Canucks Next Game: Sin City Saturday Night

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Vancouver Canucks (7-10-3, 6th Pacific) vs Vegas Golden Knights (16-4-1, 1st Pacific)

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Saturday, 7 p.m. PT, T-Mobile Arena.

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tv set: Canadian Hockey Night. wireless: Sportsnet 650.

LAS VEGAS — The Vancouver Canucks are looking for their second big win of the week after upending the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday in Denver.

The Canucks will face the Vegas Golden Knights on the Strip and hope to bounce back from last Monday’s 5-4 loss at home to Vegas.

The Canucks took the lead in the third period, but a poor defensive effort in the final 10 minutes of the game took the lead.

Wednesday’s victory over Colorado kept the Canucks focused until the end of the game.

In order for them to win in Las Vegas, they must repeat their efforts.

structure

Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy has taken one of the Western Conference’s best teams to another level in his first 21 games.

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Defensively, the Knights now have a zonal defense for their own purposes, and it works like magic.

shooting star

Jack Eichel is in great comfort during his first full season in Las Vegas.

26 goals in 21 games.

He dominates the offense…

…and on defense.

His two-way presence is awesome.

A little tired?

Vegas is playing Seattle Kraken Friday night on T-Mobile.

How much juice do they leave on Saturday night?

who is the goal?

Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau declined to reveal which goalkeeper will start Saturday and Sunday in San Jose.

But he had Spencer Martin working in goal for the Canucks at practice on Friday.

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Emphasis on defense

The Canucks put a lot of work into defensive structures that Boudreau called educational practices.

“They have a better understanding of the concept of what we want to do. It’s getting better every game, so I think it worked out,” he said after the game.

Avalanche scored just one goal on Wednesday, 5-5. Boudreau says:

injury update

Teams don’t usually take injured players on trips, but the Canucks have four injured players on this trip.

Tanner Pearson, who underwent surgery on his left hand almost three weeks ago, skated again on Friday after practice with the Canucks. He joined on the ice with Jack Stadnica, who has been dealing with lower body issues since early last week.

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Travis Dermott skated alongside his teammates, again wearing a contactless sweater. Boudreau said last week that Dermot’s recovery from concussion has been delayed and he is still working on protocol.

In order for Dermot to be fully available for practice, he would need to be symptom-free for 24 hours after practice on Saturday.

Finally, Tucker Poolman was spotted riding rinkside on his bike on Friday. He is on the long-term injured list with a migraine.

He started suffering from migraines last season that wiped out the second half of the season.

He survived training camp and the first game of the season, but suffered a recurrence of migraines in the second game of the year.

He’s been on the long-term injured list for a month now.

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team togetherness

The Canucks played their team round of golf on Thursday.

According to the word, the Russians were mostly at sea.

“Russia has an unsuitable climate for golf.

Vasily Podkordin described his golf game as “between terrible and terrible”.

Boudreau said he planned Thursday as the team’s reunion day, so he brought in a quartet of injured players.

“We’re taking an extra day off in Vegas, and I thought this would be a good time for everyone to get together and go golf and do something like yesterday,” he said.

After golf, we went out for a fancy dinner.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

twitter.com/risingaction

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