Canucks Vs Blues Pre Game

Canucks Vs Blues SNET-P, Team 1040, 6:00 PST

Tonight the Canucks will be back at home facing the St. Louis Blues. The Blues started off the season hot lead by Halak who might have been ever hotter than the team. They've lost some key players to injury and have dropped to 12th in the standings because of that. This Blues team is still a Western Conference team that is only 3 points behind the 3rd place Canucks in the standings meaning the Canucks cannot take a night off.

The Canucks have all the confidence in the world and are starting to look like a very strong deep team. They need to own the game tonight on home ice start to finish playing the same 60 minute game they've brought in their last four games.

When Jeff Tambellini has been in the lineup for the Canucks the team is 9-0-1. Do I think that is solely because of Tambellini's play? No. The team has looked good with Tambellini on the 2nd line because it allows players to slide down. With Tambellini in the line up Samuelsson plays third line and Hansen plays fourth line. This creates great depth for the team. The first three lines can rotate all game with the fourth line eating up a lot more valuable minutes without losing much team wise. Twelve different Canucks have scored in the last four games for the Canucks and this has to be directly related to the depth the lineup has right now.

There was a lot of complaining about possibly overpaying for Malholtra in the off season. His play has proved that he is worth everything he is getting. Last game against Chicago, a team the Canucks typically struggle against, Malholtra went 15/20 in the faceoff circle and an even better 10/13 in his own zone. Not only has he been stellar in the faceoff circle, he is leading the third line that is playing with a lot of grit right now.

The defence has been looking much better as of late. Similar to the forwards, depth has been the key to the Canucks success. Having Ballard and Alberts as your 5th/6th pairing is amazing in today's NHL. Edler and Ehrhoff have been playing solid, Bieksa and Hamhuis have looked good together, combined with the solid pairing of Alberts and Ballard the team has great overall defence. In the last game Ballard had 7 blocked shots. That's part of his game he does very well and needs to keep doing to gain confidence. It's a little stat you won't notice much but pay attention to it tonight if he's getting in the way of shots he's probably playing well.

Talking about Canucks depth at D, I saw a little more of Yann Sauve last night. Even though the Salmon Kings lost all three games against Stockton, Sauve is a big, strong hard hitting D man that the Canucks could use in the future.

All in all the Canucks will need another team performance tonight. They need to come out early and use their speed against a Blues team that had a hard fought game last night against Edmonton. The second line's speed will be huge tonight and a good performance from the top line in the +/- again lead to a W. Ballard is starting to play better and I could see him chipping in on the score sheet tonight. Not sure if it'll be Halak or not tonight, he played last night in Edmonton. Canucks need to drive the net against either goalie tonight and have lots of traffic in front.

UPDATE: a quick update. Raymond is sick, Canucks have made a quick recall to the Moose. Hopefully Bolduc makes it to the game in time. Hansen will move to the 2nd line and Bolduc (if he makes the game) will be on the fourth line. If Bolduc doesn't make it Rome will play forward on the fourth line. This chances my pre game post a bit. Expect the Twins to step up even more tonight and have an even bigger game.

Twitter @bmah03

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