Motivated Leipsic looks to ‘stick it’ to former club

The Canucks are trying to create internal competition for roster spots next fall because a six-game losing streak and eight regulars out of the lineup suggests they’ll have a hard time creating anything tonight when they open a fourgame road trip in Las Vegas. The Canucks did score three powerplay goals Saturday in a 5-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks, but were outplayed in Sin City Feb. 23, falling 6-3 to the Golden Knights.

THE BIG MATCHUP

Leipsic versus The Trade

Far from a blockbuster — it even caught Brendan Leipsic by surprise — the trade-deadline swap of expendable players in which defenceman Philip Holm was sent to Vegas has been a lifeline for the 23-year-old Leipsic. He has six points in nine games and logged a career-high 21:12 of ice time Saturday. And going from nine to 11 minutes as a fourth-liner with the Knights to playing with first-liner Bo Horvat has him jacked. Holm is playing in the minors and Leipsic is playing up his return to Vegas. “Anytime you get traded, it means something,” he said. “And playing a former team, you’d like to stick it to them. It’s human nature and I’m only human.” In 44 games with Vegas, Leipsic had 13 points playing mainly with Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch.

FIVE KEYS TO THE GAME 1. Future captain must keep focus

Horvat ended a six-game goal drought Saturday by going hard to the net on the power play after drawing a penalty. He had four shots and nearly sent the game into overtime with a redirect off the post. He was also a monster in the faceoff circle by winning 58 per cent of his draws. It was a far cry from Wednesday in Anaheim. He shot the puck in frustration off the sideboards after a questionable late penalty call on Alex Edler. “Calls like that, everything is boiling and you get frustrated,” he said. “But you have to think of the collective and think positively and move on to the next game.” He did.

2. Can Goldobin build on Saturday?

Nikolay Goldobin should play the Sharks every game. The Russian winger, who was dealt to the Canucks in the Jannik Hansen swap a year ago, had his mojo going Saturday. He not only ended the Canucks’ scoring drought streak of 222 minutes and 57 seconds with a first-period, power-play goal, he danced around Brent Burns on a foray to the net and had his chance to send the game into extra time go off the post. “I see him trying to be a little harder in his own way,” said Canucks coach Travis Green. “It will be right from here to the end of the year that will be big for him and what he does over the summer (will be) just as big.”

3. Can Virtanen repeat shot show?

In that loss at Vegas, Jake Virtanen had 10 shot attempts on a line with Sven Baertschi and Sam Gagner. After being called out by Green, the coach said: “Jake might have had one of his better games — if not his best.” The winger whiffed on two early cross-ice feeds in the slot, but kept driving. He had a leftside dash and wraparound scoring chance and a flick of a backhand that forced Marc-Andre Fleury to make a tough save.

4. Gagner finds power-play groove

Sam Gagner is not Brock Boeser. He’s not going to unload a powerplay cannon, but he was better Saturday. He was moving, he was finding open players and set up two goals and finished with six shots. For a guy stuck at seven goals after 18 with Columbus last season — including eight on the power play — it’s something.

5. Form chart suggests Markstrom

Jacob Markstrom didn’t track pucks well Saturday and Anders Nilsson didn’t play well in Vegas. He was yanked after allowing five goals on 25 shots over two periods. Four of the five screamed of a lack of concentration and positioning. At best, Green labelled the effort “average.” That was kind.