The home stand comes to a close tonight in a big Pacific Division battle against the red hot Anaheim Ducks.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS (5-6-1) vs ANAHEIM DUCKS (6-4-3)

ROGERS ARENA, VANCOUVER, BC

7:00PM PST

TV: SPORTSNET PACIFIC. RADIO: SPORTSNET 650

OPPOSING BLOG: ANAHEIM CALLING

The Canucks have reached the final game of their first home stand of the season, and it’s been a roller coaster ride, to say the least. Frustrating one goal losses mixed in with a couple come from behind wins (though when you consider the way the Canucks consistently give up the first goal, you could say this about nearly all of their wins so far).

Sunday night they were full value for a 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars, finally getting a big night from both Elias Pettersson and the much maligned power play. They’ll need to repeat this formula tonight as they take on one of the more surprising teams in the Pacific this season: the Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks have won four in a row after six straight losses and are pretty good at home so far this year with a record of 5-2-1, but are struggling away from the Honda Center, with just one road win thus far. They’re currently sitting in third place in the Pacific, two points ahead of the Sharks and Kings, and four ahead of the Canucks.

The big story so far for the Ducks has to be Troy Terry, leading the team in scoring (8-6-14) and riding a league leading eleven game point streak. Almost as surprising is Kevin Shattenkirk being second in team scoring. The second oldest player on the Ducks has put up 3-9-12 so far this season. Ryan Getzlaf is still a threat at age 36, tied for 3rd with one goal and ten assists, and they’re getting solid goaltending from John Gibson, who has a GAA of 2.40 and a save % of .923, earning five of his team’s six wins so far.

Sunday night’s win over Dallas came on the strength of a revitalized power play, a big night from the Lotto Line, and (stop us if you’ve heard this one), a fantastic performance from Thatcher Demko in goal. All of these things are going to need to repeat themselves if the Canucks hope to win, especially against a goaltender who seems to save some of his best work for games against Vancouver. Trevor Beggs has more about John Gibson’s mastery over the Canucks in a post you can check out here.

On Friday, the Canucks had those amazing Diwali warmup jerseys, and the Hockey Fights Cancer purple ones on Sunday night. Both of those? Killer. Tonight’s warm up jersey? Not so much...

I get that they’re honoring those who served with Remembrance Day on Thursday, but this looks more like a merch opportunity than any kind of tribute. Anyway, appreciation to all those who served, and those that gave their lives in the fight against fascism overseas.

LINEUPS

Courtesy of nhl.com, here’s what we can expect these teams to dress tonight:

Ducks projected lineup

Adam Henrique — Ryan Getzlaf — Troy Terry

Mason McTavish — Sam Steel — Sonny Milano

Max Comtois — Isac Lundestrom — Sam Carrick

Nicolas Deslauriers — Benoit-Olivier Groulx — Derek Grant

Hampus Lindholm — Jamie Drysdale

Cam Fowler — Josh Manson

Josh Mahura — Kevin Shattenkirk

John Gibson

Anthony Stolarz

Scratched: Simon Benoit, Vinni Lettieri

Injured: Rickard Rakell (upper body), Max Jones (upper body), Trevor Zegras (upper body)

COVID-19 protocol: Jakob Silfverberg

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller — Elias Pettersson — Brock Boeser

Tanner Pearson — Bo Horvat — Nils Hoglander

Conor Garland — Jason Dickinson — Vasily Podkolzin

Justin Bailey — Juho Lammikko — Justin Dowling

Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes — Tucker Poolman

Kyle Burroughs — Travis Hamonic

Jaroslav Halak

Thatcher Demko

Scratched: Alex Chiasson, Brad Hunt

Injured: Luke Schenn (lower body), Matthew Highmore (upper body), Brandon Sutter (illness),Brady Keeper(leg), Tyler Motte (upper body)

No real changes for the Canucks from Sunday’s lineup except that Jaroslav Halak will get the start tonight. John Gibson will go once again for the Ducks.

GAME DAY CHATTER

It’s a big test against a rebuilding Ducks squad, with few of the faces we grew to absolutely despise. No better time than the present to get to hate the new generation of Ducks, though.

GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN

I can’t recall coming across a cover of this song before, so I was stoked to check out Richmond, VA sludgemeisters INTER ARMA doing up the PRINCE classic. This is off last year’s ‘Garbers Days Revisited’ album (which also has a cover of Tom Petty’s ‘Running Down A Dream) on Relapse Records.