FIVE KEYS TO THE GAME

1. The Sutter line

The Canucks have increasingly looked like the team we saw in October. Brandon Sutter’s ice time has been trending up and in Saturday’s home loss to Tampa Bay he played more than 20 minutes. Florida gets last change and will dictate the matchups. The Panthers have two dangerous scoring lines, one centred by Alexsander Barkov and another by Vincent Trocheck. It will be interesting to see which one Sutter ends up matched against.

2. The Horvat line

In terms of driving play, and given the competition, Bo Horvat’s line had one of its best nights of the season Saturday. Vancouver coach Travis Green said: “That line was going. I was trying to get them on the ice as much as I could. It probably affected everyone’s ice time by the end of the game. I was double-shifting that line. It may have been among the better periods (the third) I’ve seen a line play this season.”

3. The Gudbranson situation

The resolution to questions about Erik Gudbranson’s future with the Canucks continues to loom. The defenceman has struggled more than any other in Vancouver in controlling shot attempts. The Canucks are controlling just 41.53 per cent of unblocked shot attempts when he’s on the ice, the worst on the team by a significant margin. In other words, he’s not playing well and better defencemen, like Ben Hutton and Derrick Pouliot, are getting scratched.

4. The McCann situation

Jared McCann is now centring the Panthers’ third line and has been playing well. His 13 points are one more than Jake Virtanen. He has held his head above water in terms of possession. His shot-attempt ratio and goals-for percentage are both above 50. It means the Panthers at even strength are controlling the shot attempts and the goals being scored when he’s on the ice.

5. How much will the Sedins play?

There’s 30 games left for the Canucks and the Sedins still don’t know if they want to come back next season. You would think both the team’s chance at success and their playing time would be factors in that decision. Last game, for example, Daniel Sedin played less than 11 minutes. Can that be fun? It sure isn’t when the Canucks lose and they need goals.