Canucks at Oilers
Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo appears to have earned his starting job back from Cory Schneider after allowing three goals in his last three starts. Luongo will have a chance to further solidify his spot on Monday when the Canucks visit the Edmonton Oilers. Schneider yielded 11 goals in his first four starts, causing Vancouver fans to quickly warm back up to Luongo, who earned 224 wins in his time with the Canucks before this season. Schneider was in net for Vancouver’s only road victory thus far: a 5-0 win in Anaheim. Luongo lost to Los Angeles in a shootout in his one road start.
Edmonton defeated Luongo and the Canucks 3-2 in a shootout in its season opener in Vancouver, but since then the Oilers have been up and down this season - depending on their power play. Edmonton is 1-for-10 with the man advantage in its past three games, earning a 1-1-1 record. Sam Gagner has at least a point in every game this season, while top overall pick Nail Yakupov leads the Oilers with five goals. Five of Gagner’s points and three of Yakupov’s goals have come on the power play. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk started all eight games for Edmonton, posting a 2.53 goals-against average and .925 save percentage.
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet Pacific
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (4-2-2): Defenseman Alexander Edler leads the team with seven points and 21 blocked shots. Zack Kassian has a team-leading five goals. Alexandre Burrows has two goals on 29 shots. Daniel Sedin has six points (two goals, four assists), while brother Henrik Sedin has five assists. Jannik Hansen, who scored a career-high 16 goals last season, has no goals and three assists on 16 shots. Defenseman Cam Barker, who signed with Vancouver after playing 25 games with Edmonton last season, has been a healthy scratch in every Canucks game so far this season.
ABOUT THE OILERS (4-3-1): Edmonton is 11-for-38 on the power play this season. Taylor Hall has nine points and is plus-4. Hall and Jordan Eberle are tied for the team lead with 26 shots. Eberle has seven points. Rookie defenseman Justin Schultz has five points - four on the power play - and 22 shots. Schultz leads all Edmonton skaters with 22:34 average time on ice. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has five assists to start the season, but has no goals on 17 shots. Veteran Ales Hemsky has eight goals and 23 assists in 39 career games against Vancouver, but is minus-10 in those games.
OVERTIME
1. The Oilers, who will face Vancouver three more times this season, haven’t won their season series against the Canucks since 2005-06.
2. The Canucks are 1-for-19 on the power play in their last four games and finished 0-for-5 in their loss to Edmonton.
3. Both Edmonton and Vancouver have played four overtime/shootout games so far this season, including the Oilers’ 3-2 shootout win in Vancouver. Edmonton is 3-1 in those games, while the Canucks are 2-2.