Red Wings at Canucks
Rookie Brock Boeser hopes to follow up his first career hat trick with another big performance when the Vancouver Canucks host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday. Boeser, the 23rd pick in the 2015 draft, scored three goals in a 4-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday and leads the team with 13 points in just 10 games while playing primarily with youngsters Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi.
“I’m not worried about personal stats. I’m worried about how our team plays,” Boeser, who has notched 18 points in 19 NHL contests, told Sportsnet. “We’ve got a really good group and I think the way we play is really successful. We just have to keep it up.” The Canucks have earned points in six of their last seven games (5-1-1) as they prepare to play the Red Wings, who produced one of their finest performances of the season Sunday with a 4-0 victory at Edmonton. Detroit has won three of its last four after enduring a six-game losing streak and Anthony Mantha has played a big part in the turnaround with three goals and two assists in that span, including a tally in each of his last three contests. The Red Wings may be without Gustav Nyquist, who is considered day-to-day after going down with a lower-body injury in the first period on Sunday.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, Sportsnet Pacific (Vancouver)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (7-7-1): Mantha’s scoring surge has tied him for the team lead in points (13) with defenseman Mike Green and linemate Dylan Larkin, who was kept off the scoresheet Sunday despite recording 10 shots. Nyquist scored three goals in four games before going down with the injury and could be replaced in the lineup by David Booth or Luke Witkowski. Detroit has recorded power-play goals in each of its last two games after going 2-for-27 with the man advantage over the previous nine contests.
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (7-4-2): Vancouver managed fewer than two goals in three of four games before scoring four against the Penguins on Saturday on a season-low 21 shots but took advantage of quality opportunities. “The last two games before this, we were hurting for goals,” Horvat told reporters. “To finally get rewarded for our chances felt great.” Horvat and Baertschi each own 11 points to tie for second on the team while Derek Dorsett leads the way with six goals, but has been kept off the scoresheet in each of the last three contests.
OVERTIME
1. Detroit LW Tomas Tatar has gone seven games without a point since scoring twice versus Washington and remains one shy of 200 for his career.
2. Vancouver’s Daniel (five points) and Henrik Sedin (three) logged season lows in ice time of 8:38 and 8:52, respectively, on Saturday.
3. The Canucks has earned at least one point in five of the last six meetings (3-1-2) but lost in overtime in each of the last two matchups in Vancouver.