Canucks vs. Capitals Game Day Update: D-Petey appears set for debut

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Washington Capitals vs. Vancouver Canucks

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When: Saturday, 7 p.m., Rogers Enviornment

TV: Hockey Evening In Canada. Radio: Sportsnet 650

The thrill: What’s the larger story right here: The Putin-loving Alex Ovechkin’s chase of Trump-loving Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL objectives document, or the continued catastrophe that’s the Vancouver Canucks’ 2024-25 season?

Clearly, it’s the Canucks. This crew is a complete mess. Fully disconnected, as Brock Boeser stated. It’s laborious to fathom that this group that regarded so depressing towards the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday beat these Oilers, with Connor McDavid within the lineup no much less, just some days earlier than. Go determine.

The Capitals sit atop the league, though there are indications a crash could also be coming — they’re bleeding high quality probabilities towards of late. However the Canucks simply aren’t producing something on offence, so that won’t matter.

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• Elias “D-Petey” Pettersson is ready to make headlines, twice. First, there’s the uncooked rookie Elias Pettersson, who seems set to make his NHL debut on defence. He was skating with Carson Soucy throughout Saturday’s morning skate, with Soucy skating on the suitable facet.

• In the meantime Elias Pettersson the Elder, the ahead that Canucks followers know very effectively and who has principally dissatisfied this season, appeared set to be demoted to the Canucks’ third line. He was centring a Tre Kronor line with Nils Höglander on left wing, Linus Karlsson on proper wing. J.T. Miller was centring the wingers he began the season with, Danton Heinen and Brock Boeser, whereas Pius Suter was centring Jake DeBrusk and Conor Garland.

• Noah Juulsen who has been out for every week with an undisclosed damage, skated as an additional defenceman, together with Tyler Myers and Mark Friedman. Dakota Joshua additionally skated as an additional ahead; he’s been out for a pair weeks with an obvious leg damage.

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• There was no signal of Kiefer Sherwood, who left Thursday sport in Edmonton with an undisclosed damage.

The historical past: The Capitals gained the matchup earlier this month in Washington, which noticed the Canucks compete laborious, however nonetheless not sufficient.

The hope: The Canucks do play effectively at instances. Possibly that is a type of instances.

The worry: Elias Pettersson has one purpose in 5 video games and had no photographs on Thursday. The Canucks will go nowhere so long as he and J.T. Miller each wrestle. The 2 have simply 19 objectives between them, one much less that Capitals energy ahead Tom Wilson has.

The highest weapons: J.T. Miller isn’t scoring objectives a lot, however he has been choosing up assists. He’s now as much as 33 factors in 39 video games, which remains to be under his Canucks profession charge, however it’s higher than Pettersson, who’s on tempo for a career-low in factors.

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The wounded: Canucks: Dakota Joshua (leg, week-to-week), Noah Juulsen, (undisclosed, day-to-day), Kiefer Sherwood (undisclosed, day-to-day). Capitals: Sonny Milano (higher physique, day-to-day).

The quote: “It begins with having a great mindset, coming to the rink daily.” — Brock Boeser, suggesting his teammates’ mentality is a big difficulty.

The most recent: Internally, it’s clear the Canucks are ready for a shoe to drop. It’s laborious to see something getting higher till both Miller or Pettersson is traded. Miller has been the headline identify in what commerce talks there have been, however the provides are usually not good. The Canucks would get extra for Pettersson, however they nonetheless consider he’s the higher long-term guess.

The lineup: 

DeBrusk-Pettersson-Boeser

Suter-Miller-Garland

Heinen-Blueger-Sherwood

Höglander-Sasson-Karlsson

Hughes-Hronek

Soucy-Myers

Forbort-Desharnais

Demko

The prediction: The Canucks, absolutely, will put all of it collectively. They’ve been embarrassed sufficient. They’ll win this one, 3-1

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