Canucks Game Day: Streaking into Minnesota

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Vancouver Canucks (20-9-1) vs. Minnesota Wild (11-12-4)

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When and where: Saturday, 11 a.m., Xcel Energy Center

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TV: Sportsnet. Radio: Sportsnet 650

The buzz: The Canucks have won four straight games. Their offence is back to being red-hot. The Wild have won six of the eight games they’ve played under John Hynes — but the two losses have been to the Canucks, who are clearly a good team, and the Edmonton Oilers, who still have the best player(s) in the world.

Vancouver hometown hero Brock Boeser is also the second-leading scorer in the NHL, which is good for the visitors Saturday.

Bad for the home team: Jonas Brodin is hurt and Jared Spurgeon is a game-time decision for Saturday.

Also their management is in chaos — general manager Bill Guerin was away from the team while a workplace conduct investigation took place and at the same time one of his assistant GMs departed the club — which surely has left the players feeling uncertain.

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The history: The Canucks began their current win streak with a 2-0 win 10 days ago at home over Minnesota. They were the better team and the Wild remain a team looking to find their way.

The hope: Vancouver played really well on Thursday versus the also-struggling Florida Panthers and will hope to carry that same disciplined defending into Saturday’s matinee.

The fear: Surges always come to an end. Will it be on Saturday where their scoring dries up?

The top guns: Boeser is tied for second in the NHL with 22 goals. J.T. Miller, who was frustrated about his game Thursday, is second in the NHL in scoring with 43 points.

Mats Zuccarello has 28 points in 27 games, but Kirill Kaprizov is still struggling to get his season going: he has just 24 points.

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The wounded: Canucks: Carson Soucy (leg fracture, LTIR) and Guillaume Brisebois (concussion, LTIR). Wild: Jared Spurgeon (lower body, day-to-day) and Jonas Brodin (upper-body, LTIR).

The quote: “He’s happy we won 4-0, but he wants to go to the video tomorrow. He’s on us coaches, he wants to know what happened, what can you do better. He’s done that all week, about his defensive play. He went and saw (coach Adam Foote) the other day. I think that to me is a guy who’s not satisfied, I mean I love that.” — head coach Rick Tocchet on Miller’s drive to better himself.

The lineup:

Forwards

Mikheyev-Pettersson-Lafferty

Höglander-Miller-Boeser

Joshua-Blueger-Garland

Kuzmenko-Suter-DiGiuseppe

Defence

Hughes-Hronek

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Cole-Juulsen

Zadorov-Myers

Goalie

Thatcher Demko

The prediction: The Canucks were solid Thursday. Carolina is playing their third game in four nights. This one will be tight, call it 3-2 Vancouver

(FAN FORUM: Do you have a specific question for a player? Pass it along to @provincesports and we’ll get it in a future edition.)

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