Champs offer stern early test

NEXT GAME

Tonight

Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues

5 p.m., Enterprise Center TV: Sportsnet Radio: Sportsnet 650 AM The two biggest names in 201819 Calder Trophy discussions will do battle for the first time since Pettersson took home rookie-of-theyear honours in June. Pettersson has found his scoring groove, with goals in two of the last three games and points in all three. Binnington, of course, backstopped the Blues to the Stanley Cup.

FIVE KEYS TO THE GAME

1.

Goals

The Canucks are scoring in bundles. That’s a big turnaround from the second half of last season, when their scoring talents disappeared down the stretch. Some of the current run is about puck luck, but overall, through five games, the Canucks are doing a better job of pushing play in the direction they want. They’ve maintained a shot-attempts share of roughly 50 per cent so far.

2.

Shooters

The Canucks’ offensive outburst is fun, but it’s also driven by the Canucks shooting 15.1 per cent at even strength. They do have some talented shooters, but that’s going to come down a bit in the long run.

3.

Stanley Cup buzz

The Blues visited the White House on Tuesday. They say it wasn’t about politics, but, of course, President Donald Trump made it very much about politics, using their visit to launch into a series of criticisms of his political opponents. Will that count as just another day at the office for the Blues and their load of Canadian players? Or will there be some continuing distractions for them?

4.

Power players

The Canucks are 4-for-19 on the power play. Some of that is because they managed to get some long shots through Tuesday against Detroit; shots from the point are generally low-percentage efforts, but overall the Canucks have been getting lots of shots off, and volume in power play shots does usually lead to some success. On the other hand, both teams have strong penalty-killing units: the Canucks are second in the NHL, the Blues fourth. Both present big challenges for their respective power play units.

5.

Demko’s debut

The second-year netminder was pretty solid in his debut versus Detroit, though he said post-game that he wished he’d stopped the game’s opening shot, an open look for Dylan Larkin off a terrible turnover by the Canucks in front of Demko. The Canucks need another solid effort from Demko against the Blues, and again on the weekend. It’s a big, early chance this season for him to put his hand up and say “play me more.”