Arizona Coyotes (22-46-5, eighth in the Central) vs. Vancouver Canucks (36-28-10, fifth in the Pacific)
Vancouver, British Columbia; Thursday, 7 p.m. PDT
BOTTOM LINE:
Arizona comes into the matchup against Vancouver as losers of four in a row.
Vancouver enters the game having won four straight.
The Canucks are 22-14-7 in conference matchups. Vancouver leads the Western Conference with 4.8 assists per game, led by J.T. Miller averaging 0.8.
The Coyotes are 13-27-3 in Western Conference play. Arizona averages 10.5 penalty minutes per game, the third-most in the Western Conference. Liam O’Brien leads the team serving 106 total minutes.
In their last meeting on April 7, Vancouver won 5-1. Alex Chiasson scored a team-high two goals for the Canucks in the victory.
TOP PERFORMERS:
Bo Horvat leads the Canucks with 31 goals, adding 21 assists and collecting 52 points.
Elias Pettersson has 16 points over the last 10 games for Vancouver.
Clayton Keller leads the Coyotes with a plus-three in 67 games this season.
Nick Schmaltz has five assists over the last 10 games for Arizona.
Alex Chiasson has eight points (4-4-8) in his last six games.
Conor Garland has seven points (1-6-7) in his last six games.
LAST MEETING – APR. 7/22: VAN 5 at ARI 1
Alex Chiasson (2-1-3) opened up scoring with a power play goal at 3:12 in the first period…Chiasson also scored the Canucks 5th goal of the evening on the PP, tying career highs for goals (2) and points (3) in a game and setting a new career high for most PPG in a game (2)…Bo Horvat (2-1-3) collected the GWG and recorded his first career 30-goal campaign…Horvat also won 17/17 face-offs (100%)…Elias Pettersson (1-2-3) also notched a three-point game…In their first game back in Arizona, Oliver Ekman-Larsson (0-1-1) and Conor Garland (0-2-2) both found the score sheet…Vasily Podkolzin (0-2-2) recorded a multi-point game…J.T. Miller collected an assist to extend his point streak to four games (1-4-5)…Will Lockwood led the game in hits (7)…Travis Dermott led the team in TOI (22:09)…Jaroslav Halak made 28 saves.
LAST GAME PLAYED – APR. 12/22: VAN 5 vs VGK 4 (OT)
Bo Horvat opened the scoring at 1:04 in the first period the power play…Alex Chiasson extended his point streak to five games with an assist, while J.T. Miller also assisted on the play…Vasily Podkolzin added a power play goal at 1:27 in the second period, assisted by Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes…Pettersson collected three points (1-2-3) on the night with a goal of his own and two assists…Brad Richardson notched his fourth of the season at 13:03 in the second period…Quinn Hughes (1-1-2) scored the overtime winner just 51 seconds into the extra frame, with assists from Garland (0-2-2) and Horvat (1-1-2) who each had multi-point efforts…Pettersson led the team in shots (5)…Horvat and Lockwood co-led in hits (4)…Thatcher Demko faced 45 shots.
LAST 5 vs ARIZONA
Apr. 7/22: VAN 5 at ARI 1
Feb. 8/22: VAN 5 vs ARI 1
Mar. 4/20: VAN 2 vs ARI 4
Jan. 16/20: VAN 3 vs ARI 1
Feb. 28/19: VAN 2 at ARI 5
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
Jack Rathbone reassigned to Abbotsford and Sheldon Dries recalled under emergency conditions, Apr. 7
Capitalizing on 2 of 3 power plays on Apr. 12 vs VGK and killing off all three penalties against, the Canucks’ power play improved to 32.8% (19/58) since Feb. 24 (22 GP), which ranks first in the entire NHL. The team is also 30-for-33 (90.9%) on the kill since Mar. 20 (11 GP), ranking first in the League during that stretch.
WINNING WAYS
Stopping 41 of 45 shots faced in an overtime victory on Apr. 12 vs VGK, Thatcher Demko passed Ryan Miller for seventh-most wins (65) by a Canucks goaltender in 19 fewer games played. On Apr. 9 vs SJS, Demko also became the first Canucks goaltender since Roberto Luongo (31 W) in 2011-12 and sixth ever to win 30 games in a season.
POINT CHASER
Recording a power play assist on Apr. 12 vs VGK, Alex Chiasson extended his point streak to four games, one game shy of his career-high. Collecting two points (1-1-2) on Apr. 9 vs SJS, Alex Chiasson registered his consecutive multi-point games (2-1-3 on Apr. 7 at ARI) for the first time in his career.
J.T. GOING ON 30
With a career-high 29 goals so far this season, J.T. Miller looks to join Bo Horvat (31) as the second Canuck to reach 30 goals. The last time multiple Canucks recorded 30+ goals in a single season was 2010-11 when Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler each scored 41.
RED HOT HORVAT
Bo Horvat scored twice (2-1-3) on Apr. 7 at ARI to record his first career 30-goal campaign and became the first Canucks player to reach the mark in a season since Radim Vrbata in 2014-15 (31). Horvat now has 14 goals in his last 17 games, which is t-2nd in the NHL since Mar. 9.
QUICK ON THE DRAW
Winning all 17 face-offs he took on Apr. 7 at ARI, Bo Horvat ranks t-3rd in the NHL for most face-off wins in a single game with a 100% success rate since 1997-98.
EXCEPTIONAL ELIAS
Collecting a goal and two assists in a 5-1 win on Apr. 7 at ARI, Elias Pettersson registered his 51st career multi-point game. Since his NHL debut in 2018-19, Pettersson trails only J.T. Miller for most multi-point games (55) by a Canuck.
PHYSICAL FORCE
Led by Kyle Burrough’s nine hits, the Canucks recorded a season-high 45 hits on Apr. 6 at VGK, which is tied for the most hits in a game by Vancouver (also Nov. 27/19 at PIT) since the NHL began regularly tracking hits in 2005-06.
LAMP LIGHTER
On Apr. 6 at VGK, Pettersson (2-2-4) recorded his 14th career multi-goal game (fourth this season). Since his League debut in 2018-19, the only Canucks skater with more multi-goal efforts is Bo Horvat (15).
MILLER TIME
Netting his team-leading 29th goal of the season on Apr. 3 vs VGK, J.T. Miller became the third-fastest player in franchise history to record 200 points, joining Pavel Bure (174 GP) and Alexander Mogilny (179 GP) as the only other players to reach the milestone in under 200 games.
