Game Thread: Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers

Game preview: Outside of Sedin-Sedin-Burrows, Vancouver's forward lineup looks like an AHL squad. The defense is still very good, and they have an excellent goaltender, though he's on the bench for this one. If Krueger was smart, he would isolate that Sedin line against a tough minutes line with Horcoff and Hemsky and let Hall bury Andrew Ebbett, if that's a real player.

Team Reports

Oilers Report: The only change to the lineup is Devan Dubnyk back in goal for Nikolai Khabibulin. Thankfully.

Canucks Report: Kesler, Booth, Kassian and Malhotra are out. Basically, the Canucks have a really good second line on IR. Luongo is benched for this one.

Expected Line Combinations

Taylor Hall - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Jordan Eberle
Magnus Paajarvi - Sam Gagner - Ales Hemsky
Ryan Jones - Shawn Horcoff - Nail Yakupov
Mike Brown - Ryan Smyth - Lennart Petrell

Ladislav Smid - Jeff Petry
Nick Schultz - Justin Schultz
Ryan Whitney - Corey Potter

Devan Dubnyk

Scratches: Mark Fistric, Theo Peckham

Broadcast Information

By The Numbers

The Sedin-Sedin-Burrows line all have an Offensive Zonestart % above 60, which is down from last season when they were all above 70.

Sam Gagner is playing in game #400 tonight.

Vancouver's power play is ranked 30th in the NHL.

Overall, Vancouver's special teams are ranked 25th in the NHL.