Canucks & Islanders Game Day

The Canucks (10-6-1) open up this week's 4-game road trip at the Nassau Colisseum tonight against the New York Islanders (6-9-2).

The Canucks are playing an Atlantic Division opponent for the first time this season. Last year the Canucks went 3-1-1 against teams from that division, which inlcuded a 3-2 shoot-out win at home against the Islanders Jan. 8/08. Alexander Edler had the winning goal in the shoot-out that night for Vancouver.

One interesting note for the Canucks regarding their special teams...through 17 games, the club has had the same number of power plays and it has penalty kills (88). They club is also 18th overall in both departments in the NHL standings.

No line-up changes are expected for Vancouver for tonight's game compared to Saturday's 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Edler is with the team but is still side-lined with the flu and will not dress tonight. The one question that is up in the air is who will Daniel and Henrik Sedin start the game with. I think Mason Raymond will skate with them again despite not playing much of the third period against Toronto alongside the twins. However I wouldn't be surprised to maybe see Taylor Pyatt take Raymond's spot on that line and then Raymond skate with Kyle Wellwood and Pavol Demitra.

The Islanders are coming off back-to-back wins last week against Ottawa. Currently with the second-worst home ice record of any team in the Eastern Conference (3-6-1), they have scored the second-most short-handed goals of any team in the NHL (6). Last year, the Islanders went 1-1-3 against teams from the Northwest Division.

Here are the expected line-ups for tonight's game:

Canucks:

D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Raymond
Pyatt - Wellwood - Demitra
Burrows - Kesler - Hansen
Hordichuk - Johnson - Bernier

Mitchell - O'Brien
Nycholat - Ohlund
Salo - Davison

Luongo
Sanford

Islanders:

Sean Bergenheim - Doug Weight - Bill Guerin
Jeff Tambellini - Frans Nielsen - Trent Hunter
Andy Hilbert - Josh Bailey - Kyle Okposo
Jon Sim - Richard Park - Tim Jackman

Andy Sutton - Mark Streit
Chris Campoli - Radek Martinek
Brett Skinner - Bruno Gervais

Joey MacDonald
Yann Danis