FIVE KEYS TO THE GAME
Two’s a charm?
The Canucks pulled off a surprising win Saturday, mostly down to goaltender Jacob
Markstrom’s exploits. The Sharks and the Flames are battling for top spot in the Pacific; you know that the challenge tonight will be as ferocious as the one Saturday. At one point, the Flames led in secondperiod shots 18-1. The Canucks were lucky to escape that onslaught; can they pull off a second straight win against a Stanley Cup contender?
Brent Burns
When you have a defenceman this good, it’s always going to be about how the opposition handles it. Brent Burns is an All-World force at both ends of the ice. He looks like a bear, and gives the impression that he swallows up opposing forwards and uses the energy from their souls to power his efforts at the attacking end of the ice. With Erik Karlsson likely still out with an undisclosed injury, Burns’ presence looms bigger than ever. Can the Canucks contain him?
Load ’em up
Putting Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture on a line together is an intimidating prospect for any opponent. Usually they centre the Sharks’ top two lines, so putting them together suggests a bigger combined threat. Except that has not been the case: Together, they are controlling only about half of the shot attempts while they’re on the ice, apart, Couture’s Sharks get about 53 per cent of the attempts and Pavelski’s line will get 56. They’re so good that it does seem odd they don’t work as well together. Then again, that happens sometimes.
PP needs a bounce
The Canucks’ power play looked better with Troy Stecher at the point, but still didn’t score. With another day’s practice, will they find the twine against the Sharks?
MacEwen call-up
To some acclaim, young Zack MacEwen is in the NHL. Canucks coach Travis Green played coy Sunday about his plans for the 22-year-old winger, not really commitment to a timeline for when MacEwen might get in the lineup. But given Markus Granlund played just eight minutes on Saturday, has fallen out of both the power play and penalty kill rotations, and has been a scratch in recent games, there would seem to be a possible spot for the big, quick winger.