Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Wildcard Edition
The Vancouver Canucks face the Florida Panthers with both teams looking to improve from rough seasons. The Canucks have a 17-21-3 record and with three losses in a row have fallen to sixth place in the Pacific Division. The Panthers have a 19-20-4 record and are near the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Both teams are looking to improve in their divisions and jump into the playoff picture and the upcoming game should be a good one as a result.
The Canucks are having a rough season despite their offense stepping up and scoring 3.41 goals per game with 16 goals in the last four games. Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller have scored 63 goals and 70 assists to lead the top two lines but the rest of the offense has also stepped up. Andrei Kuzmenko, Ilya Mikheyev, and Brock Boeser have combined for 37 goals and 48 assists while defenseman Quinn Hughes is adding three goals and 33 assists from the point to open up the offense.
The offense has been great but the defense has struggled, allowing 3.95 goals per game including 17 goals in the last three games. Quinn Hughes, Luke Schenn, and Tyler Myers have combined for 4.5 defensive point shares but the rest of the unit has struggled, allowing opponents to carry the puck into the offensive zone and find open shots on the net. In addition, goaltender Spencer Martin has been awful with a .880 save percentage and a 3.74 goals-against average on 676 shots.