Columbus Blue Jackets at Vancouver Canucks
March 17, 2012 – 10:00pm EDT
Rogers Arena – Vancouver, British Columbia
Radio – WBNS FM 97.1 – TV – Fox Sports Ohio
Opponents Blog: Nucks Misconduct
Put down your Guinness and… wait. Don’t put down your Guinness. You’re gonna need it, most likely.
A playoff hungry Canucks team is waiting at home for the Jackets, who kick off their final 12 games over a 22-day stretch. Look out.
This is also the last 10:00 PM start time of the season! Hooray! At least it’s on a day devoted to imbibing the spirits of the Oirish (of which I am half-one, though the more oft-lamented Protestant kind… I digress…).
Columbus is coming off a nearly-number-one-lottery-seed clinching 3-0 loss in Edmonton Wednesday night, and the Canucks are coming off two straight losses themselves. Nothing gets you right like playing the Jackets.
We’ll get our first look at Sammy Pahlsson as a Canuck tonight, as he mans the center of their third line. Derek Dorsett looks to be back as well for Columbus, as is Steve Mason.
Vancouver is clinging to their division lead, so I suspect they’re going to have a little extra juice to grab these gettable two points.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(22-41-7, 51 Points; 5th division, 15th conference)
| R.J. Umberger | Derick Brassard | Rick Nash |
| Vinny Prospal | Mark Letestu | Cam Atkinson |
| Colton Gillies | Ryan Johansen | Derek Dorsett |
| Dane Byers | Darryl Boyce | Jared Boll |
| Jack Johnson | James Wisniewski |
| Aaron Johnson | Nikita Nikitin |
| John Moore | Brett Lebda |
| Steve Mason |
| Curtis Sanford |
Vancouver Canucks
(42-20-8, 92 Points; 1st Division, 2nd Conference)
| Daniel Sedin | Henrik Sedin | Mason Raymond |
| Chris Higgins | Ryan Kesler | David Booth |
| Alexandre Burrows | Samuel Pahlsson | Jannik Hansen |
| Zack Kassian | Maxim Lapierre | Dale Weise |
| Alexander Edler | Kevin Bieksa |
| Chris Tanev | Dan Hamhuis |
| Marc-Andre Gragnani | Sami Salo |
| Cory Schneider |
| Roberto Luongo |
Season Series:
10/10/11 – Vancouver 3 at Columbus 2 – RECAP
11/29/11 – Columbus 1 at Vancouver 4 – RECAP
12/13/11 – Vancouver 1 at Columbus 2 – SO – RECAP
03/17/12 – Columbus at Vancouver
Head to Head
Vancouver Columbus 3.03 (4) GPG 2.26 (28) 2.43 (5) GAPG 3.16 (29) 21.1% (3) PP% 15.2% (25) 85.8% (6) PK% 76.7% (30) Daniel Sedin, 28 G leader Rick Nash, 24 Henrik Sedin, 55 A leader Vinny Prospal, 33 Henrik Sedin, 68 Pts leader Rick Nash, 47 Maxim Lapierre, 120 PIM leader Derek Dorsett, 192 20-10-4 Home/Road 9-22-4 3/14 vs. Phoenix, L 5-4 Last Game 3/14 @ Edmonton, L 3-0 4-4-2 Last 10 4-6-0