Vancouver Canucks Gameday Preview #20: Injuries Have Hit Both The Canucks And The Tampa Bay Lightning

The Vancouver Canucks (8–9–2) may meet their match today against the Tampa Bay Lightning (9–6–2) — not in their performance on the ice, but in terms of the players listed on their respective injured reserves. Vancouver is coming off a 4–3 overtime loss on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes that saw Filip Hronek exit early due to a dirty elbow alerted on by concussion spotters. Tampa Bay, on the other hand, will be playing in the second-half of a back to back after a 3–1 win against the Florida Panthers. 

The biggest storyline for both the Canucks and the Lightning heading into this matchup is the sheer amount of injuries to both rosters. Vancouver’s injury woes have been well-documented, with the team potentially missing seven players heading into this matchup depending on Hronek’s status. As for Tampa Bay, the Lightning played yesterday’s game without Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonough, Dominic James, Brandon Hagel, Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli, and Pontus Holmberg. 

Vancouver has been a very poor team in terms of faceoff win rates this season — something that they have hopefully begun to address after signing David Kämpf yesterday — but shockingly, there are teams that have a lower faceoff win percentage than the Canucks’ 46%. Tampa Bay is one of them. The Lightning currently sport a 44.7% win rate on faceoffs this year, with main faceoff takers such as Cirelli, Brayden Point, and Yanni Gourde all logging win percentages of less than 50. While Vancouver hasn’t been phenomenal in this stat either, they do have one center who has logged over 50% of a win rate in faceoffs — Aatu Räty (55%). 

Players To Watch: 

Elias Pettersson

Pettersson has quietly put up a goal and three assists in the past two games and currently leads the Canucks in points. The forward has been relied on lots this season with injuries to Filip Chytil and Teddy Blueger, though hopefully the newly-signed Kämpf will help take some of the responsibility off of him. Interestingly enough, Pettersson has not tallied a point against the Lightning since October 2023 — could today’s game end that streak? 

Jake Guentzel

Guentzel has a long history of playing stellarly against the Canucks throughout his career. The forward has 13 goals and nine assists against Vancouver in 14 games played, including five multi-point and two four-point games. With lots of injuries currently impacting Tampa Bay, Guentzel has been called upon a lot more by the Lightning. He leads his team in points with seven goals and nine assists, and prior to last night’s game against the Panthers, he’d had four points in three games.   

Vancouver Canucks (8–9–2): 

Points: 

Elias Pettersson: 4–11–15

Brock Boeser: 8–5–13

Conor Garland: 5–8–13

Quinn Hughes: 1–12–13

Kiefer Sherwood: 11–1–12 

Goaltenders: 

Thatcher Demko: 5–4–0  

Kevin Lankinen: 3–5–2 

Tampa Bay Lightning (9–6–2): 

Points: 

Jake Guentzel: 7–9–16

Nikita Kucherov: 7–8–15

Brandon Hagel: 7–7–14

Victor Hedman: 0–12–12

Anthony Cirelli: 7–4–11

Goaltenders: 

Andrei Vasilevskiy: 6–5–2

Jonas Johansson: 4–3–1 

Game Information: 

Start time: 2:00 pm PT

Venue: Benchmark International Arena 

Television: Sportsnet

Radio: Sportsnet 650 

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