This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the Rink
There is only one game on Sunday featuring the Canucks heading to the Motor City to take on the Red Wings. Let's have a look at both teams just past the quarter pole of the season.
Vancouver's season was fairly deemed a disaster last year, but they still won more games than they lost and managed 83 points. But, the team was joyless to watch under coach John Tortorella and some wondered if they era of success ushered in by the Sedin twins had ended. It would appear that was premature – the Canucks are tied for the lead in the Pacific division and the twins are point-per-game players again, while newcomers Radim Vrbata and Nick Bonino have made significant contributions. The other big off-season addition, goaltender Ryan Miller, has been good not great thus far stopping 91.4% of the shots he has faced, but he has backstopped 15 wins, which will do.
Much has been made of the Red Wings long streak of making the playoffs and while it clearly will come to end some day, it's not obvious that it will be this year. The Wings are third in the Atlantic, nipping on the heels of Montreal and Tampa Bay, with a significant cushion to get at least a wild card berth if the Bruins catch them. Goalie Jimmy Howard has been outstanding posting a 2.09 goals against and making saves on 92% of the shots he has faced. The Red Wings' attacked is also strong, ranking seventh in the league in goals per game. If there is a chink in the armour it's the degree to which the Wings don't have a lot of offensive depth behind stalwarts Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. While guys like Johan Franzen, Gustav Nyquist, and Tomas Tatar are nice complementary players; only the two stars are close to averaging a point per game. At 34 and 36 respectively, Zetterberg and Datsyuk have to be close to hitting a decline at which point the Wings could be hurting for playmaking and goals.
Now, onto the preview of Sunday's games.
Projected Goalie Starters (all times Eastern)
For updates on the projected goalies later in the day, check out our Projected Goalies Grid.
Vancouver Canucks (Eddie Lack) at Detroit Red Wings (Jimmy Howard*), 2:00 PM
*Confirmed Starters
Injury News For Teams Playing Wednesday
Vancouver Canucks
Dan Hamhuis, D - Hamhuis (lower body) will not join the Canucks on their seven-game road trip beginning Friday. (11/27/2014)
Tom Sestito, LW - Sestito (lower body) was able to skate on his own at the end of Thursday's practice. (11/27/2014)
Zack Kassian, RW - Kassian (finger) was moved to injured reserve Friday. (11/28/2014)
Detroit Red Wings
Brendan Smith, D - Smith (hand) could play in Sunday's game against the Canucks, Ansar Khan of MLive.com reports. (11/29/2014)
Hot
Tomas Tatar, LW – While Tatar hasn't registered a point in his past two games he had a six game point streak just before that in which he put up five goals and eight points. He has 13 points in 23 games, which puts him on pace to set a new career-high and cross the 40 point barrier for the first time.
Nick Bjugstad, C – The Panthers' leading scorer from 2013-14 was off to a slow start before his past seven games. In that span, the 22 year-old has nine points, including two multi-point efforts one of which was a two goal, four point demolition of Anaheim. Bjugstad has the opportunity to grow with his young Panthers' teammates and his 16% ownership in Yahoo leagues will grow as he does.
Cold
Chris Kunitz, LW – Kunitz has recently found himself away from long-time center Sidney Crosby. You may have heard of him. His consolation prize has been to skate with Evgeny Malkin. You may have heard of him. What is unusual and disconcerting about his recent performances is that Kunitz isn't hitting the back of the net – he hadn't scored in 11 games before counting one on Saturday. In that span he only had five assists and on the season he is well below his scoring average since he arrived in Pittsburgh five seasons ago. The slump isn't likely to continue given his linemates, but it's not a great sign for a 35 year-old.
Alexander Edler, D – Edler looked like he could surprise and challenge the 40-point level earlier in the year when he started with 7 points in his first 14 games, but he has just one assist in his last nine games. He is still getting plenty of ice time (23:47 per game) and he has launched 24 shots on net in those nine games, so the slump will break soon enough, but owners need to adjust their expectations back down from that hot start.
Recommended Pickup
Nick Bonino, C – Bonino was a big part of the package the Canucks got back from Anaheim when they traded Ryan Kesler. While some have panned the deal Bonino is doing his best to boost his side of the deal by doing his best Kesler imitation. So far Bonino has seven goals (three game winners) and 19 points with a plus-11 rating, 50 shots, and 20 blocked shots in 23 games. Compare that to Kesler who has six goals, 18 points, a minus-3 rating, 30 PIM, 67 shots, and 16 blocks with 58 hits in 24 games. Vancouver has effectively replaced Kesler's production with a palyer four years younger. Perhaps the key stat for fantasy owners is that Bonino is available in more than half of leagues (42% owned in Yahoo) while Kesler is almost universally owned.
