Canucks vs Rangers Game Day Preview VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks (22-15-4) put their six game win streak on the line tonight when they host the New York Rangers (19-17-4) at Rogers Arena.

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks (22-15-4) put their six game win streak on the line tonight when they host the New York Rangers (19-17-4) at Rogers Arena. Five of the team’s six wins on this run have come on home ice where the Canucks are 8-2 in their past 10 games and 13-5-3 on the season. The last time the Canucks won seven straight games was December 1-14, 2013 under John Tortorella.

This current streak began December 18th against Vegas and continued with victories over Pittsburgh, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Calgary and on Thursday night the Canucks opened 2020 with a 7-5 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Bo Horvat scored twice and added an assist while JT Miller matched a career high with four points (1+3) as the Canucks overcame a 4-2 second period deficit. Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Tanner Pearson and Adam Gaudette scored the other Vancouver goals. Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves for his fifth straight win.

On Friday, Markstrom was added to the Pacific Division team for this month’s All-Star game in St. Louis. He’ll start in goal for the 10th time in the team’s last 11 games tonight. The Canucks will make no changes to their line-up for tonight’s game against the Rangers meaning Jordie Benn and Zack MacEwen will be the hea canucks lthy scratches.

Brock Boeser carries a six-game point streak into action tonight. He has 1+6=7 during that span. Alex Edler had two helpers on Thursday and now has five assists in the four games he’s played since missing 10 games with an upper body injury.

The Canucks went 1 for 2 on the power play against the Hawks. With his team trailing 4-2 midway through the second period, Travis Green used his timeout to stem Chicago’s momentum and to challenge his team. Moments later, Quinn Hughes scored with the man-advantage to get the Canucks within one at 4-3. It was the club’s league-leading 40th power play goal of the season.

Jay Beagle’s lone goal on the season so far came against the Rangers in a 3-2 victory at Madison Square Garden on October 20th. The goal came shorthanded and stood up as the game winner. The veteran centre has gone 24 games since then without finding the back of the net.

Following tonight’s contest, the Canucks open a five-game road trip in Tampa Bay on Tuesday. Starting with that game, the team will play 10 of its next 13 games on the road.

The Rangers arrive here after back to back losses in Alberta. They fell 6-5 on New Year’s Eve in Edmonton and then dropped a 4-3 decision in Calgary on Thursday night. Jacob Trouba, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko scored for New York with Adam Fox collecting an assist on all three goals. Kakko returns to Vancouver tonight where he was the second overall pick in last June’s NHL Draft at Rogers Arena.

New York is led in scoring by Artemi Panarin who has 22+33=55 and is tied for ninth overall in the league in goals and sixth overall in scoring. The Russian forward was the NHL’s Third Star for the month of December and will represent the Blue Shirts at the All Star game.

No team in the league gets more offense from its defense. The Rangers lead the NHL with 30 goals and 113 points from the blueline. Tony DeAngelo has 8+21=29 while Adam Fox has 5+17=22, Jacob Trouba has 6+15=21 and Brady Skjei has 5+12=17.

Defensively, however, the Rangers rank 29th in the NHL averaging 3.35 goals against per game. Opponents have scored four or more goals in six of the last eight games against New York.

While the Rangers are in the midst of a youth movement, they still rely on 37-year-old Henrik Lundqvist to provide solid netminding. The veteran Swede is fifth in NHL history in wins (458) and with his next appearance will tie John Vanbiesbrouck for ninth on the all-time games played list. He has appeared in 881 games since breaking into the league in 2005.

POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP

Miller-Pettersson-Boeser

Pearson-Horvat-Eriksson

Roussel-Gaudette-Virtanen

Schaller-Beagle-Motte

Hughes-Tanev

Edler-Stecher

Fantenberg-Myers

Markstrom

POSSIBLE RANGERS LINE-UP

Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich

Panarin-Strome-Fast

Howden-Chytil-Kakko

Smith-McKegg-Fogarty

Skjei-Trouba

Staal-DeAngelo

Lindgren-Fox

Lundqvist