Canucks & Rangers Game Day

The one and only meeting of the season between the Canucks (10-6-2) and Rangers (14-5-2) takes place tonight at Madison Square Garden.

Canucks had an optional skate at MSG today. Roberto Luongo will start in goal while Alexander Edler is back in on defence after missing the last two with the flu. Likely Rob Davison will be a scratch on D.

Canucks are 14th overall in goals scored in the NHL (54). Pavol Demitra who has 1g,3a in his last two games will start this game skating again with Daniel & Henrik Sedin. Daniel has 1g,1a in his last two games as well. In Vancouver's last two losses (2-1 @ NYI and 2-1 vs COL), the Canucks scored the opening goal of the game. They are 9-1-2 when that happens this season.

The Rangers are currently off to one of their best starts in franchise history. Currently setting team records for points (30) and wins (14) through their first 21 games. Last time they did that was the season they won the Cup in '94.

Three of New York's four games have gone to shoot-outs, their most recent a 2-1 SO win at home against Ottawa on Monday. New York has the 2nd best PK in the NHL, one that has not allowed a power play goal against in their last four games. They're currently missing Scott Gomez, who has missed three straight games with a leg injury.

In their lone meeting last season, the Canucks shut-out the Rangers 3-0 at GM Place on Jan. 3. Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler, and Jason Jaffray scored for Vancouver while Luongo made 28 saves for the shut-out. Rangers #1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist did not appear in that game, as Steve Valiquette made 16 saves in the loss.

Here are the expected line combos for both teams tonight:

Canucks:

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

Ohlund - Salo
Mitchell - O'Brien
Nycholat - Edler

Luongo
Sanford

Rangers:

Markus Naslund - Chris Drury - Ryan Callahan
Nikolai Zherdev - Brandon Dubinsky - Aaron Voros
Nigel Dawes - Lauri Korpikoski - Dan Fritsche
Fredrik Sjostrom - Blair Betts - Colton Orr

Dmitiri Kalinin - Michal Rozsival
Paul Mara - Marc Stall
Wade Redden - Dan Girardi

Henrik Lundqvist
Steve Valiquette