt just ahead of a downturn in energy prices.

Teck has energy exposure through the proposed Frontier oil sands mine, and via a 20 percent ownership in the Fort Hills oil sands project, both in Northern Alberta. It’s shouldering 20 percent of costs in the latter project, estimated at C$13.5 billion in total.

“Among the miners, they have the most exposure to oil,” Daniel Rohr, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “Given the extent to which that’s leveraged on their balance sheets, that’s magnified.”

Oil climbed to the highest since Oct. 19 in New York, ahead of a report Wednesday which is expected to show higher refinery utilization rates.

Source: Oil Relief Spurs Freeport and Teck to Biggest Gain Among Miners | BOE Report

Can Teck Resources Ltd. (USA) Ever Come Back? | The Motley Fool Canada

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To say it’s been a tough year for Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B)(NYSE:TCK) would be an understatement.

The company is dealing with lower commodity prices across the board. Thanks to lower demand from China and a general aversion to the commodity in general, metallurgical coal prices have fallen off a cliff. The market for zinc and copper isn’t exactly strong either, and investors are punishing Teck for its ill-timed investment in the Fort Hills oil sands project.

Perhaps this is just a temporary drop. Remember, the last time Teck traded at such low levels was during the first part of 2009 when it dropped as low at $5 per share. By 2011, shares had rebounded with a vengeance, hitting a high of $60 each.

Is Teck poised for that kind of rebound? Or are the problems much worse this time around?

Source: Can Teck Resources Ltd. (USA) Ever Come Back? | The Motley Fool Canada