The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Vancouver Canucks today at 12:30 PM EST (FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Sportsnet Pacific/Sportsnet One/97.1 FM), and the 10-11-and-2 Red Wings will have a difficult challenge in the 12-7-and-2 Canucks.
Vancouver is 9-and-2 on the road this season, and goaltender Kevin Lankinen, the presumptive starter, is 9-and-0 on the road.
As far as the Hockey News’s Adam Kierszenblat believes that the Canucks will set historical records today…
It will be an early start for the Vancouver Canucks (12-7-3) on Sunday as they take on the Detroit Red Wings (10-11-2) for the first time this season. In 2023-24, these two teams split the season series, with each picking up a win on home ice. With a win, Vancouver would improve to 10-2-0 on the road while picking up their fourth win on the current road trip.
unday’s game could feature multiple historic moments. Not only is Quinn Hughes one assist away from becoming the franchise’s all-time leader for assists by a defenceman, but if he starts, Kevin Lankinen could become the first goaltender in NHL history to start a season 10-0-0 on the road. While it will require a full team effort, both records could easily be set against the Red Wings.
VancouverCanucks.com’s Chris Faber posted a game preview yesterday…
The Vancouver Canucks travel to Detroit for a Sunday morning matchup against the Red Wings as they near the conclusion of their six-game road trip.
Following an overtime win on Friday afternoon, the Canucks have an even earlier game as they will play at 9:30 a.m. PT in the Motor City.
With a 3-1-0 record on their current road trip, the club looks to continue their winning ways away from Rogers Arena and will want to continue playing with the pack mentality they have shown on this current trip.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet spoke about his team being good in key moments on Friday afternoon with big special teams play and strong goaltending from Kevin Lankinen. The team will look to be good in those key moments and play to their game plan with a strong start in Sunday’s early game.
The Red Wings are wrapping up a three-game homestand on Sunday after a 5-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Friday and a 2-1 overtime win on Wednesday against the Calgary Flames.
Wings’ forward Lucas Raymond has scored in five consecutive games and is finding success alongside Vladimir Tarasenko and Dylan Larkin on Detroit’s first line.
Canucks forward Conor Garland has an impressive streak of his own. He has put up a seven-game point streak and has four goals and six assists during his hot stretch. Garland came up huge on Friday afternoon with two goals, including the overtime winner, and an assist. He played a career-high 23:37 in their win over Buffalo and is contributing on both special teams units.
And the Canucks, who didn’t practice yesterday, posted a slate of game notes…
MATCH-UP INFO
- Tonight marks the first of two meetings between the Canucks and Red Wings this season: Dec. 1 (road) and Feb. 2 (home).
- Vancouver is 67-87-18-10 all-time against Detroit, including a 27-51-8-5 record on the road.
- The Canucks are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games against the Red Wings (1-3-1 in their last 5).
- Elias Pettersson leads all active Canucks skaters in scoring against Detroit with 15 points (5-10-15) in 10 career games.
While the Vancouver Province’s Patrick Johnston filed a game preview as well…
The buzz: The road-warrior Canucks continue to thrive, despite missing their No. 1 goalie, their No. 2 centre and their No. 2 defenceman. Friday’s overtime win in Buffalo was exactly the sort of win the Canucks are going to have to find for the next while: a hard-skating, tight-checking grind-it-out style win. In the big picture, that’s the kind of team head coach Rick Tocchet wants his team to be anyway. On the other side, the Red Wings are stumbling along. They don’t score enough. Their defending has been average at best.
The history: The two teams split their meetings last season: the Canucks blew a 3-1 second period lead in Detroit in February — a game that was also a matinee — but Vancouver overwhelmed the Red Wings at Rogers Arena five days after.
The hope: The Canucks will want to basically replicate Friday’s effort. The only reason it went to overtime was a fluke goal that bounced up and over Kevin Lankinen. Lankinen was stellar otherwise, including a game-saving stop in overtime on Tage Thompson. The Canucks got strong work from their power play and penalty kill and want to repeat all of this Sunday.
The fear: Without Filip Hronek, the Canucks’ PK is under pressure. He’s been their best penalty killer this season and a lapse on the PK is difficult for any team to overcome.
The top guns: Quinn Hughes picked up a pair of assists on Friday, putting him into a tie for most assists by a defenceman in Canucks history with Alex Edler. He now has five goals and 20 assists on the season. Elias Pettersson went pointless on Friday, but otherwise he’s been on a tear, scoring five goals and eight assists in the nine games before Friday. Conor Garland is on a seven-game point streak: he has four goals and six assists over that streak.
The wounded: Canucks: Thatcher Demko (knee, week to week), Derek Forbort (leg, week to week), J.T. Miller (personal leave), Filip Hronek (shoulder, indefinite). Red Wings: Alex Lyon (lower body, week to week), Patrick Kane (upper body, day to day).
DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game preview from the Red Wings’ point of view…
Puck drop between the Red Wings (10-11-2; 22 points) and Canucks (12-7-3; 27 points) is set for 12:30 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). Fans are encouraged to arrive early, as the first 7,500 in attendance will receive a captain Dylan Larkin Bobblehead, presented by Comerica.
“We’ve been playing pretty good,” Michael Rasmussen said. “I think we’ve had jump. We were obviously talking about special teams a little bit, so just got to clean up a few things there. The same things that have been making us successful – we’ve been forechecking well, getting pucks to the net and just playing our game. If we keep that going, we’ll have success.”
The Red Wings begin their December slate vying to bounce back from Friday’s 5-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils. Ten different skaters earned at least a point for Detroit, including Lucas Raymond, who extended his goal-scoring streak to five straight games to match an NHL career high he set from March 12-19, 2024.
But Detroit also went 1-for-4 on the penalty kill on Friday, which head coach Derek Lalonde called “the difference in the game.”
Mills also provides substantive injury updates on Patrick Kane and Alex Lyon:
“We were hoping that would give [Kane] the green light for the back half of the practice, but he was unable to finish,” Lalonde said about Kane, who has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in 20 games this season. “He’ll be unavailable [on Sunday], and hopefully getting closer. We’ll shoot for Tuesday.”
Lalonde also said he doesn’t have a return timetable for goalie Alex Lyon (lower body), who made his last start on Nov. 25.
“Unable to even skate,” Lalonde said about the 31-year-old netminder. “He’ll be a little longer here, wouldn’t quite put him in the week-to-week yet, but I don’t see him being available for the [upcoming] road trip.”
MLive’s Tyler Kuehl also puts things bluntly:
Detroit needs to start finding ways to beat better teams if they want the rest of the league to consider them a threat to the playoffs. Heading into Sunday, the Wings are sixth in the Atlantic Division, seven points out of first place.
The Canucks caught everyone by surprise with a dominating 2023-24 season. However, with many key players out of the lineup, they have not been as strong so far this year as they were last. This is the fifth game of Vancouver’s six-game road trip, and it has been a pretty good run, winning three of their first four contests, including a 4-3 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. Heading into Sunday, the Canucks are fourth in the Pacific Division, six points back of the first-place Vegas Golden Knights.
This will be the first of two meetings between Vancouver and Detroit. The teams split last year’s season series, with the home team winning each matchup.
Here are the game notes, too:
